A brief introduction. We are Don and Nancy Hamilton. We live in Red Lodge, Montana, and though we are both retired, remain active. One of our favorite retirement activities is travel. We believe that Rick Steves is correct when he says that travel is educational, fun, political, and faith fulfilling. We continue to find excitement in sharing in other cultures, political, and religious perspectives. Thus, we will continue to share from our experiences of travel.
I, Don, am a retired United Methodist minister. Officially retired, that is. Since retirement I have served for more than year as a member of the pastoral staff of The American Church in Paris, in 2 six month terms. We are getting ready to return for another 6 months, beginning on July 1, 2009.
Nancy is a retired public school teacher. She spent most of her teaching years working with kindergarten age children. Now, she pursues her genealogy hobby and shares in the many travel experiences, including, of course the opportunity to live in Paris for half a year at a time.
We last returned from Paris in early September 2008. Since then we have traveled to Bhutan and India, to Egypt, and to Mexico. In the U.S., we spent time in March in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Each of these journeys offered amazing opportunities to experience and learn a lot that was new to us. Take religion, for example: Bhutan is almost 100 per cent Buddhist. India's majority religion is Hindu, with a significant Muslim minority. Egypt is largely Muslim, though there is a small but committed Christian minority expressed through the Coptic Church of Egypt. Mexico is largely Roman Catholic Christian, with various Protestant churches as well. For example, The United Methodists have a considerable number of churches in Mexico, with a bishop and Annual Conference.
During the past several months we have enjoyed spending time at our Red Lodge home, being involved with our daughters, Cristi & Karen, and their husbands, Jeff & Greg. We have delighted in the opportunities to spend time with our grandchildren, Chris, Maddie, Trevor, Alex, & Synnove. (Chris & Maddie are Karen and Greg's kids; Trevor, Alex, and Synnove are Cristi and Jeff's).
In the past we have tried to send out emails to a group of family and friends. We decided that this year - as we are getting ready to go back to Paris - that we would create this blog. We believe that we will find it somewhat easier to record some up to date information about our experiences plus add pictures to our blog site.
