Cross-cultural Information

Culture Shock: A Survival Guide to Customs & Etiquette:  This is a very readable series, published by Marshall Cavendish, on many cultures. It's saved my neck many times! Literary Works: Follow the link below for literary masterpieces about travel.  I think you might find such works more helpful than a lot of practical non-fictional tools when you consider culture, language, relationships, and history of a place new to you. 50 Greatest Travel Books of All Time by Brave New Traveler

Tour Books

Destination Guides:  I recommend the publishers, Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Fodor's, & sometimes, Frommer's (sometimes a little too chatty & disjointed for me...but not always, each book deserves it's own review) Phrase Books:  I recommend going to a bookstore and looking for a phrase book which you think you can learn from; each one has it's own quirky form of presentation; you're bound to find one that works for you! Also, the following site has oodles of online, downloadable resources:  www.travlang.com Travel Advice:  Consider, Europe on a Shoestring by Lonely Planet, & First Time Europe by Rough Guides. The titles are deceiving! Both of these books have tons of helpful advice for novice, intermediate, & advanced travelers; excellent resources for everyone, including the young travelers with a tight budget & little or no experience traveling overseas. Another recently uncovered travel advice & resource book is Ask Arthur Frommer & Travel Better, Cheaper, Smarter. Wow! What a great little book! The master of travel gives all the tips you might be looking for concerning online & other resources for inexpensive accomodations (like B&Bs, convents, & home exchanges), airfare (like aggregators & consolidators), & cruises. He discusses his favorites things to do in a variety of countries and cities. He provides opinion & reflection on travelers' rights, luggage handling, exchange rates, travel agents, and a zillion other things; it's a very handy little encyclopedia for travelling on the cheap.

Bible & Prayer Tools

Revelation Commentary:  If you're coming with us on the 7 Cities Tour, you might want to study St. John's Revelation first. This commentary was written by the foremost scholar on The Revelation, Dr. Louis Brighton, Concordia Seminary faculty. It is published by Concordia Publishing House, and in my opinion, it is the finest, most up-to-date commentary on The Revelation available. Operation World:  A prayer guide for every nation & culture in the world.

Volunteer Touring

Volunteer touring is a relatively new form of travel, but the idea is very old. For going into foreign lands and cultures to do good works is as old as Christian missions themselves. The following books are filled with reviews of volunteer organizations, tour preparations, networking, and stories to wet your appetite and to help you get into the right frame of mind for making a difference in our world. Volunteer Vacations, by McMillon, Cutchins, & Geissinger.  This book contains detailed descriptions of 150 great NGOs & other organizations all around the world, incl. USA, doing development work of ever imaginable kind; from conservation to working with children to wildlife preservation to working with native populations. How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas, by Collins, DeZerega, & Heckscher. Here one finds profiles of 100 NGOs, etc., like above, but also an extensive introduction on volunteerism, i.e., what it is & is not, preparations to make, networks to get involved in, and lots of good stories. Volunteer: A Traveller's Guide to Making a Difference Around the World, publ. by Lonely Planet. Here's a little book (with very small font!) with short reviews of about 200 NGOs, etc., plus lots of great tips for making preparations & going; it is sensitive to the needs of faith-based outings (cool!); and one of the special things is the vignettes or short stories illustrating its tips for volunteering overseas.