#VanChurch: Spiritual Lessons from Life on the Road

by Anna Mitchell Hall, Jim Hall

What is it like to live out of a tiny cargo van while traveling across the USA? Wonderful, challenging, delightful, annoying, messy, breathtaking, and so much more.

#VanChurch is the true story of one couple's adventures camping across the country in a tiny van. In this wry, thoughtful travel memoir, Anna and Jim Hall chronicle the adventures and challenges of living for weeks and months out of a 40 square foot van. Facing down middle age and needing a new challenge, the couple finds delight, challenge, disorientation, and transformation along the way. With equal helpings of humor and reflections, the authors vividly portray the practicalities of #vanlife along with the spiritual lessons found on the journey. In locations from their native Georgia to the back roads of Iowa, to the mountain West, and back again, the Halls experience the struggles, the silliness, and the sublime of the great American road trip. The nomad life isn't as picturesque as portrayed on social media, yet in even the most gritty of road moments, there are gifts to be found.

#VanChurch is a spiritually rich and highly personal tribute to the gifts of travel - a love letter to getting outside one's comfort zone, and ultimately, to finding home wherever you are.

194 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 30, 2022

About the author

Anna Mitchell Hall is an ordained Baptist minister who has coordinated programs and conducted research in churches, nonprofits, and universities. In her work as Director of Research and Development for Convergence, she draws on the latest research from across the fields of religious practice, organizational development, and adult learning to inform product development and implementation that supports the needs of pastors and churches. She holds a Master of Divinity from Candler School of Theology, Emory University, a Master of Public Administration from Valdosta State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia, where her research focused on congregations experiencing a change in pastors. Find Anna's cozy mystery fiction at https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/s... - Find Anna at www.annamitchellhall.com, facebook.com/changereadychristians, twitter.com/annamhall, and linkedin.com/in/annamitchellhall.

Reviews

[Jennifer Hornbuckle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really spoke to me where I am in life right now. Anna and Jim share their experiences traveling the U.S., in a minivan, with their dogs in tow. The richness of diversity and the (mostly) quiet majesty of creation are two themes that spoke out to me. I was drawn to thinking beyond my mindset, exploring new ideas, thinking deeply about environmental and economic issues and where they meet up, as well as my desire to explore more outdoor spaces, as well as indoor. The sacred is all around us, and within. Let's keep our eyes and hearts tuned in to what matters most in life.