So my husband is the youth intern at our church this summer and job number one for him (and me) was chaperoning the annual Jr. High six flags trip. There were 9 girls, 9 boys, and 6 adults to keep them under control. (Yes, you can laugh now) All the kids were between the ages of twelve and fifteen. This was a great group. We didn't really have any "trouble children" and they were young enough that, although they were starting to like the opposite sex, most weren't confident enough to do anything about it.
The plan was for all of us to load up into two church vans and drive almost seven hours to Arlington TX on Monday. Monday night we would go to the mall, Tuesday we would spend the day at Six Flags Over Texas, and Wednesday we would go to a nearby water park called NH2O and then drive back home. I knew it was going to be a little crazy but felt up to the task.
When Chris and I arrived at the church at 8 on Monday morning, we discovered that the kids had naturally formed a girls' van and a guys' van. The girls' van also had three adults: a married couple who had a daughter on the trip and a lady who was there with her son and daughter. This arrangement meant that my husband and I would be riding with the youth minister in the guys' van. Not bad, right?
The trip down was uneventful. No major mishaps or out of control boys. (Praise the Lord for that because Jr. High is not the age group with which I feel most comfortable) Once we got to Arlington, we ate supper and went to the mall where, much to Chris' dismay, we spent the next three hours. The girls spent a lot of time shopping (one girl even claimed she got a good deal on everything she bought through sales) and the guys spent a lot of time ice skating (I was jealous) or spending big bucks on personalized baseball hats. We went home and still had enough time to swim. That was were I met Lacey.
Lacey is a young girl with special needs and quite possibly the sweetest, most kind-hearted girl I have ever met. I was in the pool swimming/baby sitting when all of a sudden I hear, "Hey! Hey!" I looked around and saw a blonde that I knew was with us but I hadn't met. I knew her name was Lacey but didn't know anything else. "Come here," she ordered me. As soon as I was close she grabbed my name and started talking and playing with me. It was immediately clear that she wasn't as far along developmentally as the other students but that didn't stop her from trying everything that they did. Throughout the trip, she was a joy. She always seemed to have a few people that she would latch onto. Some of the girls on the trip knew her from school and knew she wasn't like them. She also seemed to really like one of our boys who is a great leader and has a kind spirit. She even brought out the best in some of our kids who tend to be a little rough around the edges.
My favorite part of the whole weekend was watching Lacey interact with the other children. They were very careful with what they said and how they behaved. It was amazing. No one fought around Lacey, much less made fun of her. They took care of her as if she was a little child. They were gentle and helpful and truly made her trip a great one. At one point and time, I looked around the water park as the other kids included Lacey into a game they were playing in the wave pool and thought, "Thank you God that this is the future of your church. These kids have learned what some adults haven't. They have learned what kindness can mean to a person. They learned to put someone else's needs and wants ahead of their own." I hope that this trip will be one of the best memories for Lacey, but more importantly, I hope that our youth group can remember how great it felt to help make those memories for her.
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