Real or Virtual?

Regarding travel, nowadays, I do most of my travel virtually – on YouTube, Google Earth and so on. And my goal is to go everywhere on these  😀.

As for physical travel, I’ve mainly travelled around Ireland and the UK. I did visit some countries in Europe. So, I’ll list Europe, the UK, and Ireland. These are places I’ve actually been to. I won’t bother with places that I’d like to visit because there are just too many.

If I have to limit myself to 10, I think I’d go for the UK cities and regions.

I always like to end with a few songs or hymns. My favourite location-related song is Baker Street, which is in London. And Boney M had a song called Belfast around the same time – which hoped for peace. And thankfully, peace came – 20 years later. It’s never gonna be perfect, and who knows what the future might hold, but I’m so pleased that the violence has largely ended. I’ve always been a little puzzled by the lyrics to “Belfast”, but I was so glad to hear any song that promoted peace.

What about spiritual songs about travel destinations? I can only think of songs about Jerusalem. These generally use Jerusalem as a metaphor for God’s presence or they migh focus on a future Jerusalem where Jesus will reign. Funnily enough, one is about England – hoping for “Jerusalem” (God’s presence) there and for people to implement His kingdom there. And though many Irish are resentful towards the English, in all sorts of ways, I am thankful for that nation. It has contributed so much in terms of science and technology, music, and Christianity. God certainly blessed the nation. And perhaps nowadays, nations who are moving towards God rather than away from Him will be mightily blessed in the coming years. But most of them are in distant lands. But I pray for revival in Ireland, Britain, Europe – and of course – the whole world. And one way or another, the whole world will eventually be full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.

I asked Google Gemini for 10 nations where Christianity is growing rapidly. Here’s the answer:

• Nepal
• China
• United Arab Emirates
• Saudi Arabia
• Qatar
• Oman
• Mongolia
• Cambodia
• Benin

And there’s much decline in historic Christian nations – but most of it is in nominal “cultural” Christianity. I would hope that personal faith in Jesus will grow everywhere, even if people mistrust institutional Christianity. I sometimes wonder if people are finding their Christian teaching or feel a sense of community on the web more often these days than in local churches. I can see how many would be disturbed by this. But it might be part of God working His purpose out. I still think it’s nice to meet up with local believers for worship, but so much has changed – even in my lifetime. When the Jews went to Babylon, synogogues developed – something innovative. Perhaps some conservative folks saw that as a sinister development at the time. If the web had developed at the time of the New Testament, perhaps the means to evangelize and fellowship would have taken a very different shape.