'm engaged in time travel by the most predictable means possible. Today marks a creep forward on my biological ticker, as I plant my foot on the far side of mid-thirties. I am now twice the minimum voting age, and halfway to either my IQ or the number of virgins I will be forgoing should I remain faithfully non-Muslim.

Moving across the 3 remaining dimensions begins tomorrow, I travel to San Sebastian, in the Basque region of the NE corner of Spain. It's a mission trip via my church, and I waited until the very last to decide to go. I'll be with a group of 13 people, all of whom are younger than me by at least 1,2,3... by a lot of fingers. The group is the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and they're mostly college students who do athletic things at the college level. The trip is focused around fellowship with people who don't have much exposure to Christ or biblical teaching, and have had a pretty difficult relationship with organized religions during their history. We'll be doing sports camps with kids, some English language teaching, and mainly hanging out and showing a good witness.

I struggle a bit with trips like this, as I'm more comfortable doing work than I am in discussing my beliefs. Evangelical efforts, witnessing to people, proclaiming Christ as one's Savior with boldness - these are areas I've had a historic weakness in. The mission trips I gravitate towards require less spirit and more muscle; Build an orphanage - set up a library - build a computer lab. Your work is your witness - your statement of faith. When someone asks "why would they want to do that for me?" the answer is easy - "because we're to love others as we love ourselves and this is a way to express that love." The act plants a seed of curiosity, and that seed can bear fruit on occasion in the form of someone being led to Christ. More often than not it bears fruit in the people doing the work, because answering the call and doing the Lord's bidding has the unsurprising result of bringing you closer to your Maker. But the cost of those trips are easy for me - all I have to give up is time, money, and a pain-free back.

This trip might call for a bit more spiritual & emotional involvement; You're opening your heart, and talking about what the Lord means to you in your life. Witnessing. I'm so stubborn and resistant to others telling me "what to do" that I have dread fear of ever being "that guy" or worse, "that Christian" to someone else. Sin exists, and Christ died for ours. The Lord will judge. There are absolutes, and salvation is not a relative or subjective thing. These things I know and believe, and have no issue discussing when someone asks where I stand. But - the big BUT - people have to ask the question or be open to the discussion. To that end, I leave it up to the Lord to direct me when to open my yap and when to keep it shut.

Anyhow, I leave tomorrow and Lord willing get back around the 18th of May. As mentioned, we'll be doing sport camps for high school age kids. Basketball, softball, swimming, etc. This means I will be playing sports, and possibly teaching some english. So don't pray for me, pray for the kids who watch this aging nerd huffing down the court and missing his 8th consecutive lay-up.