48 Hours

In 48 hours I'll be with 58 other wonderful people at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport waiting to board our plane for Houston, and then Guatemala City. I can't wait.

There is something so special about taking groups of students on foreign mission trips. The way that God works in their hearts. The way that students see the world around them in a different light. The way that God continually shows that He is faithful. The way that God allows just enough tests to keep our hand firmly clenched in His, and just enough joy to keep us coming back again and again.

Over the next 48 hours I'll be packing my personal items, spending time with my family, going to a few graduation open houses, packing with our entire Operation Central America team, participating in a team send-off service, and going to church on Sunday morning where we will have a very special ten:fifteen class that is devoted to mission trips. We'll attend church together as a team at 11:30, and then we'll board a bus. In all of that preparation it could be easy to leave God out of this thing -- to be so busy getting ready to do stuff for God, that we forget that He wants to do it with us. Please pray that we'll be ready to see God work.

In my last post I put information about our official Operation Central America blog. You can access it at http://operationcentralamerica.blogspot.com. One of our incredible students also has a blog that she has been working on for the trip for a few months. You can find her's at http://operationca.blogspot.com.

I'll close with my favorite verse in the Bible when it comes to mission trips. It's two verses that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, and is always the prayer of my heart before these trips:

"I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith."
Romans 1:11-12