A group of dear friends and former seminary colleagues are in South Africa for approximately three weeks on a global justice journey. These trips are not mission trips in that they’re not doing service projects and recovery construction (awesome mission trips!) nor going specifically to convert people to a particular brand of Christianity (not my cup of tea!). Rather, these are on-the-ground ways to experience God’s creation of the interdependent global community and see the struggles for justice, liberation, and peace face-to-face. Through the travelers’ learnings, they return home changed people who might be more enlightened and spread the spark to others (now that’s evangelism). I wish I could go but the trip is out of my budget and time reach, unfortunately. I’m following along on their trip blog to learn about everything they’re experiencing and I anticipate I’ll be a little more than jealous if (and when!) they meet the Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
I went on one of these global justice trips in March, 2010 to El Salvador and it was a life-changing event. Aside from two journeys to Canada, it was my first time out of the United States and it was also my first political march. It’s a subject for another time so I might give it the attention it deserves. And, at the very least, I’ll likely write about it on or around March 24 – the 33rd anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero.
With the blessing of my professor, I created the UTSGlobalTrips blog for all of those trips and I’m very excited people continue to write about their travels and experiences in real time so loved ones back home can read along and better understand what’s going on so the return home is made all that much more easy and meaningful. You can read my blog posts from my El Salvador journey here and you can see the overall UTS Global Trips blog here.
I hope you’ll follow the blog, learn more about global justice in South Africa, and pray for safety and openness for the travelers and all they encounter.
-nm
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