Taken from Solo Planet: How Singles Help the Church Recover Our Calling by Anna Broadway © 2023. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Journalist Anna Broadway traveled around the world, visiting nearly 50 countries on six continents in 17 months to interview nearly 350 Christians about their experience with singleness. Discussing a variety of topics—loneliness, sexuality, aging, housing, cooking, celebrations, parenting, and many more, it gives us a global-church perspective of how singles live and experience life inside and outside of the church. The result is the book, Solo Planet. The team at map – A Travel Lifestyle Magazine, is pleased to include, over several issues, 4 “Trip Vignette” selections from her book. Why? Well as Anna shares, “Within this book, you’ll read stories of single people from all over the world. As you do, ask yourself: Where is God in these stories? How does God glorify Himself through singles? If we do that, these stories will help us recover a more biblical view of Christian life and community.
From the start of planning this research, I faced a grim possibility. I could get raped. Not assaulted, or even violated. Raped.
I didn’t dare soften the worst possibility. I had to face the full, awful risk my trip held. Was I willing to research this book, even if it cost me that?
THE UNTHINKABLE WITH BAGGAGE
By the standards of many previous generations, and not a few modern cultures, I set out to do the unthinkable for a woman. I planned multiple months of globe-spanning travel alone. On some of my Middle East stops, women marveled at or envied my travels. Many of them would spend their whole life under men’s protection and power.
The men in my life gave me their blessing to set out with God alone beside me. I ultimately visited seventy-five cities in forty-one countries across six continents. God alone explains how I made it home so relatively unscathed.
I spoke only one language fluently: English. German I spoke passably but could only use in two or three countries. I learned most of my limited Spanish on the road.
I had good health but almost no self-defense skills. I’ve never served in the military or learned to throw a punch. My sole safety training consisted of a two-hour Krav Maga training, an Israeli self-defense method. I learned it’s sometimes okay to fight dirty. I did not learn how to do so. The only tip I used afterward was to put my back to a wall any time I stopped to look at my phone, especially in public.
I didn’t even pack lightly, should I have to flee at some point. My backpack always weighed close to or slightly over the airline’s bag limit (usually fifty pounds or twenty-three kilos). The suitcase I deemed my “carry-on” whenever possible weighed close to thirty pounds (about thirteen kilos).
Beyond luggage, I also had bags. On my left shoulder, I slung a giant canvas tote bag. I sometimes passed this off as my “purse” when needed, though it often weighed close to twenty pounds. To balance it out, I had another ten or more pounds packed into the real purse that hung from my right shoulder. Another small bag often hung beneath my coat. This led to some very sweaty train-station transfers. I often prayed I wouldn’t sprain an ankle.
If my trip were an animal tale, you’d have to cast a baby chick or duckling as me. Who else packs sourdough starter for a world trip? Who packs sewing patterns and carries a piece of art to share with each host along the way? I’m sure many people shook their heads at me. They weren’t wrong to do so.
But I’d learned something from two earlier trips to India. The summer I turned 22, I spent ten days in Andhra Pradesh on a short-term mission trip. Many people prayed for us. Despite significant cultural differences, I had a powerful experience of God on that trip. (See more in my first book, Sexless in the City.) I left India with a newfound love for the best of its culture.
ON A MOTORCYCLE WITHOUT A HELMET – CAN WE TRUST GOD?
Seven years later, I took a shorter trip to Mumbai, alone. This time I visited a college friend. I tried but failed to find Christians to connect with during my short stay. And since it was a vacation, not a mission trip, I didn’t ask many people to pray.
No matter where or why I go, I always connect with the local church. As much as I can, I ask people to pray.
– Anna Broadway, Solo Planet
As my flight descended the first day, I got the worst sinus headache of my life. It lasted for days. Things got so bad I finally saw an ayurvedic doctor. Not until I saw and heard the chanting plug-in device in the exam room did I wonder what spiritual environment I’d entered. I spent all of that short session in desperate, silent prayer.
After I left, my headache improved. But that night I had a strange dream about an animal trying to bite me. I prayed as if it were a demonic attack.
At my lowest point, I thought, I could fall into a sewer drain and no one would find or miss me. It was an awful feeling. I’ve never been so ready to fly home from a trip. And I’ve never traveled the same way since. No matter where or why I go, I always connect with the local church. As much as I can, I ask people to pray.
Maybe I should have been more afraid or cautious in my research travels. I had a lot to lose. But memories of another trip helped anchor me. The summer I turned 33, I went to Peru— alone, but mostly visiting family or friends. Toward the end, a friend offered me a city tour on my most-feared mode of transportation: a motorcycle. I didn’t even get to wear a helmet.
As I considered my fate that day, I faced a weighty question: Did I trust God? He might let me come home maimed or dead. Or, He could let me have a great adventure, safely. He was good either way, but I couldn’t foresee His will. Did I trust Him?
Setting out on this trip was no different. It just involved a much longer journey.
QUESTIONS FOR PERSONAL REFLECTION AND GROUP DISCUSSION
- Anna talks about the men in her life giving their blessing for her travels. While several aspects of travel preparation, like having a passport and finances are necessary having a blessing from others isn’t. Nonetheless, consider why it’s a very good thing to have. She talks about having “God alone” beside her. Explore stories in the Bible that describe people traveling with God’s presence. What difference does that make\?
- Training in self-defense provides useful skills and preparedness for travel and all of life. What other skills could be helpful for you to explore and develop for your upcoming travels? If you were to offer tips to others reading map – A Travel Lifestyle Magazine, what advice would you give on packing? When does baggage really become baggage that is just too much?
- What are your thoughts on asking people to pray for you when you travel? Like Anna, do you make a distinction between a “mission-trip” and a vacation, in terms of which travels merit prayer? In what specific ways can you intentionally make prayer a more significant part of your travels? What do you do when you have inevitable and unplanned travel experiences, like Anna’s motorcycle ride without a helmet?
