Adam's Mission Trip

Adam has a long history with Teen Missions. He went as a peanut, preteen and teen. For the first few trips he stayed in Florida--partly due to trust issues and later because he failed to raise the money. But this year, his last, he decided he wanted to go overseas enough to raise the money.

This is at the training camp before leaving.

This is the project site in Trinidad. The project was to build a house for a pastor, and although they didn't complete it, they got a lot done.

I don't know what's going on with his hair, but I'm glad we did the senior photos before he left on the trip!

Besides working on the project, they had a couple of chances to go swimming in the Caribbean. They even went to Tobago to swim.

Adam has the ability to get along with almost anyone. He tends to let things roll off him. And he can charm almost anyone. He makes friends easily. This is very helpful at TMI. The only times he didn't get along with leaders is when he was breaking rules and assigned a job such as scrubbing toilets as a result. If someone doesn't like him, he shrugs it off.

All the leaders go through training and are screened, but the leaders come in a variety of ages, personalities and beliefs. Even though they are all born again Christians, they vary in some beliefs. (They all take a pledge at commissioning not to discuss those differences or let them come between each other.) They all lead their teams differently. Unfortunately this year some of the leaders on another team were judgmental of a team member new to TMI and did not stop another team member from targeting her, so she did not have a good experience and would not likely recommend it to others. That's sad because the way the leaders interact with the team members really makes a difference. I hope that those leaders are counseled about how they deal with teens. They need to encourage the team members in their Christian walk and encourage team members to accept and support each other. And they need to keep their pledge about accepting differences in beliefs among Christians.

This was Adam's last year. You can go until you are 21, but he's said it's the last trip for him. Thankfully he had a great time and said it's the best team he's been on. He'll be home Sunday night and will hopefully have brought the camera back safely and with a full card.