Awesome. Unpredictable. Full of surprises! Peace. That pretty much sums up my day today. There is a big difference between looking at a brochure of the Grand Canyon and actually being there. Living it. Seeing it. Smelling it. Standing in amazement at what God has carved out with His hands. We rely so much on digital technology these days, but nothing can capture what God is really doing around us, just like no camera lens can actually capture God's panaromic spectrum of His kingdom purposes.

Today we had two major decisions to make that would have a major effect on our trip. #1. Where are we going to stay and #2. What are we doing for our Adventure Day. Now, you may be wondering why where we stay and what we do for our fun day are so important. Well, let me say that these two decisions are not our two main priorities of our trip, but both have the most potential of either complementing our main goals, our being our two greatest footholds for the enemy to attack our teams and our ministry. Our two main goals are always to advance the Kingdom by sharing the gospel with as many people as possible, and two equip, encourage, and serve the local ministries that will be here long after we are gone. The incredible fruit we have seen within our own students' lives over the past several years we have been doing this trip comes as a result of being Kingdom-minded and not Liberty minded. 

So, back to my original question I asked myself on behalf of your mind. Why are these two things so important? While there is something to be said for physical suffering and the importance of that in the life of the early church and even today, we want our teams to be safe and rested. We believe if we rest well, we serve well. We don't want 5 star accommodations, but we do want a place where kids feel secure, a place that can be their "home" and refuge for the week. We also want a place where kids have a place to worship and meet with God. I believe the Bible teaches us that worship is what fuels missions. John Piper says, "Mssions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man." We have seen this over and over again on these trips. The years that we see teams that are obsessed with giving God the glory due His name in their lives and in our worship times, the more fruit we see on the mission field. Our accommodations needs to give us a place to both rest physically and find true rest in the presence of God. If kids are tired, they get cranky. If they are about a "good experience" (man-focused), then our worship will be hindered, and so will our ministry. 

Our adventure day comes at the end of the trip each year. Regardless of whatever amazing things God did the week before, if we have a bad adventure day experience, then it is a total trip buzz kill. The focus becomes about that "drama" of that day and not on what God did that week. Exactly what the enemy wants! He is against God worship andn for man worship. That being said, we want to give kids a really cool, unique, fun, relaxing experience, but not too self-centered or worldly focused that they lose sight of what God has done in them as they have been about His name and not their own all week. 

Today, I can honestly say that Scott and I feel very confident that we have found the answer to these two big looming questions thanks to the grace of God! We put a deposit down today where we will be staying. I will be telling you more about this place in the weeks and months to come, but I will tell you this. We will feel and be safe and secure, we have great options for night worship, team times, and small group times, and the people there are VERY accommodating and happy to have us. We also have narrowed down our adventure day to two options and I think kids are going to LOVE either one! They are both going to be home runs providing a great balance of culture, safety, fun, and relaxing down time for our leaders and students. 

The details of these places will be revealed in the upcoming months. I love giving kids small bits of information along the way to keep their hearts and their heads thinking, praying, and preparing for El Salvador. We ended today interviewing one of our main contacts at Campus Crusade about the people here and he told me that he is so thankful that God has called us to his people. This place, in only two days, has gone from being a place on a brochure, to a place that is already apart of my heart. I found myself looking at the people today in the streets and the squares and villages while at the same time imaging different Liberty students, dressed in their drama gear, sharing the love of Christ with them. I couldn't help but smile! I love these kids and I'm so blessed and thankful God allows me to get to be a part of their lives. 

I can't wait to see what He does in them while serving in this beautiful country!

Chris

It is good to be on the ground. Tonight I got to meet up with Scott Boss, the President of Real Impact Missions, and our Campus Crusade contact Selegna. Scott and I have known each other since 2006, and he has been the one that has programmed pretty much every spring break trip since 1996. He also speaks at our parent meeting during training weekend each year for those that have been on the trip before. It was good to see him, and it was a nice surprise to see Selegna too! I haven't seen her since 2007, where she helped us lead our Panama mission trip, so it was good to see her, catch up and trade family pictures and such. Tonight was more about them de-briefing me on everything that has happend up until point in regards to meetings about potential ministry sites, lodging options, adventure day options, and service day opportunities. Even though this is my 7th trip to lead with RIM, I am reminded every year how God-sized a trip like this really is. Planning for my family of four to go to Sea World for a few days seems like a lot until you begin to think about all that goes into lodging, meals, transportation, and ministry programming for 5 teams for 5 days. If each team does a minimum of four ministry sites per day, then that is 20 sites a day and 100 places to share the gospel through drama and/or do some type of community service project. Craziness. However, it is only crazy in human eyes. Then I am reminded about God's speech to Job about how big He is, or the passage in Isaiah 55 that talks about God's ways being higher than our ways, or even fathoming how He holds everything together, every second, of everyday. 

Tomorrow is really an important day where we hope to be able to hear some discerning words from the Lord regarding some of those major decisions. It is interesting to me that even though I have now been to Trinidad, Jamaica, Honduras, and Guatemala, it is amazing to me the uniqueness of each country's socioeconomic levels, culture values, and religious backgrounds. I do not know much about El Salvador from experience yet (I can tell you alot from google), I have been blessed to have been around some sweet, Godly people tonight that are excited about hosting our teams this March. My ride had a flat tire so I was at the airport for a while tonight by myself and I felt very comfortable being there. However, I couldn't help but laugh to myself thinking about how crazy it is when 150 gringos are rolling through a Central American airport. They always look at us like we just stepped off a UFO.

I'm excited about meeting the Crusade team tomorrow and checking out our two potential lodging and adventure day spots. Thank you for your prayers! I will have much to write about tomorrow night I'm sure! I'm also going to be taking alot of video and pictures that I can put up for our students and parents to see as well. 

Chris 

Today is the day! I have been looking forward to this trip since we made the decision last spring to go to El Salvador. Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish..." I believe that all of us need the inspiration of God's Word every morning to give us the "vision" to see what God wants and has for us each day. When it comes to this trip and other mission trips, I know that unless God gives us a vision, we seem to work in vain. Psalm 127:1 tells us that we can build nothing of significance and eternal value without Him. My hope and prayer over the next few days is to hear from the Holy Spirit and discover what vision He has for us this coming spring break, so that we can be a part of building up His Kingdom!

I'm going to go play with my son another hour or so, then my beautiful wife is taking me to the airport! Please join with me in prayer, asking God to make this trip fruitful. 

Chris