“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”
– Maya Angelou
As a young immigrant in 1980’s New York, Andrea learned important lessons
in generosity, adaptability, and gratitude.
Jamaica and the US may share English as a common language, but their cultures vary in a myriad of ways. She and her family moved during winter to a place with different weather, different foods, different sights and sounds, different familial norms, and different understandings of race and class. Children from a plethora of countries and cultures composed her first US classroom and she slowly made friends with the world. That fascinating experience sparked her insatiable desire to visit and learn from as many cultures as possible.
Valuing cultures different than her own, Andrea practices a travel-informed discipleship© in her personal and professional interactions. Whether leading students on international study trips, representing her employer at international conferences, or traveling recreationally, she is keen to learn from her host country. That deferential posture cultivates cultural humility and deepens her celebration of God’s intentional design for human diversity. Travel informs and transforms how she leads and disciples others.
