Back in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, in the KLM Sky Lounge, thinking back on Cape Town 2010.

It dawned on me that 21 years ago, the second Lausanne congress was wrapping up in Manila.  As the Director of Communications for the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization, I had a few days of clean up to do and then fly with the completed PageMaker files to Hong Kong to print the final commorative edition of our magazine World Evangelization.

With me was my incredible wife, Kathy, and our newborn daughter Tori.  At the end of this trip, she would have spent more time out of the United States than in it!  Her passport photo was the official hospital photo that’s taken after birth.  She caused a ruckus everywhere she went in Manila.  People would stop and stare at this little, white girl with seemingly translucent blonde hair.  She was a trooper and did incredibly well everywhere she went (as long as the air conditioning wasn’t too cold). 

How time flies.  Today, she’s a junior at Seattle Pacific University.  Kathy is a professor at Cornerstone University, and I’m freelancing.  We added a second world traveler to our team, Alex, who is preparing for a YWAM DTS in Tanzania this spring.

Thanks for joining me on a jaunt through some memories.  Those flying home today from Cape Town 2010 will no doubt look back on this trip someday hence and I trust those will be warm, wonderful memories as well.

According to my Delta SkyMiles account, that’s how many miles I’ve flown in the past 30 days.  (That’s almost twice the distance around the earth.)  Oh, and I flew yesterday on Frontier, and I drove from Michigan to Seattle, so you can add a few thousand more miles onto that total.  That’s a lot of traveling in one month.  And it’s about to start again!  I’m home for a few days and on Tuesday I fly to Cape Town for the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization (where I’m volunteering with the broadcast team).

Here then is my list of “must have” gadgets based on my travel usage over the past month (in random order and not an exhaustive list):

• netbook computer – I have the Toshiba NB205. The battery lasts forever; the integrated webcam makes Skype calls home very enjoyable; it weighs next to nothing; and it’s perfect for email and writing. (I used to think I’d actually edit video on the plane ride home – ha!)
• iPod – Driving on the sorry excuse for roads in Southern Sudan in a Land Cruiser with no shocks, whilst the speakers self destructed due to the local techno-pop music/crap blaring at 11 on the volume knob had me thanking God (and Steve Jobs) for my iPod.  My collection of Eva Cassidy, Hillsong, James Taylor and Yo Yo Ma got me through this last trip with my sanity still intact.
• fountain pen by Lamy – Many of you know I enjoy writing with Montblanc fountain pens, but I just can’t bring myself to traveling with one of them in my pocket.  In Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport I purchased a Lamy fountain pen for 16 Euros – I love it.  It has a very pleasurable writing feel but I wouldn’t go into a depression if it turned up missing.  If you write a lot (as I do) find something to make it pleasurable.
• unlocked, dual-sim, quad-band cell phone – Now I have a US phone number that I can answer just about anywhere for only pennies per minute.  Plus, I can add a sim card for a local number. Sweet!  I talked to my wife from the hinterlands of Southern Sudan when my associate couldn’t get through to the office on our iridium sat phone (but I’m not sure how hard he was really trying!).
• neosporin and cipro – not really gadgets, but lifesavers. Get a cut in the Third Word, clean it and then grab the neosporin and fill up the cut with its healing goodness.  Trust me, out there, you don’t want an infection.  And cipro?  It fixes the digestive tract – if you know what I mean.
• canon 7d – full 1080p high def video… sorry I’ve talked enough about that in other posts!

On Christmas Day, I turned my Blackberry off as I boarded a flight from Grand Rapids to Ft. Lauderdale.  The four of us (Kat, Tori, Alex & I) were off for a week of relaxation, sun, scuba and fun in Key West.   The next day, we used the phone once to set up a lunch and then to find our girls on the beach, and then I turned it off with no intention of even thinking about it for the rest of the week.

I brought my trusty Toshiba netbook with me, but only used it to do a mapquest and check diving conditions.  For the first time in  – well, maybe ever – I totally unplugged my business side for an entire week.

Finally, ten days later, driving to a client location on January 4, the phone went back on and the list of messages (email and voice) was lengthy.  Some were thought to be emergencies when they were left, but everyone survived, no projects derailed, and I could just smile…

Try this on your next vacation. As I found out, not only will you benefit, but your family will feel they finally have you – and your full attention – and that will be reward enough.

I’m no stranger to travel. After having spent the majority of my career covering stories in more than 65 nations of the world, travel is second nature. I know the layout of the major airports of the world like many people know their neighborhoods.  But no matter how much time I spend on the road, being away from my family for holidays and special events always hurts.

There have been some good times… [Read more →]