Pam and I love to travel. Given the nature of her ministry, she gets to do more of it than I do. But I really can’t complain as I truly do get more than my fair share. Pam just got back from Singapore, a missions related visit that was nothing more than a series of meetings with her peers and superiors; necessary, but essentially business travel. Next week she will be going to a local conference on participatory learning. We will drive to Port Dickson early enough to grab a bite to eat somewhere on the waterfront. Again, not a huge trip, but certainly an enjoyable afternoon for me, and a week at a nice hotel for Pam.

One of my colleagues is packing up to return to Canada. This is significant for me as I might have to cover her responsibilities in the short term (up to Christmas) to help out the team. What was more germane to this post was her email informing the staff of the importance of keeping a travel log, as the company we work for requires this on exit. I am hoping I don’t have to exit anytime soon, but I thought it might be a useful exercise as well as saving me some grief at some point in the future.

One purpose of this blog is that is serves as a useful reminder of where we have been and what we have done since we arrived here (thanks Jon for suggesting it and setting it up for us!). This is fortunate because all those little custom stamps on your passport are hard to read and it is useful to have a backup site to check dates and locations. So far I have compiled a list just shy of 40 trips. That doesn’t include trips within Malaysia, as they don’t get stamped. That is quite a list in just five years. I would estimate that Pam’s list would be at least twice that.

Some of those places have been nearby, such as Singapore, barely five hours done the road from here. Some have been wildly exotic, like the Great Wall of China and the Little Barrier Reef of Australia. Wherever, it has been a great privilege to live in this part of the world, and I thank God for the opportunities we have had to see some of His beautiful creation before age and finances drive us home for good. We will never see the world in the same way again.