other side

We've been in numerous missions trips in our lifetime. It's certainly shaped our worldview and has been a catalyst for our calling to Edinburgh. I've always gone though. Hosting is a different story.

We've had a few teams come through so we're getting pretty good at this, and we couldn't be more excited to have a team from Ohio over next week. It is a lot of work though. If anyone knows kate and myself, you'll know that I'm not the details guy, so this is a particular headache for me (the details, that is.). What makes it exciting is seeing people take time off work and money to give of themselves and serve and learn. I love being around teams. You should see Kate in this setting, she's a rock star.

If you've been on a missions trip, it often times involves some sort of prayer walk at a given point. We're not knocking them, there couldn't be anything more necessary, particularly for the laborors that will remain long after a short-term team leaves. To be honest though, they can be boring, and it's tough to walk into a context you're not very aware with or haven't poured much energy into and really pray over the area.

Our solution is going to be a "mystery prayer walk". Should be interesting at best, chaos at worst, but they won't forget it. Each group will be given a map and several locations. They'll hunt it down and each location will be presented with a different facet of our ministry and how they can really personalize it.

Anyways, it's been a learning experience seeing short-term missions from the other side of the aisle.