Well, this morning I waved goodbye to the Chicago team!  Not an easy thing to do since I was a part of the team!  Added to that is that is the disappointment that this years’ format of multiple destinations with smaller teams really came out of my ministry style of smaller mission teams because of the benefits in team building that come with it (Maine saw a huge payoff in that area).  I was really excited to get to know the high school students in a deeper way over the course of the ten days.

Unfortunately, I came home from Maine sick.  On Wednesday I finally went to the doctor (I had been on medication for strep that I got in Maine) when I woke up to my chest rattling.  It took all of thirty seconds of listening to my chest and back and hearing me hack every time he had me take a deep breath for him to diagnose me with pneumonia.  Ug.  Apparently the whole getting sick on a mission trip but never actually slowing down (Tylenol and Advil will power you through anything) is a recipe for making things worse.  They told me to come back to the doctor’s office on Friday to see if I had some sort of crazy recovery (normally takes 1-2 weeks), but the doctor was pretty sure that going on the trip was a bad idea; at the very least it would prolong my sickness, if not worsen it, and I would be putting the rest of the team at risk of getting it.  He was cool, though; he’s a pastor’s kid and he said he knew how frustrating it must be for me to hear that – he knew it would have killed his dad to miss a trip he had been a part of.

Thankfully, if there was ever a trip I was expendable on, it was this one.  We only needed three adult leaders; including me there were five.  A few months ago there was a part of me that thought that was a little overboard – but how do you say no to youth leaders wanting to serve on a mission trip?  Apparently God knew what was coming!  On top of that, I was pretty much along for the ride.  Chris, my assistant, is actually the leader of the trip.  It’s his third time leading a mission trip for our youth group; the other two times were to Maine with teams of 50-60, so this team of 22 adults, college students and high school students is nothing for him!

Still, it wasn’t easy waving goodbye to them this morning.  It felt really strange after a year of planning, months of meetings and preparation, scrambled fund raising, and everything else that went into it … to just stand on the curb and wave goodbye!  I can’t wait to hear all the stories of what God teaches them on the trip during their team report!

Speaking of the report, it’s on Monday night, July 12th at 5:00pm.  It’s a potluck, so if you’re from the church and want to come, bring a meal and enjoy the report!