One of the most memorable and powerful worship experiences I have had in quite sometime happened in this small room with about forty-five students from Savannah, Georgia.  A friend of mine, who is a youth pastor, invited me to come and lead worship for his summer camp in Panama City Beach, Florida.  On the fourth and final night of the camp we sang through Misty Edwards’, “You Won’t Relent”.  My friend came up toward the end of the song to say a few words and close with a prayer.  As he prayed the students began to sing out the verse of the song:

“I set you as a seal upon my heart, as a seal upon my arm
For there is love that is as strong as death,
Jealousy demanding as the grave and many waters
Cannot quench this love”

At first it was just a few young girls singing, then it swelled into the entire group singing out with absolutely no leadership from the platform.  It was beautiful. The band continued to play as the students literally worshiped together in complete unity. My prayer as a worship leader is always that I will not add to or take away from what God is doing in a group of people. I simply want to enter into the work He has already started and participate in it.

Air travel isn’t what it used to be. Everybody knows it. It starts with the undressing in the metal detector line. Belt, shoes, jacket…Then there was the disappearance of meals. Last year I flew eight hours to Russia (on Delta) and it was miserable. The flight attendants were crabby and inconsiderate, and there was no meal served.

We flew Continental to El Salvador and I was pleasantly surprised by their service. Four out of four of our flights left on time and arrived early. In a season where nearly 80% of all flights are delayed, that’s a huge accomplishment. Not to mention there were meals, and very friendly flight attendants.

I’ll be posting more on our trip, including some pictures, later today.

Today was our last day of ministry in El Salvador. We´ve had a great trip. I got a little sick last night, but I´ve been feeling great today! Top ten things I have enjoyed about El Salvador (In no specific order):

1. The El Salvadorable children
2. 1st missions trip with my wife
3. Pollo Campero (a chicken restaraunt)
4. Swimming and bathing in the Chaletanango River
5. Eating lunch at the Pacific Ocean
6. Doing an impromptu crusade at a carnaval
7. Buying 28 ice cream cones for under $4.00
8. Passing out close to 8,000 copies of the Book of Hope to school children
9. Speaking to ministry worker´s about the importance of using young people in ministry
10. Relationships – Pastor Oscar, Julio, Little Ricky, and Isis    

Another great day! We spent a lot of time traveling to schools. The schools that we visited were on the outskirts of El Salvador. In fact, we were less than a mile from the border of Honduras. This is by far the most rural Book of Hope trip I have been on. The Book of Hope director said that they were having a hard time getting teams to come this far out. It´s great to be in a place that has never heard the gospel.

All of our school presentations went really well. Aaron, Mitch, and I got ice cream for the all of the kids in another park today. We were so high up in the mountains. It was beautiful, but a bit scary at times. I´m thankful that it wasn´t raining today.

Highlight of the day was a local carnival. We were on our way back from the schools when we passed a large carnival. We had some time, so we stopped and got a Coke, and observed for a few minutes. As we were leavign we all started talking about how we should have asked to speak on the main stage. Our driver turned the van around, and we talked to the owner, to see if he would give us a few minutes on the stage. As it turns out, his wife knew who we were from our distributions. She told him to give us some time, so we spent ten minutes doing an impromptu crusade!When we finished the entertainer who we had interrupted got on the mike and said, “That was not a planned part of our program, but when a word from the Lord comes, we have to acknowlege it and allow it. We are blessed that they came today.” Talk about favor!

Tonight we are hosting a showing of The Godman…The Godman is a film version of the Book of Hope that is use sometimes instead of crusades.   

We’re safe in San Salvador, about to head to the village. More to come…

UPDATE – As I said, we made it safely to El Salvador. We had great flights the whole way. We arrived in San Salvador around 11:30am on Friday and then ate a great lunch at Pollo Camparro. Pollo Camparro is a very popular chicken restaurant here in El Salvador. Then we took about a two hour bus ride to Chalatenango, the village where we will be ministering until Wednesday. Kristin and I slept horrible on Friday night, even though we were extremely tired. Our air was either freezing cold…or off. I´m a fan of cold sleeping, but only when I have a blanket. All we had was a tin sheet. 

Saturday we had a great day. The team practiced dramas and school presentations all day while a couple of us spoke at a ministry worker´s sonference. I ended the day with a talk on Mobilizing and Multiplying the Next Generation…Using young people in ministry is obviously something I believe in. It was a long, but productive day. I feel like so much fruit comes from pouring into ministry workers.  Also, we bought a blanket and had an amazing night´s sleep!

Sunday we got to sleep in a bit, worked on our presentations and then went to church. Kristin and I sang in the service, and my dad preached. I love going to church in foreign countries. There´s always such a sincerity and passion for God.

Today (Monday) was our first day in the schools. It went really well. My favorite part was our lunch break, though. We had a two-hour break that we spent in a local park. A ton of kids were playing there and we started playing with them. Then Aaron and I decided to buy all the kids ice cream from a local vendor…Twenty-six ice cream cones for $3.84!!! Then, our interpretor and driver took us to a local river wheer we swam (and bathed).

The food has been good…The pastor´s wife has been cooking for us, and we eat all of our meals at there house. She has cooked things that we like – hamburgers, chicken, pepper steak, pancakes, and cereal. I´m very thankful for that. The only draw back so far are our accommodations. They definitely leave something to be desired. I can deal with poor accommodations, but the worse part is…No hot water. In fact, no cold water either. Only freezing water.  Everyone is doing great though! Keep checking back. I won´t post any picture until we get back because it takes too long. Keep praying for us!