Farmington-bound

Immediately after the morning services this Sunday, I'm going to hop in my car and head east on I-70 in the direction of St. Louis, turning southward on the outskirts of the city to head down to Farmington, Missouri. What takes me there you ask? The First Baptist Church of Farmington is planning a mission trip to Guatemala in April of next year and they've asked me to come and speak on Sunday evening about the BGCM's partnership with the Guatemala Baptist Convention. I'll also be sharing some very practical tips with them about planning for their mission trip experience. The church has engaged in overseas missions trips previously, having taken their adult choir to Belarus and sending teams to that country as well. To the best of my knowledge, this will be their first missions trip to Latin America.

I had a 45-minute conference call with their pastor and missions leadership team the other morning and I'm thrilled to hear about the make-up of the group going. They will be working with the Primera Iglesia Bautista de Quetzaltenango on a variety of projects including VBS, evangelistic outreach, and leadership training. I'm excited to see another BGCM church become directly involved in our partnership with Guatemalan Baptists.

The trip to Farmington takes about 5 hours as we're on opposite corners of the state from each other, so I'm going to have to make good time to get there for their 6:00 evening service. I'd appreciate your prayers for my travels and the time together with the church helping them as they plan and prepare for the mission trip. I just received another email from the pastor of the host church in Guatemala this morning and they're super excited about this opportunity to partner with Farmington for a week of missions emphasis. It's a tremendous blessing to be a part of what God is doing through partnership missions with the BGCM.

Our church is also actively engaged in planning a second trip to Guatemala this coming February. Several of the folks who went with us last year are planning on going again. The Guatemalan people are such gracious hosts and the country is so beautiful that it draws you back again and again like a magnet. I've lost count of the number of trips I've made there now, but I think it's either 7 or 8. I'm slated to go three more times in the first 7 months of 2009. Thanks, too, for your prayers for each of these trips and the impact they will have on developing national leaders and reaching people for Christ.