Job has a friend who has moved cross country about a year ago. They have been communicating daily and the option came up for him to visit and participate in a missions trip together. We thought about it.  He has already been scheduled to go to France when it came up. The money for France had already been spent however upon much thought and prayer we thought why not.  This could be his senior trip and we would pay for the mission trip. He would need to pay for his plane ticket and all his spending money. He was game for that and so we bought him an international ticket. Kentucky isn't international from Bellingham but from Vancouver it is and it was less expensive to go that route. I didn't think it would be hard to send him off but it actually was. These flights he would be totally on his own. It was a red-eye flight. He would need to change in LaGuardia, one of the busiest airports in the US.  And he was fine. I wasn't able to drop him off since I was at a soccer tournament with Lona. I wanted John to walk into the airport with him, make sure he checked in ok, without any surprises and take a photo.  Yeah, that didn't happen at all.  They pulled up to the curb, and a "are you good," "Yep" "See you in a couple weeks" "ok, bye"  And that was it.  No photo, no check to make sure, just a Dad treating his 17-year-old son as an adult.  It was a different feeling for me.
I didn't hear too much from him other than he landed and was tired.  The ice cream was fantastic.  They made it to the mission field of South Carolina where they built wheelchair ramps for 5 days in 100-degree heat and 98% humidity.  The boys from the church that Job was affiliated with had their air mattresses slashed twice. They played the card game mafia every night. Once back in Kentucky, he texted me that the oldest brother of his host family was sick and then the parents took him to the hospital for an appendectomy.  Poor kid.  The next day, Job texted again saying he was alone with the younger ones and there was a tornado warning. I looked online and yep there was as well as flash flood warnings.  They headed to the basement to wait it out while playing Xbox games. I later learned that there was a small tornado in the next neighborhood.  And then his visit was over and he was flying home.  When I picked him up from the airport, he was already planning his next trip out there.  He loved it there.