Do you ever wonder how people got to different parts of the world? People have been working together to answer that question for many years. Some look for clues in how languages develop, or study DNA patterns in people from different places. Others examine plants that were carried from continent to continent.

Many explorers have tried to crack the mystery too. Usually these explorers use traditional methods and very little modern technology. Later in his life, Dr. Heyerdahl built another boat. This boat was made of papyrus. It matched boats ancient Egyptians used. Dr. Heyerdahl sailed the boat from Morocco to Barbados. In 1985, people in Hawaii built an old-fashioned boat of their own—a canoe with two hulls. The canoe, called Hokule’a, sailed from Hawaii to New Zealand. At least 20 other explorers made voyages like these. The journeys give people an idea of what migration might have been like. Even the successful voyages do not always prove exactly where people came from and traveled to. But they do prove this: For ancient people, the sea was not just a barrier. It was a highway.

As people moved, they carried their cultures with them. They spread their beliefs and ways of doing things. We know right where people started—in the Garden of Eden. God first told Adam and Eve the good news about Jesus there. Since then, people have moved all around the world. As they have, the gospel has spread—all the way from Eden to where you live now!