Imagine the scene as three packed out coach buses led by a police escort roll into a Central American mountain town of Jalapa, Guatemala. It was obvious by the commotion leading to the Hotel Puente Viejo that something was set to happen as God’s people gathered to IMPACT the city of Jalapa for Christ this week.

Our team arrived safely earlier in the day in Guatemala City with all of our luggage and a couple of smooth flights behind us from Indianapolis.  After a long bus ride (4+ hours) on a windy mountain road we arrived safely in Jalapa as well. The logistics have come together amazingly well, as one could hardly imagine what it’s like for 155 people to find all of their luggage and check into a foreign hotel at the same time after having traveled all day and not slept very much the night before. The hotel staff is fabulous and we’re a little spoiled because our accommodations resemble a tropical oasis. We ate a late dinner 8:45 PM local time/10:45 PM EDST which was our second impressive taste of Guatemalan cuisine (the first being a fast food Polllo Campanero stop on the way from the airport).

Everyone is healthy, although many are weary, and we’re excited for a solid night of sleep and our first day of VBS. We’ll be canvassing two neighborhoods in the morning and then jumping right in to our planned first day of activities in the afternoon. There’s quite a lot of excitement and anticipation in the air among the whole group of 155 of us. Also joining the team are 15 people from the Disciple Maker’s  partner church in Honduras that have joined in as a mission team of their own to help with translation and other general leadership, bringing the total number of workers here in the city for IMPACT ’11 to 170 people. We’re excited as the Lord leads us in the days of ministry that are ahead.