Vacations that Matter from Mark Schwartz

In the fall of 2005 Lanora and I went to Branson with some friends on one of those “stay-free-if-you-take-a-tour-of-our-overpriced-resort-while-you-are-here” trips. It was the first time we had ever done one of those so we thought we would try it. Needless to say, we didn’t buy it. But we did learn a very valuable lesson while we were there. The salesman we had was not overly pushy and pretty much the first 30-45 minutes we just sat around on couches and chatted about life in general. Of course his whole conversation was leading us to talk about any vacations we had taken. What really hit home was one particular question about what vacations we had taken as a kid. Of course Lanora was rich so they went somewhere every single summer for two weeks at a time. They traveled all over the country and she pretty much remembered each and every trip. We weren’t as wealthy as they were but we did usually go somewhere each year. It was usually either church camp or one of our family’s houses but at least we went somewhere. But when I was seven we went to the Smoky Mountains for vacation. It was a great vacation and we did a ton of stuff. I can still remember vividly some of the images. When I was fourteen we went to Branson for a vacation and I still remember a lot of the stuff we did on that vacation as well.

But then the salesman asked us another question. He asked us what we got for Christmas that year. I didn’t have a clue. It might have been the pocket knife that Aunt Carol bought me, that got taken away when I tried to pick the lock on our house in Ponchatoula, but I couldn’t be sure. I tried really hard to remember what I had gotten that year but couldn’t. Isn’t it interesting that we spend a lot of money and effort into getting the perfect gifts yet I can barely remember what I returned to Wal-Mart even last year. I mean I can barely remember what I got last year for Christmas.

A few weeks later they announced at church that they were going to try something new this year. They take groups on mission trips all over the world but they had never taken a “family-style” mission trip. Wow, what a perfect opportunity we thought! So we did it! There were about 25 of us that went to Mexico on a family mission trip. Hopefully my children will never forget the Spring Break they spent throwing a Vacation Bible School for about 100+ kids each day. Not only that, but they got to minister to people with their parents. We got to do it together as a family. Hopefully they will never forget the beautiful smiles of destitute children who have hardly anything but oxygen yet you would never know it. Those were some of the poorest yet some of the happiest people we had ever seen. If they do forget this past year, maybe they won’t forget 2007. The family mission trip was such a success, our church plans on doing one each year. We are already planning to go back again this year. Kalli and I are trying to learn some Spanish before we go. That was the most frustrating part was trying to express love and compassion to people without knowing the language. I kept calling the little boys beautiful and the little girls handsome. But we had a blast. Oh, and the food….mmmmmmm! Not sure what kind of animal it was but man did it taste good!

Mark~