RTW Trip: Arriving at departure

3/24/98: “We are leaving this time. On our way to the airport in fact. … We are really leaving Chicago, and heading off on our Big Adventure in search of the spirit of Dr. Livingstone. … It has been a long and tiring seven months of worry and concern, first over the fear of a serious surgery, then over the emotional peaks and valleys of recovery, and raised then dashed again hopes about how long it would take before we could resume plans for this big adventure. … We have much to be thankful for. Friends and family have been overwhelmingly supportive.”

3/24/23: Dreaming up an adventure is easy. All you have to do is sit still and let your imagination run free. Things get difficult once you decide you want to make a dream a reality. In the summer of 1994, I was moved by a documentary about David Livingstone, an anti-slave trade missionary to Africa in the mid-19th century. I hatched my own dream to quit my job, travel around the world for a year, to visit and work with as many missionaries as I could find. I was a single man with an impetuous nature, so I rashly took a series of immediate steps. First, I announced my “plan” to my family at my sister’s birthday party in September. I come from a family full of dreamers, musicians, artists, so they all received the news with enthusiasm and encouragement, even if they may have thought I was just dreaming. But then, I sold both my car and motorcycle, and purchased a bicycle for commuting to work, in order to minimize my expenses and maximize my ability to save for an actual trip! This was the first serious step I took: choosing to sacrifice conveniences and luxuries in order to make the dream possible.

It wasn’t long before obstacles and interruptions to the dream came along though. Slogging to work through cold rain, slippery snow and freezing sleet on a bicycle from November through February led me to ask myself more than once: “Is this really worth it?” But the greatest interruption occurred in March 1995: I met Ruth! On our second date, as she related stories about her own Christian faith and adventures visiting missionaries in Asia, I knew I wanted to marry her. Then, during our courtship, I had to work through the process of surrendering one dream for a new dream. But it was clear to me which was the more valuable treasure, so I made clear to her that I would give up the trip so that I could marry her. Yet she was also willing to say: “Maybe someday, we’ll do a trip like that together…” We were married on March 9, 1996, just 1 year after we met.

(Note, I realize that marriage isn’t for everyone, so I don’t mean to elevate it too highly. Also, I realize not everyone who would like to be married manages to find their life-partner, so I don’t want to seem boastful in my own good fortune. But I can say with great thankfulness to God that our marriage continues to be a beautiful adventure.)

Well, without fully committing to a round-the-world (RTW) trip, during our first year of marriage we did take the step of living off of one of our incomes. Neither of us had debt of any sort, from education or mortgage or credit cards, and we lived in an affordable apartment that made saving the entirety of one of our incomes possible. As the year progressed, we took further steps toward a RTW adventure, like attending the URBANA missionary conference, so we could begin to network with missionary organizations. By March 1997 we were fully committed to the trip and planned to depart in November or December. However, plans were sidetracked when we discovered Ruth would need to have very serious spinal surgery. The surgery was successful, but recovery was complicated and slow, and Ruth endured severe nerve pain as a result. Having ended our lease in the Fall in anticipation of departing on an RTW trip in December, we moved in with friends who had a large home. Recovery continued slowly, and meant we cancelled the first 3 months of our trip which would have taken us through parts of South America. But by March 24, 1998, we were able to board a plane headed for Athens, Greece. It was a cold, snowy March, as seen in the photos above, and the day we left there was a severe ice/rain storm which coated cars, trees, power lines and the roads coated in sheets of thick ice.

Dreaming of a RTW adventure was easy. But just navigating our way to departure can be so difficult that it might be easier to give up the dream or quit trying to follow through. For us, following through was also difficult, filled with obstacles, difficulties, inconveniences, arguments and differences of opinion, weariness, homesickness. But also there was fun, shared experiences, new friends, expanded worldview, different languages, foods, music, and so much more. Dreaming and following through were worth it. It all changed our lives in the best possible way.