A crew we will never forget

A couple of weekends ago, we got a big treat as some of our Istrouma girls came to visit! I taught these girls in a Sunday small group for several years while they were in middle school. I even coached some of them in 6^th and 7^th grade basketball at St. Luke’s. And now, they’re all grown up! Seriously, we can’t believe they are in 10^th grade now. The best part is that over the years, we’ve watched them grow even closer together as a group – a built-in support system of life-long friends.

 

 

It was wonderful to hear where these girls are now in life, and what all God is doing in them.

We filled the weekend with talking and shopping. Friday, we went to Katy Mills Mall for dinner and store browsing before spending hours playing Catchphrase. Of course, Catchphrase always leaves you with a few memorable outbursts…

Rebekah:  “An ugly cupcake! An ugly cupcake!”

(loooong pause)

Somebody:  “A muffin?”

Rebekah:  “YES!”

 

One of the girls:  “SHE played the wife of that guy on Cheaper By the Dozen!”

Natalie (I think):  “Ashton Kutcher??”

 

Rebekah:  “The opposite of ALLOWED (a loud) fruit!”

Me:  “A quiet fruit?”

(buzzer)

Me:  “Wait, what was the answer?”

Rebekah:  “Forbidden fruit!”

There were lots of others. All credit goes to my sister and brother in law for introducing us to that game. We’ve had a ton of fun playing with adults and students alike!

Saturday we headed to the teenage Mecca of Houston – the Galleria. After a number of hours shopping, we checked out the ice rink and found it a little too crowded. Determined to still have our fun, we headed to Memorial City Mall to enjoy some skating.

Then Micah, Randy and Jessica headed to an Astros game while we girls headed to a dinner theatre. We saw Julie and Julia at Studio Movie Grill where they serve you dinner while you watch.

After the movie, we hung out in our youth building for awhile. It was an odd phenomenon for us to see our students from Baton Rouge enjoying our Houston student building!

We wrapped up the night with some Guitar Hero and more talking.

The girls joined us for church the next morning and then we devoured some Pappasito’s for lunch.

It was extremely hard to say good-bye to these girls who mean so much to me. I have watched them grow up and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them in the years to come. God has blessed them with beauty, brains and dynamic personalities. Although I’m sad not to be able to watch them grow day to day, it thrills me to hear how well they are doing and how close knit they are staying.

Other people we respect in ministry have told us repeatedly that your first crew of students will be ones you never forget. They will be life-long friends and people you keep up with as they grow into adults. I pray hard that this will come true with these girls.  Love you all (even the ones who didn’t get to come to H-Town)!!!

-Laura