Southwest airlines can be occasionally silly and generally high energy, all of which can make it seem like the youth group of the airlines. This observation is particularly evident with the icebreaker style boarding process. If you have not been on a Southwest flight recently this might need an explanation. Every passenger is given a boarding group letter, and a number. Each letter group has to line up in numerical order, which demands that passengers TALK to one another. It requires a civility, attentiveness and connectivity not unlike our life together in Christ.
Once on board you then get to choose from any open seat, also like church life, and a real benefit to flying with a fourteen person group of young people and chaperones to the Episcopal Youth Event. The plane was nearly full as we soared through the first leg toward Vegas on our way to Philadelphia. One of our eleven teens had never flown before. After gleeful loud expressions during takeoff she declared that she "loves flying"! Some slept, some read and most caught up or made new friends. Our youth crew includes folks from Cleelum, Walla Walla, Richland, Coeur d Alene and Spokane. One young woman, Berkeley, was with the last EYE group in 2011, and most of our crew have been active at Camp Cross and our diocesan youth programs like New Beginnings and TEC. Our adult chaperones are from Richland, Spokane and Walla Walla. Patrick attended a previous EYE as a teen, Jane has served with the Official Youth Presence at General Convention, while Theresa is new to church wide youth events. We are flying east the day before EYE begins because as many of us know it takes all day to get from here to there. We are spending our first night at the Episcopal Mission Center in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. Or at least that is the plan, flight delays may put gum in our plans. Then on Wednesday morning we will use mass transit to journey out to Villanova University, where EYE 14 is being held.
More for y'all when we have new adventures to share.
#eye14
#Episcopal
#spokanediocese
#superexcited
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