Why I Keep Going

     Twenty-three years ago Jane and I went to Brazil on our first mission trip. It changed us forever, and we have never seen the world in the same way.
We stayed in a luxury hotel on the Copacabana Beach and worked in the favellas (slums). The contrast between the two worlds, side by side, was both eye opening and surreal.
    We returned to the States with an awakened desire to go to the nations, a desire that our Baptist heritage had sown deep inside us and our seminary days had intensified (Southwestern had sent more missionaries overseas than anyone).
   Since that trip we have continued to go to the nations, always sobered by the needs and overwhelmed by the power of the Gospel. We have lived and or ministered in Europe, Central America, South America, Africa and the Caribbean, and our grown kids have done the same.
   Now tomorrow (the 2nd) I go again - heading out early for the fourth time to the Dominican Republic. I'll serve as the chaplain on a medical team ministering in some very needy villages that are just a few miles away from the world class resorts.
   Why do I keep going? The Kingdom of God explodes with vibrancy outside the developed world, and that vitality washes out of me the lethargy of our blighted culture. And when I come home, I have a renewed hunger to see the Kingdom break out here with the same fervency and power.
  I would write more, but I've got to go pack...