Quien Sabe

As I am gearing up this final week before I go to Mexico with my youth group on our mission trip, it of course brings me back to all of my memories of mission trips of the past. When I think about those that I had gone on when I was in highschool, I realized they are my absolute favoritist memories of my life so far. They were filled with amazing amounts of fun, and just bonding with friends, late night shenanigans, a couple of embarrassing behaviors, and most importantly of course was seeing what God did every single time we were there. I still remember the, for lack of a better word, miracles that we saw happen when supplies that were gone simply appeared, when we forgot newspaper (and for paper mache it is a must) and no one in Mexico gets a newspaper, but lo and behold a neighbor had a bag full of them. And the stories go on and on. There was of course drama - relationship and otherwise, but with a group as big as ours was, that was inevitable. I remember being one of the youth who wished the adults would just loosen up and not worry so much...little did I know I would become one of "those" The last two years I have returned from our mission trips, I believe I have sent an email to Chris Thielen saying thank you, and I am sorry for everything I ever did on those trips!

Because I loved them so much and saw God do so much, it makes me wonder and hope that my kids are now getting the chance for the same good memories. We are such a small group - this year we have only 6 kids, and 5 adults going (quite a ratio!). This works both for and against us, for us because there is basically no drama and certainly no pairing off (although those do work out occasionally ;) but it is hard because when we have one kid who doesn't feel like doing anything or doesn't want to be there anymore, that is a rather large percentage of our group! Much less if a couple of them decide to strike. Our kids are wonderful, don't get me wrong, I love them as if they were my own teens, but teens are teens and sometimes they are grumpy - heck us adults are grumpy sometimes too. Hard to believe, but it's true. So in all the worrying about timing, motivating, organizing, supporting, etc. I sometimes forget to make sure the kids are just having a great time serving, and are learning something about God and about themselves. Not that I really know how to make those a focus more so than we already try. As a group we play a mean game of Apples to Apples, ImagineIf, and Bible Scatagories, and we of course always have a time of Bible Study and reflection, but I guess what I am trying to get at is...am I doing enough to make these trips memories that will last for a lifetime? Will they be able to look back and just have their hearts fill with joy when they remember them as I do now looking back on mine? Because I do love these kids, I don't want to fail them in this.

What's that you say? Trust God? Okay, I think I will. :)