Leaving Teen Challenge and saying good bye to all of the
boys has by far been one of the hardest things I have had to do this entire
trip. All of the boys have been such a huge blessing to me and I am so excited
to call them all my brothers. Our last couple of days there the boys just
showered us with one blessing after the next.
Besides some of the gifts I received from them the bo
ys they
also blessed me with several words and letters of both love and encouragement. Each
word that was spoken and every word that was written was full of such love and
honesty that I couldn’t help, but to tear up at every word.
A majority of my final day I spent sitting and talking with
my younger boys, who are between the ages of 13 – 16. They were looking through
my Bible and got stuck looking at a picture of me and my family I had taped
inside. They were so excited to see this picture and look at my family. They
kept describing to me that they were going to fly to right where that picture
was taken in McPherson, KS and come live with me and my family, if I only it
were possible I would gladly take each one of those boys to be a part of my
family.
Starting around midafternoon several of the guys disappeared
and no one would allow my teammates and I to go inside, I had no idea what was
going on, but the boys had even taken the time to cover all the windows and
doors with blankets so that we couldn’t even attempt to peak in.
Finally, after eating dinner and waiting for the generator
to turn on the boys invited us in. We ran down the hallway into the common room
where we stepped into a place full of balloons, coke, chips, and candy. We then
spent the next hour popping balloons, eating snacks, and taking our final
pictures together. Then we were invited to go back outside where we found a
warm fire, and loud music being played. First we all sat in a circle around the
fire and shared our feelings about the past month and spoke words of love and
encouragement over each other, as usual the boys had such wonderful words to
speak to us. Then we turned the music back up and danced the night away.
The next morning we went back for our final breakfast and
then we stood in a circle with all of the boys, held hands, and prayed over
each other. Then it was time to say good-bye which was too hard for me to
handle, so I just said a couple of quick good-byes and then I had to walk away
at which point I began to cry uncontrollably. This is by far one of the hardest good-byes I
have ever had to do in my life and I have spent a majority of these last two
days in tears for these boys that I built amazing relationships and fell so in
love with.
