beginning euro-gorn.
end euro-gorn.
Euro-gorn is now euro-done. My trip has concluded but the journey has just begun. The point of travel is never to go somewhere but to learn. On my trip I have learned more than I thought I could have even if I was expecting to learn a lot. I landed at KCI this past Thursday and was met by two of my favorite people in the world.
How blessed I am to be home.
How blessed I am to have a place called home.
How blessed I am to have people to make it a place worth calling home.
Throughout my trip I met amazing people, made some great bad decisions and saw lots of our world's cultural and artistic foundations. Everywhere between the UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, Scotland and back again I never took a step that was not an entirely new experience. I wish I could sum up every minute I traveled in such a short way but let's be real here, that won't be happening. However, I do have 2,073 photos for sharing. From Big Ben to the Alps I have stories to share and memories to cherish.
All of this is just a start though. To my mother's chagrin I already have my next trip in mind. Perhaps a cycling trip through Germany? I feel Eastern Europe calling out. Who knows, maybe it is time to try a little haggling in Istanbul. Regardless I hope that there will be many more travel entries to be written. Hopefully the will be worth reading too. That will have to be left up to the future.
Now as far as an overall summary goes I will give it my best few sentence shot.
Never in my life have I more clearly seen God's provision. Most people know or have heard the idea that God provides and all that jazz. But what if we truly saw and really understood even a sliver of the amount that God cares for us. On my trip these past two months or so I believe I can see at least a little better how our Father loves us. He provided for me, watched over me and guided me (literally) through places I have never been.
Being in a place where the only person to rely on is Jesus is the best place to be. The sad part is in reality we all live in this same place everyday. We deceive ourselves into believing we have any measure of control. Honestly though we must consider and bring to mind who the true giver of each day is to us. The food in the kitchen, the air we have to breath, the safe bed to sleep in and the loving people come home to are no less of blessing and provision than a free meal and a bed while traveling.
Lots of people have asked me whether or not I felt alone on my trip. The truth is that no, I never did. Sure I felt lonely but only in the sense that I longed to hug the people I missed. But I never felt alone. Never in my life have I more stongly felt the strengthening hand of God. Sure I was sitting alone on train, planes and what have you but I always felt in my heart that I was actually just spending some sweet quality time with Jesus.
With all the distraction so of life pulled away perhaps I could more easily hear the voice of God. I also could see the real value of many of those distractions. Which always came to be pretty much nothing. Nothing compares to the greatness of knowing Jesus Christ as our savior and Lord. Read that again if you need to but consider that all of life is lived for one purpose or another. Unless your life is lived for the purpose of knowing Jesus more and more that ultimatly life will seem meaningless. I can not offer any validation of that claim other than to challenge the searching of your heart. I know you will feel it is true.
Well that is that huh? God is God and boy he is good. I hope to talk to many of you who have kindly followed my rantings here for the past months. This last post has been long but thanks for enduring and humoring my words. Thanks for your support and many of your prayers. Thanks for your friendships. Thanks for being you and thanks simply for the time taken to read. Soon I hope to be off again with perhaps maybe even more ridiculous stories. Either way give me a call, I would love to have coffee and share photos and stories, especially if you buy the coffee.
finally, from the ole' USA, cheers and yours always,
EURO-GORN
*see the below link to view thousands of photos. they are not all fixed, edited or complete but it is a start. sorry for the embarrasing ones, but that is how it goes you know.
http://s639.photobucket.com/albums/uu111/eurogorn/
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