it’s amazing that at any given point in my childhood, i felt incredibly mature.  like i knew it all and had an ability to grasp any concept, no matter how challenging.  sometimes i look back on specific memories i have, mentally calculate how old i would have been, and then marvel:  i was in third grade, for crying out loud – i couldn’t even do long division! (full disclosure:  i’m not actually sure i can do long division now. but that’s a different story for a different time)

first grade:  our class did a book writing exercise where we had to come up with a book proposal and a draft and then have a meeting with an “editor” to get the book approved.  i truly believed that this was real and thought it was the coolest thing ever.

in said book, i used the word “suspicious” in the title.

third grade:  i won first place in the Young Author’s contest for an elaborate fairy tale i wrote.  the book was 30 pages (albeit in 3rd grade handwriting) long!

i began reading R.L. Stine books.  no, not the Goosebumps, those were too easy.  I’m talking the full-blown, “super scary” Fear Streets.  as soon as mom got wind of that, they were promptly taken away, but still.

a childhood friend and i spent hours up in his playroom creating commercials, writing elaborate novels, and acting out plays like we were hotshot moviestars.

fifth grade:  i was in some sort of creative program where we were pulled out for special classes..i don’t know, every couple of days, maybe.  that year our theme was architecture and boy, if i didn’t think i knew everything there was to know on the subject by the end of that year.

sixth grade:  we had a book reading contest in school; a simple game where you tracked all the books you read in a schoolyear.  included in my list, was a book with 550 flippin pages!  what?!

my two best friends and i began “talking” during class by using sign language.  not the legit kind, of course, but the kind where you spell out each letter of each word.  time consuming but effective.

eighth grade:  my first mission trip. wow, if this doesn’t bring back memories.  our group traveled down to mcallen, texas – right at the texas-mexico border.  we met a bunch of other kids; slept in a small house nearby whose yard was surrounded by fighting roosters, chained to posts in the yard and who became quite raucous at 5 or 6 in the morning; constructed a fence down one whole side of the church property, learned worship songs in spanish, played with neigborhood kids during bible school and ate amazing food in the church’s little fellowship hall.

there were many more mission trips after that year, but the first one always sticks in my mind.  and now, i have to start shaking off the cobwebs, because i’ve found now that i actually am “mature” (ha!), i’ve come full circle and will be leading the next trip.

from june 13-18, ross and i will be in charge of 12 highschoolers as we drive down to new orleans, louisiana for our kids’ first mission trip as The River Youth Group.  after three years of leading, it feels so rewarding to finally be able to make it all come together:  our work schedules, the planning, the timing.  there will be three other groups on our trip and i’m praying that our kids will be able to experience the body of Christ and the power of the Gospel in a way that was only a figment of their imagination before.

pray for our future team, we’re still finalizing who they are, and pray for ross and me – we’re excited, scared, overwhelmed, and ecstatic to be finally going on this trip!