Prologue
At my workplace, the vacation time a worker has from one year expires during that year. If it is not used before the time limit, it does not get added onto next year's vacation time. I had held out for a long time, looking for a chance to use my vacation time on a family trip to Tennessee, but this year, we did not even know we were going.
As June approached, I figured I might as well use my vacation time on something. I finally decided that I wanted to take Fridays off in June. After asking management if this was permitted, I was scheduled to work from Monday to Thursday each week in June. At least, that's what was supposed to happen. But the back of the May 28th Church Bulletin changed all of that. In the area for announcements for the youth group, I saw a list of dates. The last one read "July 8 - 15 - Mission Trip to Louisiana."
So I found the Youth Minister after worship and spoke with him about the trip. He said there was no age restriction, and that some adults from our church were already considering going along.
On Friday, since I turned out to be scheduled anyway, I saw the manager that I had planned my vacation time with. I asked to change my vacation time to the week of July 9th and explained the sudden decision. The schedule was changed for me, and after that I was working Monday to Friday in June.
On Friday, June 23rd, Dad dropped me off at the church where we would leave from. We attended a meeting in their teenagers' classroom, where we introduced ourselves, learned more about the trip, and received information about what to bring and what not to bring, and the details of what we would be doing in Louisiana. At the end of the meeting, the youth ministers decided to play some "non-competitive" kickball, so we headed out to a field by the parking lot.
We kept a rudimentary score, but did not track who won. I wound up getting a couple of shots, making a two base kick the first time, but on my next turn to kick the ball got caught, so I was out. In the last "inning" we played "unlimited outs" so that everybody could get a turn kicking. I managed to kick the ball at a runner and tag her "out" as she rounded third base. When everybody had a turn, we said our good-byes, and my church's youth minister drove me home.
I had two full weeks before the trip would begin. Even though I would try to "psych" myself up for the trip--I knew I had no way to completely prepare myself.
