I’m in the Nashville airport listening CNN on the TV and to the crooner across the hall twanging Friends In Low Places for the lunch crowd at Tootsies Bar. In a few hours I’ll be in Dallas hugging the bloggers headed to Guatemala with me for the first time.

Amanda Jones

I’ve read Amanda’s blog for more than two years. She was the first blogger I ever asked to go on a blogging trip. Way back then she said No. She had some lame excuse: Something about being pregnant or some such nonsense. Anyway, she finally said Yes. I feel like I “know” her the best of all the bloggers and, unfortunately for her, I think we’re a lot alike. Which simply means I’ll have someone to share meds and a justice complex with.

Lindsey Nobles

I started following Lindsey on Twitter more than a year ago because I wanted to learn more about corporate communications. Seriously. I’m that nerdy. Lindsey is the big wig heading up corporate communications for Thomas Nelson. I started reading thinking she’d talk about that work a little. No such luck. I’ve learned jack squat about corporate communications from her blog. But I’ve smiled a lot. My guess is there’ll be more of that this week.

Lisa-Jo Baker

Don’t tell her I said this, but Lisa-Jo intimidates me. She’s an expert on this travel and poverty stuff. She has a law degree, has traveled and lived all over the world, has worked for the United Nations in the arena of human rights and for Habitat for Humanity further developing the developing world. And she has a cool South African accent. She doesn’t seem to take herself as seriously as I do. I’m looking forward to her seasoned perspective on poverty and development – I’m most looking forward to her insights on Compassion’s ministry model and how it compares to the many “programs” she’s seen elsewhere.

Ann Voskamp

I love all the bloggers the same…blah, blah, blah. But Ann’s my favorite. I don’t know her in the real world but on the internet I know her as its only poet/prophet. She lives simply, cares deeply and writes beautifully. Her site is an oasis in a very blinky angsty internet. My wife even likes it. She doesn’t read blogs – she doesn’t get them at all. But when a friend asked her to read Ann’s, she clicked over and found a blog she wanted to come back to. Now I’m hooked too. I’m curious to see what this Compassion advocate from Canada is like in the real world: I mean, does she always talk like Thoreau? Does she float or walk like the rest of us? Or just float when no one’s looking? I’ll capture any floating on video, I promise.

Soon I’ll leave the sounds of Nashville behind and with these new friends I’ll fly to Guatemala City. I love my “job.”

Follow our journey here: CompassionBloggers.com/guatemala