Road Trip: Part Three, Making a Splash

You can't take a group of 19 and 20 year olds to Southern California and not have a little fun! So while our friends back in Colorado were braving the blizzards, we played in the surf and sun, and sang along with Jack Sparrow on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney.

I really enjoyed the last day in California. My teammate Jamie and I took two van fulls of landlocked students to Laguna Beach to boogie board, play in the sand, and explore the tide pools. As I sat on the beach and watch them conquer the waves I smiled and really felt the joy of their pleasure. I can only guess this is what a parent feels like when they see their kids truly enjoying something, and how God must feel when we're doing the very things he's created us for on earth.

The students would occasionally run up from the icy Pacific waters with different types of seaweed wearing them as wigs, or scarves; it was quite entertaining. We also touched sea anemones and urchins, watched a few crabs fight over a meal, and found a very large and slimy sea slug making his daily rounds in his tide pool.

I really believe discipleship reaches it's most glorious points when you spend a lot of time together. Spending eight days with 17 students really allowed everyone to see the gamut of emotions and personalities under every kind of circumstance: stress, anxiety, fun, relaxation, quick decisions, etc. Each day held challenges and I really wanted to be a model, always responding in that angelic godly way. Haha. I laugh now. But despite the ups and downs I believe I got to exercise that humility muscle, you know that one small piece of our bodies that occasionally overpowers our opinions, sarcasm, irritation, and so on. And in God's grace, we all learned, we all loved, and we all are back safe and sound.

What an adventure!

Laguna Beach Time!

One of the seaweed wigs! (And some boogie boarders.)