New Orleans

The year 2002 was quite an exciting one for me. Not only had I successfully survived my freshman year of high school and had made it half-way through my sophomore year without issue, but my entire life was about to shift track.

From the time that I was six years old, my mother had become a Christian and decided that the only way she could be sure of my brother's and my safety would be to shelter us from the world. We were not allowed to watch movies with a rating over PG, and nothing with any sort of magic. She also closely monitored what we did at school, and who we were friends with. Church was a four-times-a-week event. When a child is exposed to a life such as this, they come to view religion in one of two ways: They either love it or despise it. I was the latter.

So when I one day came home from school in my sophomore year, I was not surprised to see a package from Acquire the Fire sitting on the porch step. It was addressed to me but, not wanting anything to do with a Christian youth organization, I tossed it on the couch and went to my room to watch TV. Later in the day when mom came home from work, she knocked on my door and asked to come in. In her hands was the package, opened, and she sat next to me on my bed.

“How would you like to go on a trip?”

I gawked at her, and finally managed to say “A trip? Where?”.

“Well, I was looking through these pamphlets and there are lots of places you can go. Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, you name it.”

I took the pamphlet from her and flipped through it. There was a branch of Acquire the Fire called Global Expeditions, and every year they took teenagers on mission trips throughout the world from anywhere to a week to two months. I looked up at mom and she was smiling, so I knew she was being sincere.

“But won't I be by myself?”

“No, you would be with Acquire the Fire and other Christian teenagers, you will be safe.”

“How would we get the money for this?”

My eyes focused on the prices listed with each country. I saw anywhere from $2000 to $6000, and we struggled just to get food on the table. There was no way we could afford for me to ago, and even if we could I would feel too guilty to spend money on such a frivolous thing. My heart fell.

“People donate to kids like you, Cathy...We could get the churches in the county involved. Where would you want to go?”

Instinctively I looked at the cheaper trips, and saw one that made my heart race with excitement. A place that was the setting of some of my favorite vampire books, and the capitol of masquerades in America.

“New Orleans!”

She took the brochure and read over the details, and then smiled at me.

“You could do a lot of good there.”

She handed me the package and left my room, leaving me to look over everything and build up excitement. That was in early January, and my mom was as good as her word. We spent the next few months going around and asking for donations. Everyone from the members of our church to my bus driver to my Algebra teacher donated, and in less than two months I had procured $2200 for the trip that, come July, would change my life forever. The trip that would show me the poverty and need for change in America, give me the freedom I had always yearned for (if only for two weeks), and would be my first adventure outside of my native Florida.

January 2002 was the beginning of my life as an independent young woman.