Real.

Sometimes saying things out loud makes them real.

Sometimes you really wish that wouldn't happen. Because when it's just an idea bouncing around in your head, it's just words. They sound funny strung together, and you know they should hurt,

but they don't.

Until you say it out loud.

Things like, "this relationship isn't working," or,

"I won't be back next semester," or,

"S.A.L.T. is cancelled."

I think I've told the story already here, but quick recap just in case:

S.A.L.T. stands for "Serving and Living Together"

It's a program run through Loma that brings together teens from the U.S. and Mexico for a week of ...you guessed it... serving and living together. I participated as a non-loma student the summer after I graduated high school, and I can honestly say that the lessons I learned, the connections I made, and the relationships that were started are the reasons that I am at Point Loma today.

This summer I was looking forward to going back as a college leader and [hopefully] sharing a little bit of that with a new group of teens.

Unfortunately, though, we were told tonight that due to a lot of factors outside of our control, this year's trip is cancelled.

Which I was okay with, at first. I have a lot of other opportunities to work in ministry with Mexico [a passion which, it should be noted, was ignited on SALT '09]. A one-week trip being called off is not the end of my life, or even my summer.

But then I said it out loud.

And the significance behind it started to sink in. It wasn't just a string of words bouncing around between my ears anymore. Sure, for me it's just one week. But it means so much more. For my senior friends, it was supposed to be their final hurrah, something they've been looking forward to and working toward for months now. That's hard to swallow.

Even deeper than that is the bigger picture. One of the reasons the trip was cancelled was the lack of teen participation. A big factor in that is Mexico's presence in the media [In case you haven't flipped on a tv or read the paper lately, it's not a very positive representation].

The tricky thing is that it's cyclical. Parents don't want to send their kids to a foreign country that is put forth in the media as dangerous. Okay, understandable. The best way to change those preconceptions and foster a better understanding of the reality of the situation is to create a safe space for people to experience it for themselves, with the hope that they will go back and share their story with others. In this way, the walls begin to break down. Unfortunately, when fear and misunderstanding prevent this from happening, not only do those walls stay up, but they get built higher. The very thing that could be a voice of hope and the first step toward change, becomes the victim of the situation.

S.A.L.T. has been that safe space to begin asking those hard questions and breaking down those barriers for me, and for a lot of other people. It's hard to think that now we may not be able to pass that on.