i cant believe were past halfway!

we just got back from our midyear 'conference' with joe and allison priola, some staff from slo crusade and some dear friends of mine.. i put conference in quotes because typically midyear conferences have many stint teams involved, not just one.. we have had a fairly unique experience, however, in that our midyear vacation and conference happened separately, and our conference was just our team..


joe was my discipler, or spiritual mentor, for nearly two years before i came down here, and his wife allison began to disciple ali around the time i left.. they are both very close to ali and me, and it was so great to have so much time with them (and their ten month old son, kai).. joe has been one of the most influential men in my life, an outstanding example of true leadership and humble service.. i have been told, and have learned first hand being down here, that leadership can often feel like isolation.. its a position that is often misunderstood and underappreciated.. i have a wonderful and encouraging team, dont misunderstand me.. they are wonderful.. but there is something that is just missing, you know? my job is to pour into my team, and enable them to pour into each other and into salvadorean students.. and often, it feels like no one is pouring into me.. it has been great being forced in some ways to turn to the Lord in that, and not depend so heavily on people to pour into me.. but i have to admit that it has been a real battle to feel motivated and excited about my walk.. and a lot of that has been not having an older, wiser guy around who is pouring into me.. all to say, it was so SO good to have him here this past week, and get to reconnect and have fun and be challenged and encouraged in a way i havent been since ive been down here..

their primary reason for being here was to work with the team as a whole, to kinda give us a check up, encourage what we are doing well, and speak truth to the areas we are not doing well in.. we did several really thought provoking and challenging exercises and studies that helped give our team some much needed perspective, and recognize some really hard truths about ourselves.. for example, we realized in one exercise that most our team has a hard time being really performance-based in our ministry: perfectionism, fear of risk or failure, and satisfaction in results and not effort are all some forms that a performance-based ministry will take.. and, interestingly enough, these are all things that should not characterize a first-year, pioneering team like ours.. we need to be messy, and try new and crazy ideas, to find out what things work and what things dont.. we do not want to play this year conservatively, only doing what we are comfortable with.. and it is very likely that we will not see much fruit this year for our hard labor.. the reality is that it typically takes many years to see a real movement take shape: our job is not to create it this year, but to lay a foundation for a strong, thriving, Christ centered movement in el salvador! i think that is such an important perspective for our team to have.. we also talked a lot about faith: that faith is not about how much we have, but about who the object of our faith is.. trusting in our own strength as fallible humans will lead only to temporal pride and happiness in successes, disappointment in failure, and most importantly, it will not result in a movement.. but if God is the object of our faith, then He can use the smallest little glint of faith to do incredible things.. read mark 9.14-29 if you wanna see an incredible example of a mans small but passionate faith in Christs power..

so yeah, it was an incredible week with them.. we also had a lot of fun just enjoying the beach! we did some surfing at punta roca, hung out at the sweet beach house that we scored for free! (thanks to good old salvadorean hospitality) and had some good kayaking adventures.. check out the pictures at the gallery!

beautiful sunset! i cant seem to get over how gorgeous they are around here, especially when were lucky enough to watch the sun set over the water like this..

this is the backyard.. this is an inlet from the ocean that empties out during low tide and fills up during high tide.. to the left, you can see where it begins to stretch out into a series of little channels among a salt water forest.. so much fun kayaking! just above the red-roofed gazebo and to the right, you can see the volcano izalco, which the boys hiked together in december..