Month: March 2017

(If you missed Part 1 or Part 2 here you go)

The problem with packing a lot, living out of a car, and traveling for an extended period of time is that you lose some things along the way. It’s just a part of the journey, so probably wise to mostly pack items that don’t mean all that much to you. Here is a running list of items we’ve lost so far; some hurt more than others.

• 2 or 3 pairs of socks. I’m not really sure how to report that because I lost half of two pairs, so I can still wear the two halves as a pair except that they are very different colors. This one hurt a bit as they were expensive Merrell hiking socks that I loved and only purchased recently prior to our backpacking trip to the Grand Tetons, but in the grand scheme of things they are just socks and can always be replaced. Besides, isn’t it the trend to wear mismatched socks right now?
• My cream colored down North Face jacket. Yes, I nearly cried on this one, BUT I remembered where I last had it and called the hostel. They had it and held it until we circled back around the south island of NZ to get it. So thankfully it was retrieved.
• My favorite atheletic blue New Balance shorts that fit perfectly. I would have gladly given away 3 or 4 other pairs of shorts I brought instead of losing those. These were left on the dive boat and did not make it to the lost and found box. Oh well. I think I can replace them pretty easily.
• My old black bathing suit cover. Also on the dive ship. It was time.
• Dave lost some lures that got hung while fishing.
• Our convenient little coffee maker which was just a plastic piece that sits on your cup and drips.
• I’m sure there are more things we haven’t even realized yet.

Insert hindsight cliche here:

Halfway into our trip now and it’s easy to see what we should have left at home as well as what we should have thought to bring. You begin to realize some of these early on in the trip. Not a big deal though since we didn’t really know what all we would need for this 5 and ½ month adventure. Here’s what we’d do differently:

I should have stuck with my usual superlight packing. I would have packed everything for cold weather that I packed since we used most of it in NZ , plus one warm weather outfit and a couple of bathing suits. Any additional warm weather clothing I could have purchased fairly inexpensively in Australia.

Left half or more of my shoes back home. We had expected to do a lot of water activities in NZ, but it was way too cold and expensive so I never even ended up using my awesome water shoes. And even if I had needed them I could have bought a cheapo pair in NZ. Also, everyone is pretty casual in both NZ and AU so no need for any dressy footwear.

For shoes I would have just packed flip flops, hiking boots, and my tevas. And maybe my comfy slippers.

We forgot some very important items, well I should say I forgot them, which cost us a pretty penny. One was the spare SLR camera battery and charger which is probably still in the outlet in our kitchen 🙁  It was 3-4x the price to buy this in NZ. I was pretty mad at myself for forgetting such a crucial item. The other was our Capital One credit card which does not charge an international purchase fee. However, we were able to get the card info from Dave’s mom (THANK YOU) so we are at least able to use it for online bookings. We never use the card at home so it was easy to forget.

We would have also packed our car power inverter. We ended up buying another one in NZ. Now we have one that has a funny outlet. Hopefully we can use it for future travels.

Once we arrived in Australia we sorted our belongings and packed up 30lbs of clothing and other items to ship back home. It is so hot here we definitely do not need any cold weather gear. After a week we sent another box home, and we may send another one before it’s over with. Since we’ve been in Queensland we have practically lived in our swimsuits and for me a bathing suit cover which is a thin cotton dress I purchased while in Kaikoura, NZ.

I’ll probably just get rid of some of the rest of the clothes I brought rather than ship them home.

I ended up wearing a hole in my favorite jeans while in NZ. I was kind of bummed about this and pondered patching or tossing them, but then found replacements on ebay. After ordering a few extra pairs which will arrive at home while we’re away, I turned my jeans into shorts.

I maybe would have left our power toothbrush because we hardly kept it charged and it’s kind of bulky compared to a simple toothbrush, but we’re using it more now so I’m glad we brought it.

Now, behold everything I was able to tightly cram into my backpack. It’s somewhat embarrassing to look at how much I packed, but lesson learned. More on that in Packing Part 3

 

My sleeping bag. I love this sleeping bag. It’s rated 20 degrees and we definitely needed these while in NZ. Dave liked my bag so much that he had me order him one for our trip. It’s lightweight and compresses pretty small.

Shoes. Such a hard decision. We planned to do lots of water activities in NZ so I packed my Tevas and my closed toe water shoes. I love my slippers and they are convenient when camping. My Merrell hiking boots which are super comfy and supportive around my ankles- important for backpacking. My Naots ; love them- super comfy and can be casual or dressy. And flip flops.

Warm weather clothes: 5 bathing suits because they don’t take
up much space. Two pairs of athletic shorts; one pair I often wear as a bathing suit bottom. Capri workout leggings. Three tank tops. If you notice the colors can be mixed/matched creating more variety in outfits.

 

Two sundresses, a cardigan and a thin lightweight skirt.

 

 

 

 

Two pairs of shorts.

 

 

 

 

Two silk tanks. Lightweight, flowy. Dressy or casual. Love them.

 

 

My tiny Therm-a-Rest . Love this thing. It’s basically a small air mattress, but way more durable than an actual air mattress since it is made for camping– though it does have issue with ‘ballooning’ if you don’t use an air pump due to the moisture in your breath. Compresses to be very small and is lightweight.

Let’s see, some warm weather gear. My down jacket, paper thin long sleeved sun shirt. It is great because a nice under layer of warmth or sun cover that doesn’t make you hot. My under armour warm under layers white top and black bottom. It can get cold camping. My Outdoor Research hiking pants (not pictured).

My favorite pair of jeans on the right; 1969 curvy Gap boot cut. A pair of capri jeans. White linen pants. Grey fitted jeans- dressy or casual, they have a slight sheen. And a leather belt.

Paper thin cotton sudara jammy pants because it’s always nice to have some comfy pants to loaf around in especially when staying in hostels.

Enough Rodan and Fields to keep my face clean for five months, thank you Kat Price. And enough Lola.

Not pictured. A couple of Nik Ripken books, my travel Bible, a journal, couple more books, odds and ends camping stuff such as thin tin coffee mugs, toiletries, simple black dress, and who knows what else. But there it is. Bursting at the seams!

Now you can check out Part 3 to see what I would change.

 

Of all the things this trip has done for me, it has done the most for my faith. After two years of being more and more consumed by work, I was growing slowly and consistently away from intimacy with God. This trip has served as a complete rejuvenation and refocusing of my attention toward God. It has also fostered a renewed and refreshing depencency on Him.

I have felt convicted for some time about my lack of specifically and outrightly sharing my faith with others. We are called to do that and there is no excuse for disobediance. And why would we not want to share this joy with everyone we meet? On this trip I wanted to intentionally change that somehow.

God worked in me, in us, first. We were reading the Bible individually, usually daily, and not really discussing it. We decided it would be a great opportunity to do a daily Bible study together. Dave chose the book of Matthew as that is what he was reading at the time and we have been committed since. It was a bit awkward at first which is kind of sad since we used to read it together all the time when we first met, but we quickly got into the swing of things and began looking forward to it each day.

I also brought along a few other books which I did not start really reading until a month or so into our trip. Two by Nik Ripken, The Insanity of Obediance and The Insanity of God, and one called I Am N by Voice of the Martyrs. I cannot say enough about the first two books. Both are life changing and challenging, and speak directly to the command to share the gospel especially in hard places.

My prayer on this trip has been to practice sharing my faith with others and that God would provide opportunities to do so. When you ask to be open to God’s will, you better get steeped in the Word, keep your eyes open and hang on. He provided many opportunities to share the gospel. Some we outright failed, some we blundered, some we felt we did something right, but all were great opportunities to practice and can be redeemed by Him. You have to start somewhere and it’s easy to look back and see what else we could have done or what more we could have said and how.

There was the time we encountered a homeless man and were able to serve him by sharing our resources. Then there was the young hitchhiker we picked up. And another man who flattened both tires on one side of his car and seconds later we happened to pull over at the same area. He was amazed that two complete strangers would spend several hours helping him. We told him we had just read in the Bible about helping those in need. He was so impressed with this he immediately told someone at the tire shop we arrived at not long afterwards. He just could not believe that there are people like this in the world. Then there was the Asian lady who gave me a pedicure in Thailand who works 12 hours/day 7 days a week. The American dive guide in Thailand who was still recovering from a painful divorce.

I think my favorite was the time we were invited to camp in someone’s backyard after accidentally attempting to camp on private property. We accepted the invitation and spent half of the next day hanging out with him. He shared his loss of hope, his grief and bouts with depression and drugs. We began to share the hope of Jesus and I tell you what, there is no high like sharing Jesus with someone especially when they are open to it.

Another great thing is that we traded contact info with several of these folks and can continue these conversations.

Looking back at how God has blessed this trip and His intricate involvement in our lives is humbling to my core. It brings me to tears. Just before this trip I was deeply and freshly reminded of His personal love for me, and throughout this trip He has been faithful to keep reminding me. It is so easy to resort to forgetting or doubting, and get down on myself or start trying to take control of everything again.

Shortly after arriving in Perth I was particularly struggling with those nagging anxious thoughts that creep up when you’re trying to fall asleep reminding me of every socially awkward experience or shameful choice I’ve ever made. We were both suffering from the weariness of travel that can make you snappy and bitter. In short I was feeling worn down emotionally and physically. We had also toured a prison and felt the weight of evil in that place. Thankfully, the church we attended the next morning was overflowing with a message of love, from the worship leader to the compassionate grace filled message reminding me to run into my Father’s arms, and how he views me as his child. It was just what I needed that morning to soothe my soul. It was one of those times when you feel like God himself is speaking to you. It is hard for me to even convey the depth of it in words, but God knew very much that I needed a strong reminder that morning of His love for me. And yes, I was crying throughout the service.

Just a couple of Sundays ago near Melbourne we attended a great little church and the passages preached on were two parables from Matthew- ones we had just recently studied ourselves. Then that night there happened to be a performance in Melbourne based on the gospel of Matthew. It was originally scheduled for a month earlier, but had been rained out and rescheduled for the night we were in town. I love when God confirms His presence and involvement in our lives.

There was the Sunday morning in Strathmore listening to a passionate longterm overseas missionary share his experience and then offer individual prayer. My heart burned inside of me to go up. I hesitated for a moment, then saw the open space between a few other people up there which I saw as my spot so I pushed past my inhibitions and went up. Then I heard several others follow suit. I can’t quite describe what it is like to have someone lay hands on you and pray a blessing over you and perhaps a prophesy if you will, and to confirm the path you’re on. His words still ring in my ears. I kind of feel like Mary did with all these experiences- “storing all these things up in my heart.”

I have absolutely LOVED attending a different church every Sunday allover New Zealand, Australia and one in Indonesia. All the brothers and sisters in Christ we have met are so welcoming and loving. It’s as if we already know one another just like family is when you haven’t seen each other in a while. The most mind blowing concept of it all is the awareness that even if we never meet again on this side of eternity, we will be reunited in heaven forever. I just can’t wrap my mind around how very awesome that is. It has been so encouraging to my faith to meet believers literally allover the world. We have also met and heard from longterm missionaries which is so inspiring. Not many people know it, but I wanted deeply to be a missionary from an early age. It just hasn’t played out how I thought it would.

Before we left for this trip I wondered if I was somehow being disobedient to God by leaving my job and going on a 5 month vacation of sorts. But now I know that this was somehow all part of His plan. He can use all things for His glory and purpose. And I am excited to see how he continues to grow and use us for His kingdom when we return home. I’m sure there are so many more moments I could share about on here. I’m just so thankful that He has restored my joy in Him and brought me back to seeing Him in all things big and small, given me a new perspective on persecution, and an eagerness to share the gospel.