Today I am leaving for Monterrey, Mexico. People keep asking me if it’s a mission trip or a vacation. I like that they have to ask.

It’s mostly a vacation. I have a friend down there, and I live nearby, and I like tacos. But the more I think about why people keep asking me if it’s missional, the more I realize it is a part of who I am, and I can’t not bring it with me.

The last six times I have gone to Mexico it has been to serve the poor in some way as a part of a Christian Church or organization. Each time, the relative value of what I offered was pretty low compared to the value of the cultural exchange and emersion experience. Those experiences have helped form me as a person who loves other cultures. The good times I had helped encourage me towards more hard rewarding work in my life.

Now as I head in search of good times and cultural exchange, I go as a person who cares about the poor, and about Christian organizations. I can only hope that God will continue to find a way to use that attribute he has built into me, in Mexico as in Texas.