Last week was spent on an annual field trip called The Expedition on Jekyll and Saint Simons Islands. We went with our youngest son’s home-school, school.  It was my second time, but my husband’s 5th, since 2 of my older kids attended the same school several years ago.

I am still in awe at the mere production of this trip.  There were 85 explorer students, then about 30 servant leaders (high school students), 20 chaperones, then a host of staff, and “Hanger On’ers”, which are family guests.  I think the total head count was around 180.  This group was active from 7:30AM until 10-10:30PM – give or take an hour or 2…

The activities included 3 square meals each day, devotionals in small groups, and seining.  There were several experiment stations, dissections, sand sculpting, and hiking, as well as,  visits to the Turtle Center, Fort King George and the bird sanctuary.  There was also time spent shopping, watching educational and funny skits, apologetics teaching, praise & worship, and lots of prayers… It was a packed week. Really.

The most powerful part of this trip, as well as this school, is their Servant Leader program.  It’s not a mandatory program, as the commitment is huge, and the students even have to apply to be a part of it.  Freshman are Training Servant Leaders, then each year they progress to full Servant Leader status.  These students serve in the classrooms, assist the teachers, and lead devotions. Some of these students are also on the  worship team, which is called Living Sound.  It’s an entire student band.  Each group of middle schoolers is lead by the Servant Leaders during small groups and  these young leaders even help write the skits, as well as implement the entire production.  These kids have their own trips and put in hours of training and studying to learn how to lead, by serving.

There’s something about witnessing youth serve and worship that blesses me to tears.  Having witnessed all of that last week, as well as 3 baptisms, has left me hungry for more.  It’s funny how the closer we get to God, the closer we want to be.

I must admit, the best part of this trip for me was after it was all over.  Our son told us that he had decided to apply to the Servant Leader Program.  He also decided to get more serious with his music lessons, so he could try out for the worship band.  After that, we had to download all the songs we had heard all week, so we could sing them all the way home…

To find out more about Living Science Home Studies, you can visit their site HERE.