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Philly, Summer 2000

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Philadelphia, PA....we went there the summer after i graduated from high school to fix up a house that would be used for future AIM staff, and to do VBS and sports ministry...we went with AIM again, and we enjoyed ourselves immensly...it is hard to say that i had a favorite trip during my high school years, but i think this was the trip that i learned the most on...as i prepared to go on this last trip, i knew in the back of my mind that i wasn't really supposed to go...but it was my last chance to go on a trip as a student, and i had been on all of the other trips, and somehow it just felt like it would be too weird if i didn't go...so i went...and i learned that it is not fun to be outside of God's will...and yet, it is often a time to learn through mistakes... i remember getting to philly and filing into the sanctuary of the church that we were to stay in to hear all the rules and guidelines and whatever else the AIM guy had to tell us...it was kinda late at night and we were all tired...but this guy had such a passion for the area, that it was hard to miss...he challenged us that first night to look for the face of Christ in everyone we came in contact with while we were in philly...he told us that we would be meeting prostitutes and druggies and kids that had no parents and any number of other kinds of people...and he told us to look for the face of Christ...but you know what? i found the face of Christ in my fellow teammates...it was amazing how much i learned from these students, most of them who were younger than me...there was one night when we had had supper and us students found ourselves sort of alone...the leaders had all gone off to have a meeting, and we just naturally all gravitated into a group with a few guys playing guitar and all of us singing worship songs...the guy that had been brought in to speak to us later wrote about that time, and i was amazed to see how much a natural action for us had touched him...he was awestruck by the fact that we NATURALLY sat down and started singing worship songs instead of fooling around or just going and doing whatever we wanted...(mind you, there were indeed other times when we had plain old crazy fun...like running through a fire hydrant that had been opened for us, or getting in a shaving cream fight, or just playing cards)... the other major thing that touched me in philly was the sanctuary of the church we were staying in...it was an old methodist church and had several stained-glass windows in the sanctuary...each morning we were given an hour for personal devotions--something i had never really made myself do before...and even though it's still not something i make myself do, there are times i think back and realize how much i'm missing out since i don't make myself do it...i would sit in that sanctuary and just...well...look at the windows...they told stories of God's power, mercy and love that i had forgotten or overlooked... oddly enough, i think that, in my case, since i don't believe God had really planned for me to go on this trip, instead of using me like he had in the past, he sat me down and taught me some hard lessons...and even though it was hard, i'm very grateful for what i've learned...now i just have to put it into practice!