Pray please

After a somewhat surreal summer start-up - I've usually done at least one trip by now - the real excitement begins tomorrow. At 5:50 pm, 24 of us from First Methodist Houston are boarding a plane and leaving for a mission trip to Managua, Nicaragua. While we are there we'll be working in a place called La Chureca, a community that borders the Managua city dump. The missionaries that we partner with in Nicaragua minister to the community via a school, clinic and church. We will do VBS-type activities, put on concerts, help with minor home repairs and basically share the love of Christ in any way we can.

I've been mission tripping for 15 years, and there is no question that this is the highlight time of the year for me. I love that we take the Gospel beyond the church walls, and I love to watch the faith of teenagers lived out with passion and compassion.

This year, I passed out the names of all of the missionaries to the church staff and asked them to pray for us. As best I can remember, that's the first time I have done that. Oh, I've certainly solicited prayer before - for mission trips and just about everything else - but I don't recall ever typing up the list of participants and handing the list to a lot of people. That's a practice I should have begun years ago.

I'd love for the blog community (both of you) to join the staff, parents and others in prayer for this trip. Pray for safety, sensitivity and spirituality. Pray for nothing less than revival - in Nicaragua, and among the young First Methodist missionaries. Pray that the love, grace, forgiveness and power of Jesus Christ is on vivid display next week.

I'll be blogging from Nicaragua, so check this space next week.