Tag: Vacationing Page 2 of 6

We Went to South Africa

On April 26, 2018

Our mission organization has an all-Africa conference every couple of years. In the past, it’s always been held in either Kenya or Tanzania, so this year, it was a very special treat to be held in South Africa.

Since we figured this might be our only chance to visit South Africa as a family, we arrived a couple of days before the conference and stayed a day longer.

This was how we spent a good portion of the conference, which was wonderful and soul-filling.

But we weren’t always super spiritual, like when we put Oreos on our foreheads.

The kids got their own program with their own helpers. They had to do homework every day, since this trip happened during school time, but they still had a blast.

Many, many hours were spent right here. The kids also got to go on their own safari.

The hotel where we stayed had its own petting zoo, which included tiger cubs. Which, FYI, are Indian, not African. But hey, who’s asking? Still super cool.

The kids insisted we go to McDonalds. Still blech, even in South Africa.

The grown-ups, however, went out for amazing steak. South Africans know their meat. (And wearing sweaters was almost as equally exciting.)

We went to the Lion Park, which is kind of like a zoo and kind of like a safari park. The animals are in large enclosures you can drive through. Yes, we were this close.

Mostly they all looked like this.

Until feeding time, when they became like this.

This was all very thrilling until later we found out that the lions in this park have actually killed a number of visitors who dared to do things like roll down their windows. Yikes.

Look, Mom! No Fences!

We went to an adventure course where my children proved that they are much braver than their mother.

While Gil had fun taking pictures of my misery.

We also visited an amusement park….

….and a gold mine.

But perhaps most meaningful was taking our children to historical sites in South Africa. We had talked about South African history before the trip, and watched some documentaries as well as (edited versions) of “Sarafina” and “Invictus.”

We visited Soweto, the site of the youth riots of 1976 (and basis of “Sarafina”).

The memorial of Hector Pieterson, a 13-year-old killed by police who became a symbol of the apartheid resistance.

The Mandela home in Soweto

Hoping for a better future for our children in Africa.

Head for the Hills

By Amy Medina

On January 12, 2018

In Other

While the northern hemisphere is running to warmth this time of year, we down here in the southern part of the world run to the cold.

Okay, so not actually cold, unless you consider 75 degrees to be cold (which we do). Every year in Tanzania, we spend the week after Christmas in the mountains, to escape the suffocating humidity in Dar this time of year.

We go with friends, and the kids run off and we barely see them, and the grown-ups read and chat and play games. We get our jeans and hoodies out of storage and pretend that we’re cold. Beautiful, peaceful, soul-lifting.

Every year, “Aunt” Alyssa gives each kid the equivalent of a dollar and sends them into the market to see what they can find. (As I recently blogged, Tanzanian markets are crammed with cast-offs from other countries.) Whichever item makes Alyssa laugh the most is the winner.

Grace’s find was the runner-up: A baby shirt which is obviously “The Letest Design.”

But the winner was these (intentionally) split toddler pants, which apparently are a real thing in Asia to help kids get potty-trained.

New Year’s Eve

Grace’s 12th birthday–more on her later!

Good-bye, lovely Lushoto. We’ll see you again next year!

Missionaries are Supposed to Suffer….So Am I Allowed to Eat Lobster?

By Amy Medina

On July 27, 2016

In Other

I’m going to let you in on one of missionaries’ biggest secrets: They are terrified to tell you about their vacations.

(Noooooo!!! I can hear my missionary friends protesting. Not that! Write about anything but that!!!) Sorry friends. I’ve got this reputation of revealing to the world what missionaries aren’t telling you.

Some of our good friends just went to the States on home assignment. Their son had just graduated from high school and some of his best friends now live in Europe. Since their flights took them through Europe, they extended their time there to three weeks. They had a wonderful time, but they made sure to write and explain to their supporters that they stayed with friends the entire time, and never paid for any hotels.

Other missionary friends spent a few weeks in Europe the traditional way, in low-key hotels and touristy sight-seeing. They had saved up for this trip during their entire marriage and they figured that doing it on their way home from Africa would make good financial sense. I was excited for my friends and encouraged them to post lots of pictures on Facebook. “I don’t know,” my friend told me. “If we do post pictures, we’ll have to only allow certain people to see them. I’m afraid of what people will think.”

Another missionary friend’s mother paid for the two of them to take a Mediterranean cruise. When she told me, she made sure I knew it was top-top secret. I think only two or three other people ever knew about it–before or after.

This past weekend, we spent four nights at a beach house about two hours away. The house is a bit rustic, with no hot water and only solar lighting, but it’s beautiful, and perched on the most amazing beach I have ever experienced. The owner of the house included a seafood dinner for free, with more lobster than we could ever stuff ourselves with. Eat away, I told my kids. You might never get it again in your childhood. This is the kind of place where the beauty and serenity fills your soul and makes you a better person.

And it costs less than staying at a cheap motel in the States.

See? I had to throw that in there.

I’ll say it again: Missionaries are terrified to tell you about their vacations. (Pastors too, just in case you were wondering.)

After all, missionaries are supposed to suffer. And how dare we raise support from people’s sacrificial giving and then use it for a vacation?

The struggle is real, folks. We are afraid of your criticism or disappointment. And for good reason, since we’ve all heard stories of missionaries who lost support as soon as people found out about their vacation.

I understand that this is a tricky issue–because it’s a heart issue. I’m sure there are missionaries who make selfish or unhealthy financial decisions–just like lots of other Christians. I am all about accountability, and godly priorities, and fighting against our instinct to make comfort or wealth an idol. But if it’s acceptable for other Christians to take vacations, if they are living generously, wisely, and with a heavenly mindset, then why can’t missionaries do so as well?

After all, doesn’t all of our money belong to God, no matter how we acquire it?

So go out and ask your favorite missionaries to tell you about their vacations. Assure them that you won’t judge. Be happy for them, just like you would be for your other friends. Because honestly? I am excited to share these pictures. This kind of beach is one of the major perks of living in Tanzania. We had a wonderful time, and it’s fun to share it with you.

This little sweetie just joined her new family a week previously. What a joy to see her delirious delight in the ocean!

Sometimes Heaven Looks Like This…But Just a Little Bit

By Amy Medina

On January 3, 2016

In Other

The week after Christmas is probably our favorite week of
the year.

Just about the time when we can’t stand the heat and
humidity any longer, we head to the mountains of Lushoto with our best
friends. It’s tradition now; we’ve done
it almost every year we’ve lived in Tanzania.

There’s clean, cool air, long, deep conversations, obsessive
board game-playing, soccer, wiffle ball, Kindle reading, and no responsibilities
of cooking and cleaning. The kids play
all day together outdoors, creating imaginary worlds and new games and getting
fabulously dirty.

It’s a little piece of heaven. Except, this year we were reminded that it’s
not actually Heaven, when one of the teens came down with Typhoid, and one family’s
room was robbed of their valuables on New Year’s Eve. So we all left a little bit sad, because even
when we try to set up the Perfect Week, and even when we all really do have a
great time, the brokenness of this world still gets in the way.

On the way back down the mountain, we listened to the audio
book of The Last Battle, our favorite Narnia book and perhaps, one of the greatest
books ever written. It was perfect
timing.

“'[T]hat was not the real Narnia,” [said the Lord
Digory]. ‘That had a beginning and an
end. It was only a shadow or a copy of
the real Narnia, which has always been here and always will be here: just as our own world is only a shadow or
copy of something in Aslan’s real world.’

It was the unicorn who summed up what everyone was
feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof
on the ground…and cried:

‘I have come home at last!
This is my real country! I belong
here. This is the land I have been
looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is
that it sometimes looked a little like this.
Come further up, come further in!’”

Yes, we love our Decembers in the mountains of Lushoto
because it looks and feels a little like Heaven. But the brokenness reminds us that it’s
not. So even during great weeks like this one, we remember we are still in the Shadowlands. We look forward with
anticipation to Aslan’s real world.

It’s really not that cold….we just like to pretend.

Our New Year’s birthday girl….more about her later.

Road Tripping, Tanzania Style

By Amy Medina

On July 17, 2015

In Other

Road tripping in Tanzania is nothing like road tripping in America.

First of all, the roads are indeed paved, but all of them are only two lanes with no center divider. Which means that you share the space on the road with enormous buses and semi-trucks, at 70 miles at hour, many of them in chicken contests, passing into oncoming traffic. Heart attacks abound about every five minutes. There ain’t no cruise control out here.

Police stand on the side of the road with speed guns, which adds to the heart attacks since the legal speed limit is constantly changing. It often feels as if the color of your skin, not your speed, determines how often you are pulled over.

Bathrooms are as scarce as the ever-elusive leopard, yet when you do find one, you wish you had just used the bush along the side of the road. Fast food consists of mushy fries and tough meat…we ate a lot of peanut butter.

Yet when you see these pictures, I’m guessing you’ve never had these sort of sights on any of your American road trips. Makes it all worth it.

We have an intern, McKenna, visiting this summer, and we wanted to show her (and our kids) more of this breathtakingly beautiful country. We were not disappointed. It was a great week.

“Tree of Baboons”

Dinner

See the little bumps on the left? Baby. Oh yes.

Sure, let’s put a viciously aggressive King Cobra in a cage that has cardboard around the glass and holes in the wood. Then let’s provoke it so that it shows its hood to the visitors. Sounds like a great idea.

Occasionally in Africa, we do actually swing on vines.

Visiting a Masai village. Learning about the Masai is standard business in first grade at HOPAC, so we felt like it was important that our kids got to see the real thing.

….aaaaand they dressed me up. And then laughed at me. I can’t say I blame them. The Masai are some of the most beautifully elegant people I’ve ever seen. This white girl just can’t compete.

There she is in all her glory: Mount Kilimanjaro

We drove for a half hour on a road so bumpy we thought our teeth would fall out, but were rewarded at the end by a natural, crystal clear spring. Oh yeah….and monkeys jumping around over our heads, dropping seeds into the water. Utterly amazing.