Travel days ...

Well, it’s Tuesday morning and we're about to land in South Africa. I've been on flights for 19 hours since Sunday evening.  I've showered in the Frankfurt airport. I've been drinking enough water to float a small ship. And I've heard more languages spoken around me than is typical in my realm of experience.

I've watched six movies, read two books, and surfed the net. And I've played with babies and met people traveling for business and pleasure.

I've done all of this knowing one thing … I am on a grand adventure. In one hour (as of this writing) I will land in Cape Town, South Africa for a two-week immersion into the systems of racism and their impact on the lives of the people who live in the midst of significant poverty and oppression, which too often live hand-in-hand. We are doing a humanitarian, social justice trip with some basic tourism thrown in. And we hope to bring back learnings from the reconciliation process in our own work in the US.

Travel is something I have done before. But mainly it has been domestic travel. International travel is not something I have done much. My wife and I went to Russia 16 years ago to adopt our son, we've gone into Canada and Mexico for day trips, and I went to Haiti in 1980 with the General Board of Global Ministries’ UMCOR Division. But this is different.

This time I am traveling for both personal and professional reasons. This time I am flying way out of my comfort zone and that is intentional.

What are you planning in 2016 to move out of your comfort zone, to further the work of the kindom, and to bring about positive change in your life and in the world?

Small steps or big steps - taking that first step is what’s important.

Me? I'm going to leap. Join me on the journey.