Notes to my Grandchildren 32 What is the farthest you have ever traveled? Would you mind if I elaborate a bit on my traveling. Of course you won’t mind. This whole download of my life is probably a bit more elaborate than necessary. I do hope it is useful! It’s not just the fartherest trip or the miles traveled, it’s what I have learned. As a young child, my family didn’t take big time vacation trips. Every other summer, we would travel by car to the Sprague Family Farm in Hamilton, Massachusetts. On the trip up and trip back, we always looked for motels with a pool. This was a real luxury in the late 1950s and into the early 60s. Each trip would include a day or two of visiting some type of Historic Setting or Amusemet park along the way. A few days in New York the year of the 1964 Worlds Fair (they no longer have World’s Fair. Imagine something like Epcot), a few days in Washington DC, a day in Williamsburg, and of course a pretty good dose of Boston with all it’s Revolutionary War history! There was an amusement park South of New York “Freedom Land” which was sort of the East Coast much smaller version of a Disney Park, or perhaps a Six Flag Park (I wonder if those will exist when you get around to reading this?). The summers we stayed home included a beach week somewhere in Florida and a lot of time on the lake. Through out the course of my life, I have been able to travel as a tourist and have seen some wonderful places. The experiences that enriched my life are not about places or sight seeing, but about being immersed in cultures different from mine! Those miles matter! The first trip which would really changed my life, was the summer after my Freshman year in college. I was the Summer Youth assistant at my home church, First United Methodist Church of Orlando. The summer activities included a building project in Kingston, Jamaica. It was the first trip out of the United States, and though it wasn’t very far from central Florida, it was my first cross cultural trip. We stayed in the homes of church members in the community. During the day, we helped mix concrete, hauled bricks and rebar to enclose an open air facility built earlier by another church team. There were skilled craftsmen who did most of the setting of the concrete blocks, but we provided a lot of the basic labor saveing the church money. During the day, many of the youth in the church and from the neighborhood came to help us and the interaction was life changing. We ate Jamaican food, we sang Jamaican songs, we played Jamaican games! Though Jamaica was a former British Colony, it had been independent for a few years. We were there during their Independence Day Celebration! The accents were largely British and their original ethnicity was African. Even though the miles were not far, this experience helped me travel many miles in my love of other cultures. Growing up in Orlando, I was in integrated schools since Seventh Grade. Most of my friends were of Anglo descent and some Hispanic. Among the students of African descent, there was mostly a peaceful coexistence, but we rarely did anything together outside of school. It was a sign of the times, and thankfully the times were changing. On this trip to Jamaica, I was dependent on our hosts to feed, to transport, to care for me. This felt very real. It felt right. It was the way I thought Christians live. The world felt a little smaller! In 1982, I was a part time member of the Trinity Foundation traveling with Mark Rutland to churches maninly in the Southeast of the United States. Mark had spen a month on a trip to Ghana, West Africa the year before. I will set aside the book he wrote about how he was called to go. This was a return trip to many of the churches he had visitied. I was there to help lead worship and to share in the meetings we had. It was my first trans Atlantic trip. Our flight over would layover in Brussels, then on to Nigeria and then Accra, Ghana. At the time, Ghana was in a deep recession. Stores were open, but shelves were empty. Post Offices were open, but no mail was being delivered. Homes had phones, but no service. Sassy and I had been married 4 years, and were rarely apart except when she would go home for a week of pampering with her family. For a whole month, we would be almost completely cut off from family and friends. To fill the gap, we were brought into the families of the churches in Ghana. In those days running was a part of my daily fitness routine. I can still see myself running through the streets of Accra and in the country side in Kumasi, in the interior. On occasion, I meet people of Ghanain descent. When I tell them I was there in 1983, they are a little amazed. Not many people were visiting Ghana then. Ghana has gone on to reinvent itself and has grown to be a very productive and peaceful nation. I hope by the time you are reading this it will have prospered even more. The trip to Ghana would be the longest trip that I had taken to date, but the world was growing smaller. On the return trip, we had a long lay over in Amsterdam. I had packed my running clothes and shoes. The Schiphol is a beautiful airport outside of Amsterdam. Holland was a country I read about as a kid. Tulips lined the road and wind mills could be seen off in the distance as I ran toward the city! Just now, it hit me what a wild ride that was. An outreach trip to a country where many Ghanaians were sold into slavery and now in what was a country that was rich in Anglo history. The world still needs to grow smaller. A few notes back, I wrote about our tour of Israel in 1985 with my Father. Israel is a country/nation full of historical and faith significance. Stories in the Bible come alive as you see the places where they occurred. Probably the places that were most moving for me were being on the Sea of Galilee, a mountain in the northern part of the Galilee where Jesus could have preached the Sermon on the Mount, a little cave outside of Bethlehem was possibly the type of place where Jesus could have been born, and Gordon’s Calvary. The exact sights of the Bible can only be speculated. The Sea of Galilee can’t be replicated. When you board a boat and launch out there, it is the same body of water. No monument erected, just the wind and water in the way Jesus and His disciples experienced (different boat). Just hearing the Beatitudes read looking south from a hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee gave new inspiration from the greatest guide for a Blessed Life! There is a large sanctuary built in Bethlehem was built to commemorate the birth of Jesus. As beautiful as it is, there is something heartwarming and humbling looking into a cave where people were known to keep their livestock at the time of Jesus’ birth. I thought I could hear the “Cattle Lowing!” Jerusalem also has a sanctuary where Jesus was supposedly placed for burial. It is an amazing memorial to Jesus, but Gordon’s Calvary overlooks a hill which reminds you of the hillside where Jesus was crucified and down from the hill is a carved out tomb where Jesus was possibly laid. Though Israel is not the furtherest I have ever traveled, it is the place where Jesus traveled and ultimately carried a Cross on one of the most painful walks in the history of humanity. We walked those steps, but there is no way to imagine the agony of Jesus carrying the Cross on which He would be crucified! You can’t just be a tourist when you visit Israel! In 1987 Sassy and I would join with the Crew of the Mercy Ship the Good Samaritan. It was in dry dock for maintenance in Mayport. The Directors had heard about a woman from Lakewood Church who while serving as missionary in the Philippines had been murdered. The crew wanted to worship with her congregation. Share our grief! Bear witness to what God was doing even in our pain. The Directors invited Sassy and me to travel with them to Belem, Brazil and then down the Amazon River to Manaus. It was a great experience, with a lot of exciting challenges. The trip on the boat was almost 3 weeks at sea only seeing land once about mid way through the voyage. In Belem, we were invited to sing and lead worship at several churches through out the city. We sang and shared our testimony while translators shared the Good News in Portugese (sometimes I think the improved on our sharing). After about ten days, we traveled another 4-5 days down the Amazon to a city in the northern interior of Brazil, Manaus. While there we repeated our ministry to local churches and delivered a load of cement that your great grandfather Glen Keys had donated to help build a structure for a local Church. The number of miles we traveled was not as significant as the number of days we were at sea and functioning as crew. Sassy helped cook and provide hospitality to the crew. I stood watch on the bridge of the boat from 4-8 am and 4-8 pm every day. We lived in very close quarters on a 90 foot boat with a Crew of about 80. Most of the time we felt ill equipped for the ministry. We couldn’t communicate very with the Brazilian Church, but it is amazing how the Holy Spirit can bring people together when we worship. One of the songs Sassy sang was “Love in any Langauge, Straight from the Heart. Pulls us all together, never a part!” That is a message worth all the miles! Now to get the most literal answer to the question is Sydney, Australia. CrossRoad Church was birthed at a time when Contemporary Music and Instrumentation was being used for Worship! It was an exciting time and the Church was riding this wave of change. Hillsong Church, founded in Sydney, Australia several years before our birth was leading a major part of this worldwide tsunami. Our congregation and musicians were inspired by the music so much we sent a team to travel to Sydney for their annual Leadership and Worship Celebration. I think there were 12 team members who made this journey. At that time it was about a 24 hour trip with almost 20 hours of flying time! Although to date, this is probably the longest distances I have traveled in miles, it was also the beginning of a journey that would carry our congregation into a greater passion for worship. We would make that trip 3 times, summer of 1998, 2000 and 2006. Your mother would join us in 2006. The people of Australia are a wonderful lot and the church has mad a large impact. Our travel log though not extensive has been broad. We have cruised several times in the Caribbean, stayed at resorts in Mexico, an opportunity for an educational tour of Turkey learning its history and connecting with Turkish families and leader, a couple of trips to the Mediterranean, briefly touching ground in Spain, France, Italy and Greece. We have visited the ruins in Ephesus, Rome and Athens. One of our most luxurious trips was a river cruise through Austria and Germany. Sassy and I made our first visit to Scotland with a group of close friends and I have made two trips to play some of the ancient and unique golf courses where Golf was birth. Let me close with what is actually the longest trip I have taken. It is from Unforgiveness to Forgiveness. It is almost inevitable that as you live, your journey will take you through periods of trials and temptations. You will at some time and at some level experience betrayal and abandonment. You may be the victim! You may be the cause. Hurt, Bitterness and Unforgiveness build barriers between people, families and cultures. The longer you harbor resentment and withhold forgiveness the greater the distance becomes. There is good news. That distance is quickly diminished when you choose to forgive. The story of the Bible reveals a large chasm between God and humanity. The Good News is Jesus is the bridge spanning the chasm. Don’t allow hurt and bitterness to create a chasm, any distance between you and the people in your life. The distance only grows greater, longer and more difficult. “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭32‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬