I kept the phone close by all morning because I knew Thálion would probably have a chance to call me from the airport.
Last night all of the Early Boot Camp kids went through a Commissioning service, agreeing to carry the light of Jesus to their various countries of service. Thálion said he found the service very exciting. Then his team got on a bus for Miami. They got pizza to go and ate on the bus (he’s had no junk food for two weeks) and they settled in to “sleep” at Miami airport about 3am. He was up only two hours later, and called me just after I saw Seth and Celia off to school. We got to talk for 45 minutes.
Where to begin? He sounded so well, really alive and excited. He was totally loving toward me, appreciating the prep work I had done that made his life easier at Boot Camp. *Sniff* He loves his team and his team loves him, which is really so important. They had the coolest Boot Camp cheer, which also helps.
There are 24 kids on his team, 7 are boys. According to T, the boys are all crazy and he is “the most enthusiastic” about it. He is the youngest of all, and one of two Canadians, the other being a girl from the East. His nicknames are “Mr. T”, “Big T” and “Canada”. He has no experience at being “the youngest” so that grates on him sometimes. I encouraged him to take advantage of the situation and learn what he could.
Thálion LOVED the obstacle courses, particularly the water OC. It sounds like he had a lot of fun, in spite of the weather and the bugs. He reported that his whole body is covered in bug bites. I believe him! They had thunderstorms for the whole last week, and “there was a lake in my tent”. Good thing Mom packed everything in big Ziploc bags!
I asked Thálion how he is with the Lord. “Sometimes I feel closer to God and sometimes farther away,” he said. “I went up to the altar a bunch of times.” The evening rallies were broadcast online, but we were missing the password to access them. I’m going to try to see them at TeenMissions.org. The interesting thing was, throughout the conversation he exclaimed “Praise Jesus!” several times. I told him being close to God is not so much about the feelings, and I think he’s closer than he realises!
So as I write, Thálion is on the airplane. He is flying Air France to Paris and then to Athens. The mission project has slightly altered. The work of painting the church will go ahead, but the bulk of their time will be doing street evangelism. They’ve been trained to do concerts including puppets, singing and some mime. He was excited with his part in the mimed presentation “The Cage”. The concerts, set up in various squares, by transit stations and markets, draw a crowd and send the message out. After the concert the kids go into teams of two and talk to the people. Many Greeks speak English and many others don’t, so they will have tracts in both English and Greek, and hopefully a steady translator or two.
Thálion’s head leaders are a former military couple – both have served in the armed forces. Although Boot Camp is over, I expect the discipline to continue pretty strongly throughout July. “One thing I’ve learned…” he kept saying on the phone. Well one of those things was that it pays to keep your stuff neat and he’ll probably keep his room cleaner when he gets home. Another thing he said is “We really needed Boot Camp before going on this mission, or we’d just get wiped out. We’re all stronger now.”
So that’s how my call went. He’s got four weeks in Greece, then a week of travel and Debrief in Florida. Then he will return a changed man, I am certain.
Really Neat!