“Miss Galloway- on that first day of school, you walked IN with spice, rocking those blue suede heels!” Yesterday, I chaperoned the 11th grade class on a day trip off campus for a “midterm” escape from campus. It was lunch time and I was surveying my options of which group of students to choose to sit with. I don’t remember my reasoning, but I picked these lovelies, plopping down on the blanket with them, my pork, corn, and samosas calling my name from my plate, soda in hand.

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We laughed together as they recounted boy drama- asking my opinion on dating in high school, commenting on the cuteness of different couples they were watching from a distance. I chuckled as one girl came back with a plate of samosa’s piled high, “What’d you do?!?! Ask the servers for more in Swahili and Kikuyu?!” her friend inquired. “You’d better be sharing those.”

Another girl joined us I hadn’t met yet- I asked her name and eagerly welcomed her to our blanket. In our exchange she mentions something along the lines of having heard a lot about me… “All good I hope!” I quip back. Unknowingly, I opened the best kind of can of worms.

“Miss Galloway- if anyone says anything bad about you, we’ve got your back.”

“Everyone loves you- Miss Galloway, on that first day of school, you walked IN with spice, rocking those blue suede heels!”

“We need your energy- I’m definitely taking AP Chem next year…”

The comments just kept coming and I sat there flabbergasted with their kindness.

This past week I’ve been thinking a lot about community and belonging in a place. I’ve been missing my family some as my sister flies across the country to visit my parents while I’m sitting in a different time zone across the world. I was talking to a new friend about the difference having a family here at RVA makes in providing community with the strict COVID protocols we have put in place, and commenting together about the total of zero single men around campus. I was thinking about the busy schedule, and how there are still other staff members on campus I haven’t even met; how the need for investing in the students makes investing in each other slightly more difficult.

And then I found myself sitting on a blanket with beautiful teenagers, laughing and giggling together over teenage boys and extra samosas.

I found myself swinging while watching teenagers attempt to have five or more students jumping rope together, laughing each time the rope tangled in someone’s slow legs. Two of my lovely ladies offered to push me- since the swing wasn’t taking too kindly to my attempts to pump myself, I gladly accepted. I glanced back as a quiet guy from my seventh period positioned himself back by the ladies, then I let out a shriek of joy as he gave me an “underdog” push- sending me high into the sky, my heart soaring with love for these kiddos as my legs soared into the top branches of the nearby tree.

“BLITZ!” Someone yelled yet again. With eight of us encircling a small table, the game was growing in intensity as cards flew from deck to stack. Colors and numbers blurring together and squeals of frustration as two hands simultaneously reached for the same location. Laughing together as one girls reports her negative score once again while another girl rockets even further into the lead. Competitive spirits coming on strong as the battle for the points ensued, I catch the eye of another fellow chaperone, smiling together at this sweet glimpse of the non-academic side of my students.

“Miss Galloway! Come play mafia with us!” I was summoned to sit in a circle and participate as people were selected to be murdering mafia, saving doctors, investigating cops, or innocent townspeople. I am naturally killed the first round of the game and sit by, watching the students work together to decide who might have been assigned the task to eliminate the townspeople, one by one. When invited to play a second round, I politely decline and leave in search of some fresh apple cobbler and ice-cream, made in honor of Canadian Thanksgiving.

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A different swing this time, a different game. Wind the ropes up as tight as possible, then laugh as someone is spun silly then attempts to walk in a straight line. “Miss Galloway- you should do it!!!” I brush off the comment, until one persons encouragement turns into fifteen. The world whirs around as my students cheer from the sidelines, my hair flies out and my face turns red from the blood rushing to my head. I lilt heavily to the left as I walk away from the swing. Students jubilant at having watched me whirl around and around.

The time has come, and the busses are loaded to head back to RVA. I take my seat at the front of the bus and begin to reflect, my heart bursting with love for these students. I may miss my family, my friends, and the place that had become home, but God is already giving me a new home. A place where I am loved, a place I feel I belong, a place I can love others with abandon, pointing them to Christ and walking with them through life. I had thought I would find that sense of belonging in other staff members, building friendships with them, and serving the Lord together here. While that is happening, slowly, the Lord has shown me an even greater family, one full of 80+ teenagers- amazing humans who laugh with me, accept my never ending energy without questioning my eccentric oddities, love my quirky jokes and witty comebacks, and are fiercely loyal in their acceptance of who I am.

Prayer Points

• Praise God with me for the fullness of joy he has placed in my heart by giving me the gift of these students to love.
• Please pray for this next week- Wed-Sun it is “Spiritual Emphasis Week” and we will be having a speaker come to share along with a time of worship each day with the students. Please pray for the speaker as he prepares, please pray for the students hearts to be receptive to what the speaker shares, please pray for opportunities for me to talk with students and discuss the messages together, leading to growth in them as the theme is “Absolute Surrender”.
• Please pray for a continued reliance on the Lord as days like Saturday are easier to trust Him, but there are other days that are harder to remember His incredible faithfulness as different pieces of this transition remain tricky to navigate.