On the Road Again!

In about 3 hours, 13 youth and 4 adults from the Dallas area will hit the road for the 20th time on a Grace Presbytery sponsored mission trip. Nearly 250 different people have participated in these trips and been part of our "Cloud of Witnesses" since the summer of 1999. We carry the list of our "Cloud of Witnesses" everywhere we go because we understand they are a part of us and us a part of them. This year we are traveling back to Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pueblo, Colorado - a site that has hosted 3 previous Grace Presbytery mission trips (1 high-school and 2 college) - a special relationship between the Westminster folks and Grace Presbytery that started because of a simple e-mail in search of a church that would have us. God works in mysterious ways - He led us to Pastor Butch and the folks in Pueblo; He knew the special relationship that would form; He knew the work that needed to be done and just the folks to do it!

This is my 14th Grace Presbytery mission trip since the summer of 2000. One day in the halls of our church a youth, Cameron Allen, stops me and says "hey Wes, you should go on mission trip with us this summer...it's really cool...you'd love it...we'd love to have you!" Well, the rest is history! Next thing I know, it's the end of June, I'm in a rented white van with folks I've never met, headed out on the road towards Center, Colorado on a rainy morning. Of the folks on that first trip, many I now consider to be my nearest and dearest friends. Young Cameron is all grown up and a Presbyterian Minister, husband and father in Austin, Texas. Katie Beth now works at UT, Neil works in youth ministries in Athens, Texas, and Rrrrrick!, whose passion for youth ministry laid the foundation for these mission trips in 1999, has accepted his new call back into the church in Ankeny, Iowa. Our "Cloud of Witnesses" has become spread out over the years, but each and every one of them has a special place in my heart and always will. My hope and prayer is they are all out planting new seeds in their churches - seeds that can be planted because of the nurturing and love they received back in Grace Presbytery.

Bear with us - we are new to this "blog thing". Our intent is to post often - pictures too once we learn how!

I must sign off now and finish getting ready to get back on the road again! I shouldn't be late although no one is leaving without me since I do have the vans and the trailer ;-)

God is good!!