4 days with 167 7th graders

I have a confession to make. I think middle schoolers are so much fun to hang out with. It's a good thing I think that because last week I got to go as one of the chaperones to Washington DC with 166 of Nathan's classmates. Personally, I was responsible for three of them and I'm happy to report that all three made it back to SC safely.

Our group had a blast. I walked those boys to death. Other groups took the metro. Did we? Nope. We walked everywhere... somewhere around 21 miles over two days. DC has so much to offer.

But after spending 4 days on this school trip I'm left with a few takeaways I think all of us need to remember.

Flexibility is a fantastic trait for all of life. The communication from the teachers and people in charge was pretty sparse. This frustrated a lot of people. And while I would have done things differently if I were in charge, being flexible helped to weather the confusion. And to give the leaders credit, I think it would be extremely difficult taking 167 7th graders and 70 of their parents to a big city. Nobody died, so I'm thinking that's a win.

Being flexible meant I had to take responsibility for my own group's experience. I loved having this freedom and it reminded me of something that all of us need to remember: You are responsible for your own happiness. You can let others' confusion or craziness get in the way of your happiness or fun, but when you do that you are handing them control of your life. While you can't control your circumstances, you can control your attitude and your response to those circumstances. Our group chose to walk our butts off, see as much as possible and have a blast.


Finally, I have to share that I was able to visit Ebenezers Coffee House. Ebenezers is run and owned by National Community Church. It's the busiest coffee house on Capitol Hill and all the profits from the coffee house go directly to mission work around the world. That is AWESOME! I would love for more churches to take this kind of approach to missions. I would love for Hub City to do something like that one day.