A Light on the Path

I've actually had this trip in mind for quite a few years ,
which is why I began our home school field trip fund in the first
place. But, it was really my good friend Karen DuBert, my former
"roomie" and friend since our Trinity College days, who decided that
this was the year she would take her children on the ultimate field
trip to Italy. Her blog, by the way, is found at:
kareninq@blogspot.com if you wish to follow her journeys throughout
Renaissance Italy. But let me go back to my friendship with the lady
who has always addressed me as "Jarm" (short for my first name,
Jarmila). I'm pictured with her above...

In 1979 I flew to Swaziland, a tiny country near the south east
coast of Africa, to visit Karen, who at the time, was a single
missionary teacher at Florence Christian Academy. During my 7 weeks
there, my eyes were opened to the realities of bush missionary life.
I fell in love with conserving energy, supplies and food; living off
the land, and walking everywhere we went. I liked the idea of giving
up the "comforts" of home for the simplicity and focus of a
missionary's life. And it was because of that visit, that in 1985, I
travelled to a remote village in Papua New Guinea, to work as a short
term missionary. There, for 2 years, I taught three out of the four
Anderson children, acclimating slowly to the heat, physical
isolation, and constant examination of the nationals in Yellow
River. I definitely gained more than I gave those two years, and I
learned the most important lesson of my life: When you have given up
everything but God, you discover He is all you need.
So, when Karen emailed me from Mozambique, (where she and her
husband are career missionaries with TEAM), last fall to reveal her
plans, I immediately pulled my dream from the dusty corners of my
mind, and thought, "Why not?". Of course, there was a gentle nudging
from Karen, saying, "wouldn't it me nice if we could travel together
around Italy?"

It didn't take much to convince me that now was the
time. I have been the fearless travel agent for our family since
1991, when Dan and I were married, and have not stopped since. As
Dan has pointed out quite often...it just takes a scent of a possible
trip to send me into action. Literally, within 48 hours, I have
research flights, hotels, sightseeing possibilities, and all with
frugality in mind. It's "gone again Vicki" meets "stay at home Dan".
We are definitely opposites, but Dan has always been a good sport,
and truly is glad we made the effort to go.
So what has made me so eager to travel?