A Zoo Buddy

Last Saturday, our family went on a trip to Riverbanks Zoo with 32 others from Allendale -- 27 children and 5 adults. The event was sponsored by Radius Church in Lexington, SC (I've known the student pastor since he was in middle school).

This pastor and four others drove down, leaving their homes at 6:30 AM, in order to ride on the school bus with the Allendale kids. While additional members from the church met us at the zoo, the bus ride gave them an additional opportunity to connect with the children and leaders.

It was Hannah and Sender's first time on a school bus, and Elijah's second, as he and I rode to a game with the football team a few weeks ago. Sender had his own personal "Buddy," a middle schooler from the after school program. They crashed out on the trip home.

For many kids, it was their first time to a zoo, and we were also treated to a box lunch from Chick-fil-A. Oh, the joys of civilization!

Here are some links where you can see other pictures and thoughts from this day:

• Zoo Guests. From the Radius Outreach blog. The commenter Sheila Leath is the principal from Allendale Elementary School.
• Radius Students. The same zoo pictures as above, but I was impressed with all that these group of students are doing to engage their culture.
• More pictures (on my Facebook page). Disclaimer: Some of these were taken with my camera by one of our Allendale kids.

Thanks again to the leaders and volunteers from Radius Church for making this trip happen!

And just for some more of Sender's thinking, he said his favorite animal was the "koala with the rag on his bottom." Upon further question, we figured out that he mean the (red-bottomed) baboon.