Today’s Author is Prince of Peace Member, Caryn Josephson.
On Saturday, Jim and I went down to St. Paul to see the new Viking Mississippi River boat as it was preparing for its first trip down the Mississippi. Seeing the preparations brought back memories of the trip we look last spring with my parents – a paddlewheel cruise down the Mississippi from Memphis to New Orleans. We love to travel and this was the first major trip we took since the pandemic hit. The initial stress of pre-trip COVID tests, a rental van cancellation and the onset of new variants soon gave way to the joy of once again being able to experience the wonders of travel. We experienced the beauty of God’s creation along the Mississippi and had a chance to learn about the history and culture of the areas we visited. Going into a trip, I have certain expectations of what we will see and do, and I’m continually amazed at the small and large surprises that come along the way. In Cleveland, Mississippi, we happened upon the Mississippi Delta Chinese Heritage Museum – a small museum dedicated to telling the history of the Chinese population in the Mississippi Delta starting in the post civil war era. One highlight was a video showing a Chinese-American family who were attempting to find out more about their grandfather who they heard had settled in the area. As shown in the video, they were able to discover that he had in fact lived in the area, they found his grave site, and the curator of the museum discovered that their collection included his family Bible!
That story got me thinking of my own family experience – my mother has done a lot of genealogy research into her Norwegian family. In 2009 we traveled to Norway with my parents and Aunt and Uncle to visit several of the places where we had roots. My mother had made a connection with some distant cousins in Otta and we arranged to visit them, but she didn’t have much information about the family history from the Skien area who had settled in Wisconsin. Through some online genealogy forums, ahead of our trip she found a local historian who was digitizing baptismal records and he offered to see if he could find the family farm in that area. We arranged for a meeting time, and he told us that not only had he found the farm, but we still had relatives in that area and they wanted to invite us to the farm to have coffee with them! We had a delightful visit and they brought out a letter that our relative from Wisconsin had sent back home around the time of the Civil War. Their daughter-in-law offered to translate it and sent the translation a few months later. The day was an unexpected and joyful surprise and made me grateful for the connections we were able to make.
We also experience surprises that comprise some of my favorite memories of our trips to visit our companion congregations in Tanzania. Often the surprises are sprung on one of our Pastors – on her first visit, Pastor Anita was asked to include something about AIDS in her sermon the following morning, and on her second visit, she was asked to repeat her Sunday morning sermon at the high school graduation that afternoon. Pastor Peter was asked – during prayers – to conduct a baptism as soon as the prayers were finished! Other times the surprises take the form of an unexpected invitation to visit a home, or an invitation to a special event. Or, as one of the most special – on our first trip, we were invited and agreed to be godparents to Trifaina who was being baptized the next day! These are all unexpected surprises that feel to me like a gift from God to help further and strengthen our relationships with each other.
As much as I enjoy the little unexpected surprises during travel, it is a good reminder to me that I don’t need to go far to experience God’s small surprises if only I don’t forget to look!
Good and gracious God – thank you for the gift of travel, relationships and surprises! Help us to look for your gifts in all things and find ways to share your blessings with others along the way.