My bags are indeed packed, and I'm as ready to go as I will ever be, having arrived in Glasgow this afternoon in anticipation of an early morning flight tomorrow. Leaving my family behind was such a hard and emotional act, and got me thinking (predictably) about 'my' missionaries. Unlike me, who can expect to depart Glasgow and arrive in Cape Town on the very same day, those early adventurers could anticipate months of arduous travel to reach their destination, and would reasonably have had much greater fears of what they were to find when they did arrive - or at least greater foundation for those fears. Yet despite the lengthy duration, the trials, relationships and reflections that must have occurred on these journeys to mission locations, and on trips back and forth on furlough, they receive little attention in published missionary accounts. Perhaps they were too dull, or too traumatic, to want to record publicly, or were simply spent feeling queasy below deck. For me, though, a dull and uneventful trip would do just fine!
