A New Kind of Family

It would be a massive understatement to say that the the group (many of whom are pictured above) we took on the Floridays 1993 trip was different from previous trips.  First, there were the 8 participants from Holly Spring Friends Meeting, led by Mark and Sharon Caughron.  Most of my Springfield group did not know these folks at all.  Then there was our cast of characters.  Let me break down the group for you:
*  Counselors-  My lovely wife Marilyn and Barbara Moran were veterans of our two previous Florida trips.  Ken Hill and Danny McCorquodale had been on both trips, but had been participants.  They were now college students serving as leaders, along with Ken's girlfriend (and current spouse) Gilly Douglas.  Jennifer Wood and Wendy Mattocks were serving as part-time counselors after having been on our second trip.  Joining us for the first time was Mark Rumley, who didn't attend Springfield but was brother-in-law to Barbara and uncle to several of our students.  I was very comfortable with this group of leaders, and they did a great job of helping things run smoothly- even if Mark did get a little weird on us at times...(cue Twilight Zone music...)
*  The Vets-  We had a handful of students who had been to Disney with us before, but most of the core of those first two trips had moved on.  Jon Moran was on his third trip.  Natalie Whitaker, Erin Moran, Ben Moran and Justin Whitaker were all on the first trip with their parents, even though they had been too young for youth group.  Ben and Nat had been on the second trip as well, along with Jill Gilbreth and Beth Brown.  This group was very solid, very much a youth group family, and very helpful.
*  The Newbies-  Mandy Beggs, Ashley Goad, Ryan Simmons, Holly Harward, Marie Allen and Noel Cecil had all been an important part of our ministry for awhile by the summer of '93.  Cheryl Deal and Tammy Edwards were friends of Marie who we knew well and loved, even if the three of them tended to fight like cats and dogs when together for long periods of time.  David Mercadante and Will Rees had just aged into the group the previous August, and at times on the trip their youth would show, but they were an important part of our group.  When you added this bunch to the Vets, you had the new core of our student ministry, and I was very excited about having them all share in this trip.
*  The Recruits-  TNT continued to bring in new faces, and a number of them joined us for this, their first major trip with us.  Jennifer Davenport was Danny's girlfriend at the time.  Matt Walden was a friend of Ben's;  Jay McLauchlin was a buddy of Will's.  Brie Clapp, Lisa Crabtree, Amber Elks and Kristen Clayton were all TNT participants to whom I had been giving rides home all year. And then there was Keith Murphy.  A friend of Jennifer Wood, he invited himself on the trip and proceeded to prove himself a bit strange...more on that in a later post.  This group would provide us with some interesting moments during the week in Florida!

So there you have it. The stage was set.  I used to tell my groups on every trip that this was an experience no other group would ever have, and to full enjoy it, they would need to become a family.  After our regular Thursday countdown, I'll share the stories and let you decide if we became a new kind of family...

Because of Jesus,