I'm writing this from a US Airways flight, heading into Austin, Texas

This year, rather than flying in with the POWER guys from Southern California, I used frequent flyer miles to save some green, staying with friends in Austin Sunday night. 

Traveling as a single for a trip like this offers its own opportunities. From Ontario to Phoenix, I sat next to Ryan, a signalman for the BNSF Railway. And in case you think you're particularly smart (like I did, until Ryan set me straight), "BNSF" does not stand for "Burlington Northern and Santa Fe" -- it's an acronym for "Better Not Start a Family." 

Constant travel is a big part of his job: on the road many days at a time, up to 12 hour shifts and work in remote areas. For some of the "younger" guys (the 22 year olds as Ryan explains it), they'll get back to the hotel after sundown, and go out carousing.

But at 31, Ryan is one of the "older" men. He's in the middle of the age range on a crew working around Barstow, California in the Mojave Desert. The oldest on his crew topped out at 42. They install equipment that allows dispatchers to safely control trains remotely (often from hundreds of miles away).

Now, Ryan at 31 is not so old (at least not from where I sit). He still wears a ball cap with the bill spun around backwards. Burly without being big, he sports cleanly cropped facial hair and displays colorful tattoos running down both arms. From upstate New York in the Adirondacks, Ryan has settled 45 minutes south of Tucson, Arizona with his Eugene, Oregon wife and six year old son. They have, he says, moved to the opposite end of the spectrum.

When I told him what POWER is doing this week along the Texas and Mexico border, he explained that from where he lives, he sees first hand the impact of neighboring what is in so many ways a third world country to the south. 

Most Americans who visit Mexico don't visit the poverty stricken colonias. They stick to the groomed sand beaches of Cancun or Ixtapa. But for the next two weeks, 132 men of POWER (from all across America) will not be like most Americans. They'll move for a short while to the opposite end of the spectrum.

We'll be building Sunday school rooms, new homes and church pews in Acuna. Stopping in the colonias, providing warm hats, gloves and toys for the kids, visiting a local prison, praying with inmates.

Heading to Reynosa and Hidalgo, we'll be working on a high school, senior citizens dorm and a clinic. We'll deliver beans, rice and bibles -- and the puppet team will perform for the children at Refugio Orphanange.

We'll be privileged to fellowship with the students of Magdiel Bible School in Matamoros and participate in worship services at Alianza Cristiana with the people of Reynosa.

Want to be a part of it? You can! Just come back here every day over the next two weeks to read the blog postings and see the photos. And pray: that God is revealed in every project and every visit.

Also, do me a favor and pray for Ryan and his family as they plan to move from the desert up to the Flagstaff area later this year -- and for my friends Arturo and Susan and their four great kids here in Austin who have put me up for the night.

I'm excited to see what God has in store for us this week!