Patricia Engler's weekly 360 in 180 blog videos will not only enable you to relive her adventures with her, but will also give a more personal take on her stories from who else but Patricia herself!

As a Christian student attending secular university, I had every reason to be nervous after reading the professor’s first email. Any student who rejected evolutionary human origins, the letter stated, should reconsider taking the class. What kind of warzone was I about to enter?

As a kid, I dreamed of adventure. I figured I’d become an explorer. Or a detective. Or better yet, a cowgirl who wrangled live dinosaurs. That would be cool. But I never dreamed that a single seminar on the topic of origins would become the rocket fuel to ultimately launch me on a wilder adventur...

“Lord. please guide my steps,” I prayed, ascending a university stairway, “because I have no idea what I’m doing.”

It’s not like I knew anyone on campus. But before beginning my mission (to backpack 360° around the world in 180 days) documenting how Christian students keep their faith in secular...

Living on the planet’s underside would apparently take some getting used to, but at least I’d have three weeks to adjust. In those three weeks, however, I’d be covering a lot of ground—over 1,700 km, to be exact. That’s how far I’d arranged to travel overland across Eastern Australia as part of m...

Okay, it’s time for a switch.

In my last articles about 360 in 180, my mission to backpack 360° around the world in 180 days documenting Christian students’ experiences at secular universities, I’ve consistently mentioned the importance of founding our thinking on God’s word. Without God’s word...

Like an exhausted marathon runner falling across the finish line, I reached for the door of the chaplaincy centre and pulled.
Ker-click.
Locked?! No way!
I’d already crossed the Pacific, traversed Australia, reached New Zealand, traveled an hour on foot, another hour by public transit and fin...

“Ma’am,” a voice called from somewhere overhead, “time to move. We’re starting mass.”
I rolled over to see an officer’s face floating above me. Mass at the airport? Religion must be more central to Filipino culture than I’d expected.

Emerging from my sleeping bag, I deflated the $4 neon pool ...

“What’s in this one?” I asked, lifting the lid of the tiny porcelain jar. The contents looked unlike anything I’d seen before—a wet mass of squishy pallor sitting in something yellow.
“It’s raw squid,” replied my Japanese friend.
Uh oh.
I hadn’t ordered this! But apparently, the mysterious le...

“Can I tell you a story about the challenges of being a Christian in Japan?” asked the white-shirted young man, a graduate from a local university.

“Absolutely,” I answered from across the table laden with all manner of sushi fillings, including meats both cooked and raw. A group of about 15 Ch...

Its tongues erupting like cannon blasts from their fanged fortresses, the seven-headed serpent dragon gaped at me through 14 lifeless eyes. My gaze shifted down the scaly necks to the table where incense burned alongside flowers and drink offerings set before the beast, which locals revere as the...

“You seem to have a big problem,” observed one of the pastors as I struggled to grasp the raw meat, “—with chopsticks!”

I smiled a sheepish smile. You’d think that chopstick brandishing would be easier by now, given my earlier run-in with raw squid in Japan. Maybe after another couple of weeks ...

I paid for two nights, ascended several flights of stairs, and came to room #312. The door, swinging inwards, just had space to clear the bed which occupied most of the floor. Windows filled the adjacent wall, beyond which I could see the outline of a multi-peaked temple etched against the dark s...

Why is that dude looking into our car?

From my vantage point in the front seat, I surveyed the dusty streets, congested traffic, roadside vendors—and a figure gazing steadily in our direction, a knitted hat pulled low to his eyebrows.

He’s coming towards us.

Remembering a story my mom once...

The situation I experienced in an Asian restricted access nation caught me totally off-guard. Initially, nothing seemed unusual about the living room where I sat writing; only the clatter of my keyboard sounded as I chronicled my ongoing mission to backpack 360° around the world documenting Chris...

Beyond the airplane Plexiglas, I watched the sandy sheet of scattered lights, miniature palms and whitewashed cubes below growing ever larger. Above the scene, a pale crescent moon hovered stark against the twilit sky.

Just like the crescent on the Islamic flag.

Suddenly, I felt the plane’s ...

It can’t be THAT hard, I reasoned, paddle in hand. I’d once managed to stand-up paddleboard (SUP) across a Canadian lagoon, so paddling around a man-made island on the Arabian Sea should be practically similar—right?

Ditching my shoes, I waded into the saltwater, stepped atop my noble craft, a...

This can’t be right, I thought, ascending the worn stairs, 17, 18, 19…how can there only be 19 apartments?!

Holding my breath like the trespasser I feared I may have just become, I retraced my steps downstairs.

Now what?

The airport taxi driver had seemed satisfied when, after reading my Tu...

I’ve never been in a grocery aisle like this in Canada, I mused, strolling along the Athenian meat market’s wet concrete floor. Beyond a stack of sheep heads, I could see tables piled high with a scaly riot of—um—fragrant sea-foods, dead and alive. As I looked closer, scanning the tangled tentacl...