3/28/98: We moved from our pensione, Student’s and Traveler’s Inn, to the Valiakas home, thanks to their generous invitation. We also visited the National Archeological Museum.
3/28/23: So, other than being young, single and impetuous, why would I consider quitting my job to travel around the world? And why would my more cautious and practical, though equally adventurous, wife decide to take the risk too? Was this nothing more than a frivolous luxury? The answer is that it wasn’t mainly about the adventure travel. It was born in a desire to live out our Christian faith.
As a young teenager I reacted to pain and low self-esteem by picking fights, experimenting with drugs and vandalism. Ironically, I hated myself all the more, even though I was the one choosing the destructive behavior as a coping mechanism. But then I experienced a major transformation in my life at 15 years of age when my church catechism teachers sat me down and explained the Gospel of Jesus. Because of a combination of the ripeness of my pained heart and their gentle and clear presentation, I committed to follow Him for the rest of my life.
That was when my life of adventure began. Dreaming about serving missionaries around the world was not an illogical step at all. In a previous post I wrote about being inspired by a documentary about David Livningstone. Let me explain a little bit more about him now.
In the 1850s and 60s, Livingstone had gained notoriety in Europe and America mainly as an pioneering explorer in the so called “dark continent” of Africa, a pejorative with racist overtones that Europeans had all too often used as an excuse for colonialism and empire building. Livingstone was a product of his era, of course, and if we judged him purely by the social morals and mores of our own day, we might be tempted to dismiss him altogether. But his genuine Christian faith gave him a more liberal view of Africa and its peoples than was typical Victorian England. The Gospel nurtured in him a passion, not to merely explore Africa, but to bring an end to the slave trade! He adopted a holistic approach, seeking to share the Christian faith, and to cultivate commerce and civilization. He worked tirelessly among Africans to educate, equip and empower them in geo-political self-determination, as well as to spread the good news of God’s love in Christ.
After decades in Africa with visits back to Europe to gain support for his mission, there was a period of several years during which Livingstone was not heard from.
In 1871, journalist Henry M. Stanley, went searching for Livingstone. He first laid eyes on the great missionary later that year, and uttered that now well-worn phrase: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
For four months Stanley lived beside David Livingstone in all his toothless and humble glory. Stanley found himself
“…listening to him, wondering at the old man carrying out the words of Jesus, ‘leave all and follow me.’ But little by little, seeing his piety, his gentleness, his zeal, his earnestness, and how he went quietly about his business, I was converted by him, although he had not tried to do it.” (Ruth Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, p162)
About a year after Stanley’s departure, Livingstone was found dead on his knees beside his cot, probably having been in prayer. The tribal people he loved so much buried his heart under a tree, then dried his body and carried it fifteen hundred miles to the coast to be shipped back to England. His life and death so inspired the western world that Stanley and a host of others took up the torch as missionaries to share God’s love with the world.
It is in that spirit that Ruth and I set out on our own world expedition to serve others.
Our adventure crossed denominational and organizational borders as well as international borders. We visited and lent a hand to missionaries, relief workers, and volunteers all over the world with the skills we had to offer. Ruth contributed her expertise as an epidemiologist and nurse to many missionary hospitals, and I contributed my skills as a graphic artist and photographer in the areas of communications and promotion.
The reason we took the trip, blogged about it then, and retell in whenever we get the chance, is the hope that our brief adventure will stand as a testimony to Christ’s love for the world, as well as the sacrificial service of those true adventurers who forsake the comfort and familiarity of home to serve a world in need.
