So when I had a chance to ask Duncan Phillips, the longtime Newsboys drummer, his take on the whole experience, he was more than ready to share his perspective. His voice showed his eagerness to tell good stories on God.
"When Jesus gave us the Great Commission to go into the world and preach the Gospel, he meant also to leave your comfort zone. If you travel at all, you quickly understand that where we live, the US, is the most comfortable country that exists on the earth today. But we've been going to a lot of places where people don't have what we have. They might spend their whole day finding fresh water or something to eat, the things that we take for granted."
"We can complain about not having this or that, but when you go overseas or away on a mission trip and you see how most of the world's population lives, you come back a changed person. So we're trying to do what we can as the Newsboys, to bring some attention to the situation."
But Duncan isn't talking only about publicity; the Newsboys took the Great Commission to the next level in Mexico. "In Mexico" he continues, "we got to build these houses for people who had been displaced by El Nino, people who were basically refuges in their own country, living in whatever they could pull together from found pieces of corrugated iron or plywood. We support a ministry down there, but we love to go down and be a part of it ourselves, to be on the grounds, swinging hammers and seeing the faces of people who will have homes tonight for the first time, homes that won't blow away or collapse in the wind next week. It can change your life." Duncan's excitement is contagious as he moves on to tell me about their recent trip to Morocco, covered in Part Two.
