Mark's Notebook


	Things are more like they are now than they have ever been. - Gerald Ford

Thou shalt not miss church on vacation

Dallas-Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Wednesday 15 December 2004, 12:52 pm
Keywords: Christian Topics , News Articles

Many tourists find a way to worship, no matter where in the world they might be

A recent poll by the Travel Industry Association of America reported that 28 percent of travelers in the United States went to a church, temple, mosque or other house of worship. Residents in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas ranked among the most faithful, with 37 percent attendance. New Englanders are the biggest Sunday morning sleep-ins: only about 21 percent go to church on vacation.

The faithful, it seems, are called to worship wherever they are. "We have never considered vacations an opportunity to vacate church," says Dale Smith, pastor of Colleyville Presbyterian Church. "So when we're on vacation, we're almost always looking for a church in which to worship."

That quest has taken Smith and his wife to a small evangelical church in Colorado -- guitar, no organ, "much like a college campus fellowship meeting" -- and historic Lutheran churches in Dresden, Germany. "The liturgy was familiar and comfortable to us Presbyterians," Smith says of the latter.

When looking for a place to worship, most travelers stick within their own denomination. Smith looks for a church that serves weekly Communion. If there's no noteworthy church, synagogue or mosque nearby, Ayers opts for a church that's close to the hotel or maybe one with a good organ.

Finding a place to worship is as simple as doing an Internet search on a a denomination and destination city. Type in "Catholic" and "San Diego," for example, and you'll get St. Joseph's Cathedral on Third Avenue. "Muslim" and "Providence" calls up the Muslim American Da'wah Center in Rhode Island.

On a trip to Yellowstone National Park this fall, Bob and Martha Gamblin of Arlington found themselves surprised by a worship service. On Sunday morning, they returned to their room at the Old Faithful Inn and heard hymns coming from the inn's balcony. It turned out to be a nondenominational church service led by a volunteer from A Christian Ministry in the National Parks. The ministry is a 50-year-old organization that holds services in 35 national parks, including in Alaska and the West Indies. The service ended -- a little early -- when Old Faithful erupted.

"It was such a beautiful setting, and it was wonderful to think we were there with other Christians, worshipping together," says Martha Gamblin.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/living/10375101.htm?1c

Mark says:

When we were on vacation, I took a list of churches on my Palm.

We visited:

In the case of Vineyard, we found the church in the phone book but their street was not listed on any map. We prayed and just drove around until we found it. A miracle!