Canadian Mennonite
Volume 12, No. 20
Oct. 13, 2008


Viewpoint

Travelling for God

Spanning out across the globe engenders understanding and peace among nations

By Ed Epp

TourMagination tour leader Ed Epp points to one of the many areas of the world where his company offers travel packages.

One way to build trust and community is to share stories face-to-face. Isolationism—be it cultural, economic or religious—can breed suspicion and fear of others, which too often erupts into conflict. This is true locally, regionally, nationally and globally.

Without travel, the world would be poorer and more dangerous. There would be more misunderstanding and suspicion if we could not share our stories, fears, hopes and dreams. There would be more conflict if our understanding of each other depended solely on a select few. I certainly would be fearful of a world where people only knew of the other’s country, customs and stories through the media, religious leaders or politicians.

In the summer of 2009, the Mennonite world will continue to build its global community in Paraguay. From every part of the world, people will come together to eat, share stories, sing, worship and perhaps even dance! This coming together in one place is healthy for the global Mennonite community. Much can be missed if contact is limited to letters, e-mails or the reliance on spokespeople as our representatives. This involves travel.

Discussions today on travel usually focus on its negative environmental impacts. Some even go so far as to say people should not travel at all. What is too-often missed in those discussions is the positive impact travel can have on people and community:

• Travel transforms people. On every trip I take there is at least one moment where I see this transformation.

I have witnessed people’s views of religious tolerance being transformed while standing in a mosque in Central Asia, where, in 1881, Mennonites were invited to worship. In the same location, 126 years later, we were again invited by a local imam to sing a hymn and to pray.

Another group understood more about hospitality while waiting in a rural spot for a bus. A farm family living next to the road spontaneously and joyfully invited us all for lunch.

I have witnessed North Americans’ views of poverty and aid being transformed while visiting small businesses in Nicaragua and feeling the owner’s pride of self-sufficiency.

My own two daughters’ views of the world have been transformed by having the opportunity to talk to children in Tanzania, Egypt and Afghanistan.

Such transformations are much more difficult, indeed maybe impossible, without travel.

• Travel builds community. Experiencing transformational moments and then discussing them together strengthens a tour group’s internal sense of community. Purposeful group travel with skilled cultural interpreters and storytellers contributes to that experience. Most importantly, breaking through the walls of culture and language expands the group to include people of other cultures, languages and even religions.

Feeling part of a global community can help us interpret events in the world. Believing that they are in a larger global community, people have a bond that allows them to see faces and stories that go beyond ideology or slogans when confronted with political differences, natural disasters or even conflict.

Being stewards of God’s creation, we should take seriously the environmental issues of travel. There are ways today to offset carbon emissions from travel, and to make as small an environmental footprint as possible. There are even “Mennonite options” for carbon offsets being developed by Mennonite Economic Development Associates.

Although we do need to minimize our environmental footprint, it is wrong to focus only on the negatives of travel without promoting the positives. The discussions and questions on travel should centre on “how,” not “if,” we are going to travel.

The world needs face-to-face community-building. Travel, done right, is a kingdom-building activity!

Ed Epp works for TourMagination in the areas of tour development and leading, and marketing. TourMagination (tourmagination.com) is based in Waterloo, Ont.


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