By Phee Paradise
There’s no one I’d rather travel with than my family. We live pretty far apart, so family gatherings are a joyful mix of catch up and memories. As missionary kids, some of our memories are of road trips across Mexico and some of our adult gatherings have been once in a lifetime trips to other parts of the world.
In one trip, my mother, sisters and I met in London for a road trip to Edinburgh. We hadn’t planned it to be a book tour, but Mother taught us all to love reading, so it was inevitable that we recognized places from our favorite books. In London, we looked for the Bird Woman from Mary Poppins on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral and shopped in Dickens’ Old Curiosity Shop. While driving north through the Cotswolds we watched for Hobbits and stopped in Oxford to visit the Bird and Baby Pub where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis met with the Inklings to discuss their writing. Naturally we also toured Lewis’ college and home. Later on the trip we were sad that we didn’t have time to visit the moors of Wuthering Heights and The Secret Garden. During our hours in the car driving across England, we took turns reading the Narnia books aloud.
Another trip was a search for our family roots with extended family. Aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings flew to China to visit the places my grandparents lived and worked as missionaries. My mother and her sisters and brother had grown up there and the rest of us soaked up their memories as they relived their childhood. They had played in the entrance to the Forbidden City, walked on the Great Wall before it was restored and enjoyed tanghulu, their favorite sugary treat. Most of the places they had lived were gone, but we found the church where their parents had served. We talked with people who had known my grandparents and remained faithful to their Christian faith through the turmoils of Communist China. What a joy it was for the entire family to see our heritage come to life and recognize the awesome God who keeps His promise that His Word will not return void.
God has blessed me with a loving, godly family and I love traveling with them. But being with them reminds me that I’m part of the larger family of God and I love traveling with them on our earthly journey too.
Unlikely Merger
No longer needed as her father’s nurse, Mercy Lacewell attempts to step into his shoes at his acquisitions firm. That means travel, engaging strangers, and making final decisions—nothing she feels equipped to do. If her best friend has her way, Mercy will simply marry one of the single, available men she meets, but they overwhelm her. So handsome and kind. And so many. Even if she felt obliged, how could she ever choose?
Should she shove all attraction aside and focus on her father’s business, or is God warming her heart with the possibility of forever?
Phee Paradise was blessed to be a missionary kid and loves to share that experience in her writing. In Miracles at Midnight, she edited her father’s stories about his years on the mission field where he saw God change lives for the Kingdom. Phee has also contributed to several books, including A Ruby Christmas, A Dozen Apologies, and her latest, Unlikely Merger. She prays that her work will be used by God to His glory. You can read some of Phee’s stories at http://www.faithwriters.com/member-profile.php?id=42864
