Taylor here: One of my favorite things to do when I was home was to go on a solo mini sabbatical (3 days) every 4-6 months. Usually, I’d just pick up and go when my freelance business would allow it and leave my electronics at home and take my Bible, bikes and camping gear. Sometimes I’d camp, sometimes not, but the constant was that I would either head South or West into the country. I always seemed to connect very close with God when out on these outings, away from city life and all that bogs(ed) me down.

A friend recently sent me an article CNN published about life in West Texas, in particular the triangle formed by Marfa, Alpine and Marathon. Some of you know that I’ve spent a good bit of my life around Ozona, our old hunting lease (south of this area, out of the mountains) and North of this area, close to Carlsbad, on a friend’s ranch.

These times away and my mini sabbaticals were my recharge times. I know I will miss them sorely, but God has something better for me. Perhaps my new sabbaticals will be in the bush visiting a new tribe of which I cannot communicate with at all, but experiencing new things, and expanding my world-view of God and his creation.