When Belz is away from her family she tries to find similarities that bring her closer to home. They are what make traveling enjoyable. She calls these similarities “bowls of cornflakes” remembering a time when she interviewed rebel leader John Garang over two bowls of cornflakes

The plane’s wheels bounced on the tarmac in Sudan and slowly rolled to a stop with Mindy Belz jostling in her seat. It was 1999, her first time in that desert country. She could not believe she was here, her whole body was telling her she should not be.

As Belz stepped of the plane she looked around at the sand covered airport, with bushes spread throughout. Young Sudanese children popped their heads out from  behind the bushes where they had hidden as the plane landed. She looked at them and felt that instead of traveling across the world she had traveled 800 years into the past.

Wife, mother and editor of World Magazine, Mindy Belz loves to travel. She is the international journalist for World and has traveled to places like, Sudan, Turkey, Iraq, and Nigeria. She goes where the stories are, but must also find time to be with her family. It is a hard balance that she has spent years perfecting.

For Belz, the hardest part about traveling is being away from her family. She sees these young Sudanese children and cannot help but think of her own loved ones in Ashville, North Carolina. Belz met her husband Nat in Washington, DC, 1981. She has four children, Emily, Drew, Naomi and Sara. The three oldest have left the house, but Sara is still in high school and living at home.

When Sara was four she once drove with her mother to the airport. Nat was driving as he often did when his wife traveled. Mom sat in the back stroking her daughter’s hair. Belz would be gone for three weeks and hated not being able to see your children or her husband the entire time.

They arrived at the airport, unloading what little luggage Belz would take with her. She travels light as many of her destinations don’t measure up to a tourist’s hotel room.

Belz hugged her husband goodbye and bent down to rap her arms around Sara. “By mom, I’ll see you tomorrow,” said the four year old, not understanding what three weeks meant.

When Belz is away from her family she tries to find similarities that bring her closer to home. They are what make traveling enjoyable. She calls these similarities “bowls of cornflakes” remembering a time when she interviewed rebel leader John Garang over two bowls of cornflakes.  This man was a real person, and they both had common ground to stand on.

Belz must also find common ground with her family as she tries to balance travel with family events. She is a big believer in family dinners. They are a time for children and parents to share their stories and build their relationships.

Belz took her family traveling with her on many occasions and found it helped to build common ground with them. She believed that it was easier to balance work and family if her family was interested in her work.

“I’m impressed by her ability to remember, sympathize with, and relate meaningfully to people all over the world, while also loving people closest to home,” said Belz’s son Drew.  Drew Belz traveled to Iraq, Israel and Egypt with his mom.

In October, 2009 Drew Belz was 20. He boarded a plane for Kurdistan, Iraq with his mom, preparing for a week of adventure it in the heat. He watched her schedule trips, plan interviews and hand in articles for days and he was already exhausted by the week’s end. His trip was cut short after the first week, as he needed to go home for school.

As he was getting ready to leave Mindy came down with the flu. She decided to keep working on her stories and stick to her schedule of two more weeks in Syria.  Standing on the Erbil Airport tarmac they hugged goodbye and he left her in the Iraq heat. He soon understood his mother’s determination for journalism and the love she had for her job.

Belz is also interested in her family’s activities. She would often get off the plane from working overseas and drive straight to a baseball game, or another family event. Someone always needed something Belz said. She is not sure how they got through it, but somehow they did.

Despite it all, Belz loves to travel. The moment she steps on the plan she anticipates the journey with excitement. She tells the stories no one else will tell, about the no-name people no one knows. And in the end she knows that it matters.

“I go were the stories are,” said Belz. While she is there she focuses on her story, and when she comes home she focuses on her family.

Anne Reiner lives in Beaver Falls, PA and is a rising senior at Geneva College.  She is a member of an OPC congregation in Williamsport, PA.  She works as a freelance journalist, writing for World Magazine, World on Campus, and other publications.