Mission Trip--part 2

Ok, I know i left ya hangin there for DAYS!!! I had every intention of putting part 2 up before the weekend but you know how it goes sometimes. Anyway, here you go...

Every evening we had showers right after working and then free time until supper. Then we would have an evening activity before CLUB (worship) and church-group time. So Mon we are in line for the showers and the AL get to go first (little perk there). As is expected the boys are all done before the girls so I am hanging out with a couple of the guys talking about football training and such. We are around the back of the building (we used the local HS athletic complex) where the football & track fields are. There are doors on the back of the building which open directly into the locker rooms. Suddenly the door opens and I see a few of the heads of my girls poking out. They are half dressed. They shriek when they see us and slam the door. Two seconds later it happens again. So I walk over there and they do it again! I yelled at them that if I see that door open again that will be the end of it. (I can be very menacing when I want to be) So we're waiting FOREVER and we have to send the rest of the groups back b/c our girls are taking SO long. Finally, we see them coming out...but it's not from the front door. You guessed it! They came out the back door. Little bitches. So that night we had to have a talk about the rules and safety and all that. Fun.

The next night we had a historic scavenger hunt in a nearby town (Pottsville). The girls had some clothing issues (short shorts) and were asked to change. One of them made a huge stink and threatened not to go. Then she would have had to stay there and clean the kitchen with one of the staff. Well, the girls talked her down and she got in the van. The Site Director needed to ride with us in our van and above-mentioned-girl made a HUGE and very disrespectful stink about it. So the whole time we are walking around this town, the kids are dragging their feet and whining about how much walking we are doing and how they are thristy and have blisters on their feet. Seriously, we walked MAYBE a mile. So we get back and its time for CLUB. Towards the end of this above-mentioned-girl (seeing a pattern here) starts crying and all I can hear is something about how she's ruining it for everyone. Yup.

This is my beef. They were all soooo caught up in their little dramas in their little worlds that they were totally missing the big picture and the whole point of the trip. It was to serve others. To see how real people in this world have to live. To make them realize how great their lives really are and how spoiled they all are. To give God the chance to open their hearts to others. But they missed that on the first two days.

Well, God can work miracles. In church-group time the AL and I gave the youth a chance to minister to each other. Then we came back and asked if they wanted to talk about it. Boy, did they ever! All of the crap that had been stiffled for the last 1-1/2 years came pouring out. They all shared how they felt about me and what they wanted the youth group to look like. We talked about trust and sharing and relationship building. They had their say and I had mine. The most amazing thing was that it was all done in a (mostly) calm and respectful manner. We came to an agreement and now we are on the way to building a great relationship. These kids finally opened up and let me in! And you know what? I did too.

I'm not naive` enough to think that life is all peaches and roses. There will come a time when I do/say something to piss them off and vise versa. But, now we have an open and honest starting place and we've talked about how to handle the situation when it does rear its ugly head. Life is good.