I have a personal tension in writing this blog. By its nature it is targeted to the wealthy, because it is only the privileged that can afford to travel. I don’t however believe that travel is only about vacations. I have travelled with my family for work, to sit my medical specialist exam, to attend weddings, to attend funerals and as evacuees fleeing Cyclone Yasi. Most importantly, as we live in North Queensland being willing to travel with my young sons has allowed them to develop relationships with friends and family that live down south. My beautiful grandmother, Gar died suddenly two months ago. She used to tell me she wanted to live long enough to see me walk down the aisle. After I was married she would tell me she wanted to live long enough to see my first child. What a blessing that she lived long enough to know, love and be loved by both my boys. Sharing my boys with her, their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins has been our main motivator to travel since they were born. Travelling with the boys has not always been easy though, and it is a desire to assist other families in their own journeys that led me to start this blog.
In response to my tension I floated a concept with my husband. What did he think of the idea of travel tithing? Tithing is the biblical concept of giving a proportion of one’s income back to God. Rather than being a substitute for regular tithing, travel tithing would mean donating 10% of the cost of our travel to benefit others that are less fortunate.
I realise that some people will say such a gesture is only a token, that we should not spend money travelling but instead give all that we have away (I suspect like other families, exactly how much we give to charities is something we need to improve on). Others are likely to view a post such as this as self-righteous. For the moment though, I am asking readers of this blog, those that are fortunate enough to be able to afford to travel with their children, whether they will join with me in travel tithing. I have provided a link to World Vision, a charity that we support because it supports families living in situations that I find difficult to even imagine. Situations for mothers that include not being able to feed their children, and not being able to access medical care when they give birth. Please consider giving to them next time you travel.
We too believe in World Vision and sponsor them with “Gifts” – so far our boys have been given gifts at xmas time – a goat and a duck – to world vision. Recently we got paid for an article and the money went to world vision 🙂 It was such a great feeling to be giving to something worth while!