Travel Log

On one of our trips to Ecuador, Nancy and I traveled with a good friend. To protect her, I won't tell you who she is, but she's our Personnel Director... and her name is DeNise. On our way, we passed a fruit stand and this Memphis native said, "Lets stop and get some watermelon. I LOVE me some watermelon."

The van was packed with food. We had so much food, the van our driver looked at us like, "You know they HAVE food there, right?" Still, we stopped and bought the watermelon.

Since we were having a team get together, DeNise bought three. We drove those three watermelons down the mountain, cut two of them up for the meeting and took the third on to the next stop on our visit. Then to the next stop. Then finally, we took it all the way back to Quito.

That watermelon was the best traveled watermelon on the planet. There are people who live their whole lives in Ecuador and never see those places. I had to carry that thing back and forth to the van, up and down flights of stairs, all over the stinking country. Just because DeNise LOVES her some watermelon. 

When we finally got home, DeNise picked up her watermelon for the first time and said, "Dang! That watermelon is heavy!" Yes. I know. 

That was years ago, but I still give her a hard time about it. We have a lot of good stories from that trip and we revisit them whenever we see each other.

There's something about traveling with someone that can really deepen a friendship. There's prolonged time together. You see each other early in the morning and late at night. You see each other at your best and not so best. And there's always a story. 

It all makes me wonder about the disciples. For three years they followed Jesus around Israel. What kind of stuff didn't make it in the book? Did Peter ever push Judas out of the boat? Did they ever try to sneak off and leave Mathew? Did James ever secretly spit on John's fish then everyone laugh when he ate it? 

After the ascension, did they ever sit around and tell stories. Can you imagine when they were alone together? "Remember that time Jesus smoked you for wanting to be first in the Kingdom? HAHAHAAH! Good times... good times." Who else could understand them? Who else could understand how profoundly they missed him? 

The disciples journeyed through life together and out of it came some pretty amazing stories. Who are you traveling with? What kind of stories are you writing?