Pilgrimage to Understanding

I'm leaving home for the month of May. It's a bad month to be away, but I didn't set the schedule when Charles Nienkirchen organized a Journey to Two Holy Lands. When I first heard about it last summer, I knew I had to go.

The first Holy Land we'll be traveling to is Ethiopia. I know that most of the people on this journey think of Ethiopia as the uttermost part of the earth, but to me this visit will be a homecoming of sorts. I was born and raised in that beautiful country, where my parents served as missionaries. I left a long time ago, 35 years ago to be more precise. I'm eager to see it again. We'll spend 10 days meeting people while exploring the country's religious heritage.

Our May trip then takes us to the more traditional Holy Lands in the Middle East, where we'll spend nearly three weeks seeing holy sites and learning from a wonderful assortment of knowledgeable instructors. We seek greater understanding of the places familiar from the Bible and the peoples who live there now.

I said it was a bad month to be away. That's because I'm leaving a ton of unfinished projects to my colleagues in the office. And I'm abandoning my wife, Margaret, for her both her birthday and Mother's Day. And May is when we usually move the yard work ahead. And, and, and ....

I'm grateful to my co-workers and family for supporting me on this pilgrimage to understanding. I'll be listening as carefully as I can, learning as much as I can absorb, discerning to the best of my ability and sharing the stories I discover on the way.

I'll be posting to this blog as frequently as two conditions are met. First, I'll need Internet access (not always a given). Second, I'll need something to say. Readers will be the judge of that.