The Mission Trip

During the wee hours of the morning yesterday, Brian packed his bags into the van for the short ride to church before heading out on a long ride for a mission trip. This is Brian at just after 5:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning. He looks a little sleepy. This is also an example of my photography skills at just after 5:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning. The dark shadow on the right side of the photo would be the camera strap....or maybe it was one of the bags under my eyes. Yawn. Bye bye sweetie pie.

Three chaperones and it looks like 11 teenagers (Eric took the picture so I'm not sure if some weren't there yet) piled into 3 vans to journey to St. Louis, MO for a week of volunteering, working, sharing, and learning about the every day struggles that people can face in an urban setting. The kids range in age from going into 10th grade to soon to be seniors. Umm...it appears the girls out number the boys by quite a bit.

The vans were packed up and off they went. Cell phones are discouraged, so contact will be limited. Last year Brian went on a mission trip to an Indian reservation with his confirmation class. Eric was a chaperone for that one, so I wasn't very concerned. This time around, I'm feeling a little discombobulated with the idea of him being so far away without one of us with him. Our main contact will be daily emails from the church that are written after a daily phone call from the trip chaperone. We got our first one today.

This was the email...short and sweet.

Jennifer called to let us know that they arrived safely yesterday. The trip, thankfully, was uneventful. They had just finished devotions when she called and everyone was heading off to their sites. Some were going to a nursing home, others to a transitional home for women and children and the last group was going to be moving furniture. They will be going to see the St. Louis Arch this evening. Jen asks for prayers, for open minds and that the students will expand their normal circle of comfort. She asks for prayers for safety, especially this evening. Tonight is the All-Star baseball game in St. Louis, so the downtown area will be unusually busy and congested. So far they are having beautiful weather.

My reply was...

Thank you for the update! I’ll admit that having my son so far from home is expanding my parental circle of comfort! :-) It’s good to hear that things are going well.

But what I wanted to say was how was the drive down there? What are you eating? Is the sleeping pad working well enough? Is it too hot? Crowded? What are you working on? Who is in your group? Did you bring enough underwear? Are you getting enough rest? Drinking enough water? Do you miss your momma?

I guess that's why they don't encourage them to phone home. I know that he's fine. I know that I can count on him to be level headed. I know that the chaperones are good. I also know that I am missing my boy. It could be a long week.