Mississippi Trip – Saturday

Today there would be no early morning doughnut run. No awesome frozen coffee drinks from some place that like anime. No breakfast discussions about a rowdy spoons tournament. Not even any discussion about getting showers in the morning.

Today was our day to head home.

The youth (myself included) were set to meet up with the adults for breakfast. Once we met up we'd all grab breakfast and get right on the road.

So, while we were leaving the building, we got a call that the adults were almost to the meeting point (they must have been running early since, for once, we were actually on time).

We got to Hardee's and everyone piled out of the van to get breakfast. There were a bunch of police around the restaurant. In fact, there were a couple right in front of us in line, from Virginia! So, being the shy person that I am, asked where they were from in Virginia. Now, of course, I'd never heard of the county. But they did know where we were from. They didn't seem so interested in talking (maybe they needed their morning coffee as much as some people in our group did), so we let them get their food and eat in peace.

Another interesting thing happened at breakfast. On the way down to Mississippi, Hugh drove his SUV with a hard camper on top. Needless to say, it killed his gas mileage and we ended up stopping a lot to make up for it. So Hugh decided that he would give it away! He asked the entire restaurant if they wanted the camper top, and one man hopped up very excited. The next thing I knew Jen and Hugh were carrying the camper off of his car and over to the other car. While it did help us, it certainly wasn't necessary. This was an incredible cap on a great trip, one final act of selflessness for a state which needs as much of it as we can give. I only met Hugh a few days ago, but he truly is a great example of what a Christian looks like.

With all that done we got back on the road.

Now, my mind was reeling. It was early morning and I still had Amber and Dave on the mind. I already missed having them around. I couldn't help but wonder how much better the ride home would be if they were with us. It got me thinking about this one picture someone took after we'd played spoons a bit...

It's a picture of the floor. Those are all the marks that one or two chairs made with people sliding around and getting excited.

At first I was horrified. Look at the mess we made of their floor I felt kind of bad... But then I considered where they came from. They aren't just our game, but also from all the over volunteers who move in and out of there every day. The people who have been there for months and the others who've come for a day or two. These are the permanent marks they've left in the wood, just as those volunteers have left permanent marks on me.

With all these thoughts on my mind, it was a relatively quiet first leg. Some people slept, some read, others talked in the back. One vent in the middle of the van didn't have a cover, and through some great team-work they figured out the right object to stuff in there (a t-shirt I think). I just listened to music and headed up the road using new directions.

So we continued on and on up the road. Waiting impatiently for I-20 to come along. It took a really, really long time to come along. Since this was different from the way we came, everyone was getting nervous. In the end we did find it, but probably added an hour onto our trip. With people already eager to get home I decided not to share this news with the car. Besides, what's one more hour on top of 17?

Honestly, the ride home was relatively uneventful. Probably the most interesting thing after leaving Mississippi was Jen eating a McRib for dinner in Tennessee. Apparently the McRib is back at McDonald's.

To be fair, I loved McRib's when they first came out in high school. Then I had one in London and it was awful. I don't think they put any sauce on it, and I have to tell you, the meat in a McRib isn't something you really want to taste.

The second most interesting thing may have been the change of radio stations on XM Radio. Our Christian rock station was gone, replaced by Traditional Christmas music. Someone will have to explain to me why it makes sense that a station which plays hard rock music (even if it is Christian) should be replaced with Barry White, or folk music. Marketing executives can really be morons sometimes. It didn't help that the pop Christian station now plays much slower stuff, and still mixes in a lot of Christmas songs. So I ended up jamming to the music in my mind more often than not.

We arrived back at church around 12:30. Tim was driving, which helped me a lot. I probably only drove about half the trip this time, and it felt good to relax and read, even if I didn't get to sleep.

So we unloaded the vans quickly and headed on home. Since we all had to go to church in the morning and Rob even had to give a sermon at all three services. I definitely have to give him credit for that.

I dropped Roland off at his house, got home about 1 or 1:30 and went in to watch Rachel sleep for a little while. If you don't have kids, you may not understand. But if you go into a room with a sleeping infant, you could just stare at them forever. The even breathing, smooth skin, the most uncomfortable sleeping positions you can imagine (Rachel often sleeps with her head jammed in the corner of the crib at a 45 degree angle and her butt up in the air.. I can't sleep if I breathe on my arm). It's just so peaceful.

I slipped into bed and Erin was great enough to actually wake up a little and welcome me home. Then we were out for the night. I tossed and turned again, thinking about everything over the week. But I also enjoyed having Erin and Rachel so near.

So, this was another of the most memorable trips in my life. The summer mission trip reminded me that there is so little I need or want to make life happy. This trip brought in a support team I needed and reminded me what the community of Christ can look like when it's done right.

If you're reading this, I will hope and pray that you'll come along and help out next time. If you're not sure, or barely know me personally, drop me a line. I'll convince you!

Peace,
+Tom/Bob

posted by Tom at 11:37 AM