Couple Returns from Year-long Storytelling Journey

Mike and Claudia Elzinga have a returned from a year-long, storytelling journey in which they chronicled in words, videos and photographs the work of Christian Reformed Church missionaries around the world.

They left in late 2012, came home briefly to the Grand Rapids, Mich. area this past summer, and then left agin in September 2013 on the final leg of their trip that took them to India, Austria, Uganda, El Salvador and Costa Rica.

They have many rich memories. Here are some:

When they arrived in China at the start of their trip, they found it difficult to find their way around and then ended up flying out to Hong Kong a day late and missed their connecting flight.

They had to scramble, filling with worry. Fortunately, they had no trouble re-booking.

A visit to Cambodia, home to the notorious, Khmer Rouge killing fields, was deeply disturbing.

They arrived in Bangladesh about the time people in the country went on a general strike and they were confined for a while to the missionaries’ home, where Claudia says they would play with the missionary couple’s children on the roof.

When they arrived in Egypt to help chronicle the trip of a CRC delegation to that country, Mike Elzinga was immediately struck by Egypt’s tall, sand-burnished buildings, many of them squeezed close together, some featuring domes and arches, and dating back centuries.

The mixture of people and the Arabic language also added to the strong impressions Egypt.

The Elzingas also did some work for Timothy Leadership Training, an organization that trains grassroots ministry leaders such as Saul.

On the final part of their trip, they visited Saul and his ministry in Quezaltepeque (Kay-zahl-tay-peh-kay), a town outside El Salvador’s capital.

“Saul reaches out to the people in the community who aren’t welcome elsewhere, offering a safe and secure place to sing, pray, eat, talk, and listen.

“He holds regular church services here, and runs a sports ministry program for kids in the area (combining Bible study with soccer). And this church, this hub in the community, doubles as his home,” writes Claudia Elzinga.

In all, the trip took them to some 20 countries, including Austria, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Kenya and Thailand.

Claudia Elzinga wrote dozens of stories and blogs as she reported on their trip, and Mike Elzinga took some 60,000 photographs and many videos. Examples of their work are on their twocamerasonemission website.

They stayed in countless rooms in many settings, met with people in the cities and in the countrysides, at churches and in homes, and had chance to taste many types of food and to see significant sites.

Cultural changes came fast and furious wherever they went.

“Looking back, I wish we had time to reflect during the trip. A time in isolation, away from everything new, where we can write down all we’ve learned and heard, all we’ve thought about,” writes Claudia Elzinga.

On the recent blog post, she also writes: “We hit the ground running when we left for China last October. Though we spent the majority of 2012 dreaming, learning, and planning for this crazy-sounding, overly ambitious year, we knew so little. That became more and more evident as we went from country to country, back to back to back. I didn’t know where Slovenia was. I didn’t know my Arabic numbers. I didn’t know a lick of Mandarin, or Indonesian, or Thai. On top of doing interviews and learning about the local ministries, we were learning about the country, too”

Now that they have returned, unpacking and arranging all of their material, they have time to reflect and sort through those memories.

They also have time to take on the task of plotting their future.

“Now that it’s over, our future is just this big fat question mark. But you know what? I’m not freaking out about it,” writes Claudia Elzinga.

“This is post-trip Claudia speaking — a toughened, less-panicky, more confident version of myself — and I’m really, really looking forward to getting settled into our home, processing the past year, and figuring out what I want to do next.”