Patricia Duthler

I was reared and grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My parents sent me to Christian schools K-12, followed by Calvin University. After my freshman year, I traveled to Mexico on Summer Training Session through Reformed Bible College. It was the perfect antidote to lifelong homesickness—I loved the warm, outgoing people and discovered that my classroom Spanish could be used as a bridge to another culture. I took more language study in Spain, where I picked up a Castilian accent.
Thus was unleashed my lifelong passion for international travel, which guided my careers and avocations. With a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education/Spanish, I accepted a job as literacy worker in Nicaragua with World Renew (formerly known as CRWRC). Eighteen months later, I took an assignment in Costa Rica as coordinator of a pilot project in adult basic education in Guatemala, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, and Colombia.
After spending ten years in the nonprofit world, I trained in computer systems analysis. My clients included MCI Telecommunications, the Governments of Belize and Ecuador, the International Monetary Fund, and USAID. A knowledge of French would have taken me to Mali and other francophone countries in Africa. Then came my tenure as car dealer with my father at our Ford and Honda dealerships. What an opportunity to serve the Grand Rapids community! During this time, I traveled to Europe and Asia, while also learning French at Aquinas College and in Paris with intensive language practice. After not finding my dream job with an international nonprofit in Washington, D.C., I became self-employed as a commercial real estate investor. While working, I take escorted tours of Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Oceania. I’ve visited every continent except Antarctica. . . too few people and too much cold! I used to say that traveling was a privilege but have revised it to, “Traveling for pleasure is a privilege”. So many people are forced to relocate because of war, famine, natural disasters, displacement. I travel to learn, to understand, and sometimes, to serve. Partners Worldwide is a Christian organization that engages businesspeople in entrepreneurship and economic development to help the poor move out of poverty. I look forward to working overseas as a voluntary business affiliate with Partners.
Books, movies, classes, and conversations are no substitute for the in-person experience of international travel. I rediscover my humanity while gone; the best and the worst of other countries; and the sheer joy of meeting ‘neighbors’ made in the image of God. I inherited my wanderlust from my mother, who told me, “Honey, travel while you can”. Thanks for the blessing, Mom. That is my desire and prayer.