She'll Be Never the Same!

Now that she's back, I can tell you about my girl's mission trip! She went on a mission trip organized by Susie Magazine, which author Susie Shellenberger started a little more than a year ago. (She had been the founding editor of Focus on the Family's Brio magazine.) If you have a teen girl, GET THIS MAGAZINE! It is incredible. My girl eagerly awaits hers each month. It has motivated her to consistently read her Bible each day and is full of great articles for Christian teen girls. (No one asked me to promote this; we're just passing along info because we like it!)

Anyway, the mission trip, called Never the Same 2010, was to Antigua, Guatemala, and my girl LOVED it; it was both spiritually impactful and lots of fun. There were around 240 teens who went, both boys and girls. They were in teams of about 40 each. The bulk of their time was spent performing a 20-minute skit called Spellbound: Toymaker and Son. Here's a summary of the story:

Toymaker and Son fashion a marvelous Toyland and place two special creations in charge. However, when left to themselves, the Prince and Princess foolishly listen to the cunning Evil Magician who instantly wreaks havoc in the Toyland. A barrier now separates Toymaker and Son from the broken toys. In order for the Spellbound toys to be liberated from the Evil Magician’s clutch, Toymaker’s Son must put aside His royalty and become a toy. The story of Creation, the entrance of sin into the world and the story of what God has done to break down the barrier of sin between Himself and his creation.

They were in Miami for 3 days for training and learning the play. (They actually pantomined the skit to a pre-recorded Spanish narrative.) In Guatemala they performed it up to 4 times/day. . .in schools, parks, orphanages, etc. My girl was the princess. I never thought being a princess would be so tough, but apparently she gets "slapped" and falls down at one point in the skit. On one of the first days, she collided with someone's foot when she went down and bent her finger back, thus breaking it! We had it x-rayed Monday and have an appointment with an orthopedic MD this afternoon. Gotta be sure it heals right so she can play the piano and viola!

In addition to the skits, they also did some service projects - painting at an orphanage, etc.

The trip was somewhat of a combo of missions and camp: each night at the hotel they had worship with music by Jaime Jam and teaching by Susie Shellenberger. Those were times of spiritual growth as well.

Here are a few pictures:

I won a Disney giveaway from Teresa at Grammy Girlfriend (Thanks, Teresa!) and my girl confiscated the Mickey Mouse I received and took it to Guatemala to give to a special little girl that she might meet. Here's the delighted child who received it:



She also had a little Chick-fil-A toy that she gave this to this little one:



This is part of the skit:



And this is overlooking Lake Atitlan:



And here's her extra little "souvenir" after we got it x-rayed!



It hasn't hampered her any, and she's already campaigning for us to let her go on the trip again next year!

As much as the trip meant to her spiritually and emotionally, my girl is still a typical teenager: One of the first things she wanted to tell us was the fun she had haggling prices at the market when they went shopping and the great bargains she got!

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