The Power of Mission Trips

I´m in that beautiful Internet cafe in Campur, Guatemala again. My connection speed is really slow, and I´m updating our Operation Central America blog, and I´m thinking. . . about the Power of Mission Trips.

I´ve been taking students all over the world for the past 15 years. It´s a humbling thing to think that God has given me the chance to open the eyes of hundreds of students to the incredibly diverse world that he has created.

One of those students is Tessie Nelson. Tessie traveled with us to Guatemala and El Salvador after her junior year of high school. She loved it. God was able to use her love of the Spanish language to impact the lives of many Central Americans. Because of this experience, she decided to travel with us again after her senior year of high school. Then Tessie went to college.

Tessie is entering her senior year at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. She is majoring in Spanish and planning on teaching Spanish to high school students when she graduates. She has spent the past 4 months at a language school in Guatemala. She´s with us this year as one of our team translators. Tessie will be doing her student teaching at a school for missionary kids, teaching them Spanish.

I love seeing students´ lives transformed through trips like this.

Last week, a former student of mine moved from Illinois to Minnesota. He´s met the girl of his dreams and plans on marrying her. She is from the Twin Cities. The two of them will be going to Peru as career missionaries early next year. Guess what got Dave interested in missions? It was a short term trip while in high school.

Please join me in praying for the students on this year´s Operation Central America team. Maybe they´ll be the next ones that God calls.