I wrote the following short article almost exactly six years ago. Some articles are written as definitive statements on particular topics: "This is what x is; this is what the Bible says about x; this is how you should think about x; and here is what you should do about x." This is not that kind of article. It was originally part of a much longer email I sent to a bunch of Christian friends just after I'd returned from an overseas trip. So it's more of a "I've just thought about this for the first time" kind of article"”a cautionary tale, if you like.
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The original trip

I've just spent a few weeks travelling and I've made a discovery: travelling and church-going don't mix easily. I found that it involved about 45,000 times more effort on my part to go to any church, let alone a church with good teaching! It wasn't just a problem with my own motivation, either, or the distractions around me. Sometimes it was because I stayed with people who don't go to church. Other times, I found it physically difficult to get around (e.g. I wanted to visit St Helen's in London on Christmas Day, but couldn't because there was no public transport running from where I was staying). There were obstacles at every turn.

And it's hard enough to regularly read my Bible and pray at home. So in a situation where my routine was completely broken up, I was seeing new things every day, and I was tired from the endless walking around " I ended up basically ignoring God for the whole trip.

Towards the end of the trip, I had the opportunity to spend an evening with some missionaries in Paris. I'd never met these people before"”one of the girls I was travelling with knew them. Yet it was one of the most encouraging nights of my life. It amazed me that despite my poor treatment of God, he still provided Christians on the other side of the world who took me in, fed me and cared for me. He is truly faithful, and I am not.

Upon reflection, I came to think that travelling for an extended period of time by myself would be very unwise, if not just plain stupid. I've always wanted to take a six-month (or longer) overseas trip because I figure that once you spend all that money getting from Australia to anywhere else, you might as well have a good look around the place. Plus, I've got dual citizenship in Australia and the UK and would love to visit some of the places I lived in overseas when I was young. It seems like an opportunity too good to waste. But I wonder if my priorities might have to change. When you travel solely for the purpose of taking a holiday, you have no responsibilities; no-one challenging you to care for others and not be selfish; you can just do what you want. Some people will struggle in that kind of situation more than others. For me, it was a nice break for a month. But too much longer, and the lack of responsibility (and the centring of my life around myself, instead of others) would become the norm"”and possibly quite destructive in my Christian walk.

I'm not trying to condemn anyone who has already taken this kind of long-term overseas trip. I can only relate my own experience. But it has made me think twice about the damage this holidaying habit can cause. It was worth the price of the airfare just to work this out.

If your Christian friends go travelling, don't forget to ask them how they are going with the Lord. The missionaries we visited in Paris were kind and brave enough to ask us how our Bible reading was going. They didn't even know me, yet they still had the strength of character to ask me that. Some might call that impertinence, but for me it was a sign of true Christian love and concern"”a highlight of the trip!
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Feedback

Some of the tips published in a subsequent issue of The Briefing (#275) as part of the Interchange received on the topic:

"¢ Be prepared. The best preparation is prayer.

"¢ Plan your trip around places where you know there are churches that are preaching the gospel (doesn't have to be your denomination). These days it is a lot easier to find churches through the internet. Also, ask around. I found my church here in Germany by getting in touch via a friend of a friend with a German guy who went to an evangelical church in Australia.

"¢ Consider going on a mission sometime during your trip. I was booked into "Love Europe' with OM for the middle of the year and, in a way, knowing this kept me accountable.

"¢ Visit Christians.

"¢ Don't be put off if a church doesn't do things the way yours does at home.

"¢ Final note: The people who don't go overseas can help support those who do by staying in touch. Many people said to me before I left that Germany is spiritually dead (which is rubbish anyway), but never kept in touch. Put your money where your mouth is and get on the internet and keep your Christian friends accountable while travelling, tell them what you heard in a sermon, ask them how they are going, send them study guides, tapes, photos if they are gone for a longer period.

Suzanne Weinberger
Germany

Like all aspects of travel, my suggestions involve some minor pre-planning.

1. Church: Visiting a church during your travels should be part of your "sightseeing' plans. If there is not a church in the place you are visiting, perhaps you could visit and encourage any missionaries who are there.

2. Tapes/CDs: For a driving holiday, take some sermon tapes. Check that your rental car will have a tape or CD player. I still associate some theological teachings with the driving scenery which surrounded me at the time!

3. Reading: Train and plane travel is an excellent time to read a Christian book, or catch up on reading articles from The Briefing! For Bible reading, the new 15-20 minutes Briefing short studies are easy to fit into even the busiest of schedules. For camping and other trips where luggage is limited, photocopy a few pages from your Bible.

Holidays can be a time when our faith can be refreshed. Enjoy!

Polly Seidler
Australia

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Revisiting the issue

Over the last six years I've done a little more thinking on the subject. When the article was first published, many people thought I was basically saying, "If you're a Christian, don't travel. Ever." I wasn't. I really just wanted to warn people of the difficulties they might encounter on their travels, and help people to plan ahead so that they didn't end up taking a holiday from God as well.

That is still my aim today. I may sound like a fuddy-duddy, but when you think about it, this isn't something that the majority of the Christian community has had to think about before. We have greater mobility and more disposable income than any generation before us. Air travel has only been possible in the last century; air travel for the masses has only been around since about the late 60s; and cheap air travel has really only been available for the last 15 years. So for most of the time since Christ was on this earth, people would have thought pretty hard about long-distance travel, as it would have cost them so much money!

In light of this, it's astounding that there is a generation of people who now see overseas travel as a right. For some, it's seen as a necessary part of life"”almost a rite of passage. But it is neither of these things. To live in a time and place where overseas travel is so common, and to be one of the relatively small number of people in the world who can afford it, is an extraordinary privilege. But that doesn't mean you have to do it.

Now it's true that you can learn much about God's creation and work from seeing what life is like in other parts of the world. You can be faced with the stark reality of the struggles other Christians face, and you can be made truly thankful for what God has given you. But you don't need to travel to the other side of the world to learn these things. You can also learn them by reading your Bible, and reading the newsletters of various mission organizations.

Of course I am not saying that Christians should never travel. If we took that attitude, the gospel would have stayed in Jerusalem. We wouldn't be having this discussion because we wouldn't have heard the gospel yet! There are many excellent reasons to travel. Christian mission is one of them; relaxation is another (unless you're scared of flying). There are also many bad reasons to travel. Being young and free and simply having the money to do it is a bad reason; trying to find contentment and "fulfilment' is another. If you are struggling with being content in your life at home, then going to the other side of the world, away from your support network of friends and family, is not going to solve the problem"”because the problem is not geographical in nature. And if it's taken several years to build your current friendships to a point where you really know and are known by people, then the same level of friendship is not going to be achieved in another country in the space of a few weeks or months.

I've also seen people who have been overseas for a number of years really struggle on their return home. One friend in particular commented that the friendships she made while overseas never really cemented themselves because they always had a slightly temporary feel to them"”she never knew how long she was staying, so people didn't really throw themselves into the friendship. And when she got home, everything had changed: some friends had moved away, others had changed life-stage" she didn't fit in easily anymore. It was like starting again, and not something she'd considered when originally making her travel plans.

As children loved and blessed in so many ways by our Father God, it is appropriate for us to think about our reasons for travelling. If you are blindly going off on a long-dreamt-about open-ended overseas trip, perhaps you need to put some thought into how you are not only going to remain Christian as you travel, but how you are going to grow more like Christ during your time away. Is this not God's good purpose for us (Rom 8:28-30)?. Maybe it would be better to plant yourself in a spot where you know there is a good church, rather than travelling constantly for a few months. Perhaps you could travel with another Christian so you could encourage each other along the way in your prayer and Bible reading (although be warned: I did this, and it didn't really work). And there is something to be said for choosing to take a shorter trip: it is nice to end your holiday wishing for a few more days of it but being glad to be home, rather than being totally sick of travelling and wearing the same clothes and using the same tiny microfibre towel for weeks on end.

God is able to protect his children wherever they are on this earth. But we can make wise and thoughtful decisions, and we can make thoughtless and unwise decisions. I simply want to encourage people to take the time to do the former.

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