Get Ready to Go

As you walked in you could see the flight board in the back announcing departures to very exotic places like; India, Turkey, Iraq, Peru, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. You could see signs above different doors that said "Departures for Jerusalem", "Departures for Judea", "Departures for Samaria", "Departures for the Ends of the Earth", and each person was given a credit card and a boarding pass, flight attendants greeted you at the doors.

But this time I was not at an airport as I usually am every week, this was Global Celebration at Miramonte Baptist Church in San Salvador, and their theme was "Yo Voy" "Get Ready to Go".
As the Wednesday pm service started, the 1200 seat auditorium was packet and people were sitting on the floor in the back, you could feel the electricity in the air, and you knew something big was happening. As the very upbeat music started we were singing about God and His glory among all nations. We all sang the song that the musicians wrote and was a great theme song for their Celebration that said,
"how shall they hear, unless we are ready to go and take the Gospel to our neighbors and to the nations".

Then the lights went out, and a Hollywood type spot light lit up a certain area of the back and the MC announced the entrance of the missionaries; for the next 20 minutes, not only the missionaries, but their missional champions and teams from the church made their way into the auditorium, as everyone cheered and applauded as they took their places on the platform.

It was impressive to see almost 300 people standing on the platform, teams representing not only the 28 missionaries and missional projects present, but even the missional teams representing the missionaries from the church not present at this years Global Celebration.

Dr. Jim O'Neil (past president of Crossword, and ABWE, and current director of Perspectives) was our invited speaker for the Celebration, he did an outstanding job speaking on the subject of presenting a gift (the nations) to Jesus, and many were moved and challenged. This was just the first night of the Global Celebration.