Mark 6: 7-13

"Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two cloaks. He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them. So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them."

I first traveled alone in 1963. I was 14 years old and my mother put me on the Greyhound Express from Cleveland, Ohio to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I went to visit my Aunt Lola, Uncle Jim and my cousins, Pat and Jaime, who my brother and I had grown up with. Many years have passed and the only one left in that part of the family now is my cousin Pat. On that trip, I am sure that I had a suitcase, but I don't remember much about it. What I remember is the time with my family as well as the transformative and healing experiences.