Saturday March 15, 2008

There’s something about working with teenagers that keeps a person on her toes.  No matter how calm a get-together might seem at first…

The general result?  High-fat-content smiles and, of course, the oldest lady in the bunch cleaning up her floor on hands and knees. 

One of these days, I’m going to convince these nimcompoops that in the time it took them to write a “Pardon the mess” note, they could have actually DONE something to clean up the mess!  Some people’s children…

Yes, these are teenagers whose obnoxiousness rivals their unpredictability, but I was reminded during our final chapel of the school term on Friday that they can also be warm-hearted, committed young people with compassion for their world and a desire to reach it for Christ.  As I write, 77 BFA students are scattered across the planet on missions trips for which they’ve sacrificed a week of their vacation time.  They are serving in Burkina Faso, Scotland, Rwanda, Slovenia, Germany, Poland and “North Africa” (country name withheld for security reasons).  Please pray that their ministry will change not only the lives of those they touch, but also their own.  Pray that their interaction with adult leaders from BFA will be meaningful and that their communication with the Lord as they serve Him so selflessly will lead to a deeper understanding of their relationship with Him and of His plan for their lives.

And while you’re praying…please also keep my dear friend Mari Ellen in mind.  She has suffered from debilitating back pain since December and doctors finally discovered yesterday a severely herniated disc.  She had surgery this morning and is beginning to recuperate.  Please pray for minimal lasting side-effects and for a speedy recovery.  It’s been wonderful to be able to spend some time with her in the hospital, and I look forward to many more visits ahead!

Meanwhile, it’s hard to believe that break is really here.  I think I’ve been depending on adrenaline so much to get me through the past few weeks to this point that I’m having trouble settling down enough to rest!  I can’t wait to be able to indulge in some luxuries I’ve been missing–like reading for pleasure, exercising, scrapbooking, and spending time alone.

But here’s the problem with imminent endings–it makes it hard to be a hermit!  After our whipped-cream evening a few days ago, it dawned on me that there are too few weeks left in this year with this particular bunch of seniors to be too stingy about time.  So we’ll be inaugurating POT evenings for the rest of the semester.  And no, the title doesn’t have anything to do with smokable plants or kitchen utensils!    It stands for PhiPhi’s On Thursdays!  (PhiPhi is one of the nicknames coined for me, I believe, by Jackson Young.  Its variations are numerous:  Fifi, FeeFee, Phi-Sauce, Feefster and a couple less spellable ones!)  I’m not sure yet what the rules for POT will be (there WILL be rules, Collin!), but I think it’s time I had a regular open-home schedule in order to maximize the amount of time I get to spend with my favorite people in the weeks before I leave.  I’ll be missing their graduation ceremony because of my surgery, but I intend to make the most of the time remaining!

When I went up to my car to drive a handful of them home the other day, I found this lovely post adorning the curb where I park my car.  They’d found it on their way to my place and had personalized it for me before planting it (gasp) in my nasty neighbor’s yard!

Much as I appreciated the sentiment, I’m not sure my German neighbors would have approved of me claiming that segment of street parking, so the sign, sadly, had to come down.  (We have neighborhood battles over the limited space!)  But there was something symbolic about that makeshift parking sign…it reminded me of the way these unique and fascinating and incredibly lovable young people have sneaked into my life over the past couple of years.  They have parked themselves there in an indelible way and I know that no amount of POT evenings will seem like enough time, not with graduation right around the corner.  I love these young people with an intensity that sometimes startles me and I have vowed to savor every hour we spend together during the final weeks of this school year.  And it’s not limited to just the Whipped Cream Gang, by the way…  You know who you are, Beloved Morons, and this POT’s for you!