Just said goodbye to the coolest group of 13-14 year-old Christian men (and their leader, Dave!) that I've ever had the pleasure of hanging with. We spent the entire evening on a full adventure walk through downtown Hartford. They've been spending a lot of time in "the hood" doing service projects, so tonight, I gave them a glimpse into Hartford's other personality.
After dinner chats about what they've been up to/where they're coming from and where I'm coming from, we ate ice cream in the kitchen, and then hopped out the front door to embark on a 2+ hour adventure through some of the sites of downtown. I put on my tour guide/youth group leader/big sister hat as we walked (and acted like more like hooligans as the night went on) around the Capitol, Supreme Court, Bushnell, Bushnell Park...and beyond!
"We were expecting a formal sit down dinner with a black family--and then all of the sudden this white girl comes to the door and we eat sandwiches and fruit salad in her living room!"
We sauntered through the park and up to the wicked old cemetery near the gold building...where they decided to continue hanging out with
this girl! (and go late to their evening program)... so we ventured on to Riverside Park (near the bandstand), where (after a short history lesson on Abe Lincoln and H.B. Stowe) the photo-shoot began ... along with the frequent mini-heart attacks ... as they became more and more daring with the wall-walking, and climbing, and anything else they could manage (i.e. loud burps, attempts to spit loogies on the cars below before 'mean-Jennica' gave her ten-teenth, "Really, guys?")
After some water fountain fun (and by water fountain fun, I mean policing the schemes dreamed up by teenage boys who have an "epic" --their words--water fountain in their midst ... just a couple, "Nooope"-s stopped one of them from giving into encouragement to stone-hop in the water fountain), and pepper spray practice (so glad I know how it works now), we began to turn to loop back home ... when one of them said, "Here I am, on a missions trip and I'm having so much fun!" Voila, blessing and being blessed. =)
As we waited for the walk-signal at the Old State House Plaza ("fully equipped with WiFi," said I, as I spread out my arms like Vanna White--they loved that), the group contemplated/debated jay-walking for the 15th time...and then met a man named Mark outside of Burger King during a potty break pit stop. We chatted, invited him to an upcoming Love Wins event, and Dave bought him a burger.
The boys got increasingly nostalgic on the walk home through Bushnell Park (where I only had to remind them a couple of times that it was technically closed and therefore couldn't loiter--success!) and under the arch/towers thing (super pretty when lit up at night!).
We marveled at beautiful lit up towers/buildings across the dark blue night sky ... AND THEN ... one of them rolled down the hill of the Supreme Court's front lawn. That was it for me. If I have any kind of weakness--okay fine, I have two--they are puddle jumping and HILL-ROLLING. All of the sudden, 25 year old Jennica went away and little girl Jennica was rolling in the freshly cut grass with the boys. Then 25 year old Jennica and the boys walked dizzily back to Shiloh; where we prayed, exchanged email addresses, and said our sad goodbyes.
"I hope we can have dinner again with you next year." - best quote of the night.
Me too.
