Vegas and Zion

I just got back from a really great week. One of my best friends is a youth pastor in Santa Barbara and I had the privilege of going with him and his youth group to Las Vegas where we helped with a feed the homeless ministry and then to Zion NP for some fun and spiritual growth in God's country. For feeding the homeless, we prepared donated food and set up an area where they could eat and listen to a message about God. The 105 degree heat did not seem to matter as we worked to get ready and presented the gospel message to the 100 or so people that showed up. We had about five people that made a decision that day and our group was also very touched by the experience. We went to a local YMCA afterwards to swim and cool off. That night we went to a viewpoint above the city to pray for all of the people that have gotten deceived by the wickedness there. We left for Zion the next day. It was Sunday morning and in lieu of church we listened to a book on tape called The Martyr's Song. It was a really powerful and emotional story. It very poignantly reminds believers what is really important in this life; that this is merely a precursor to something much more wonderful. Everyone on the trip seemed to be impacted by it and I would recommend reading it. When we got to Zion I helped guide half of our group down a nearby slot-canyon. The next day we took the other half down and then all of us went to the Narrows. It was such a blessing to spend time in such a beautiful place with such great friends. God's fingerprints are defiantly all over places like Zion. It was a long drive back to Santa Barbara and one of the vans had it's alternator fail. We were able to make it almost all the way back on battery power though. It is aways hard saying goodbye at the end of a trip like this one, but this was especially difficult since I won't see most of these wonderful friends for about a year. On my three hour drive to Bakersfield I had adequate time to think about that. I thought back to The Martyr's Song. It is comforting to realize that as believers we don't have to say "goodbye" we just have to say "see you later" with the comfort that we get to spend all eternity in each other's company. For now it is time to focus on reaching out to other people. Today I reorganize and pack up for my two months in Mexico which starts tomorrow.