The Week That Changes Everything

There’s something about getting away that changes everything.

In this episode of Table Talk, middle school and high school students unpack their experiences from CIY and mission trips—the fun, the chaos, the inside jokes… and the moments that actually stuck. The kind that shift your perspective, deepen friendships, and make your faith feel real.

It’s more than a trip.
 It’s where things start to click.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Welcome to Table Talk. Um so this is a this is a podcast that we started back in like October, and the premise of Table Talk is meaningful conversation at a table. Now I am so sorry, there's not a meal at this table. The the premises of everything initially when it started was people build meaningful relationships when they sit down and they have they eat together. So anytime you go out and you and you do something and it's like a family relationship or really good friends from school or something like that, um a boyfriend or a girlfriend, things like things like that. Mom and dad have a date night, they go and they sit at a restaurant, and everybody's eating a meal when they're when they're having like uh um like significant relationship building time. Um so for table talk, I thought, hey, let's get a lot of you guys that have gone to and been a part of these CIY Camp Elkhorn mission trips. Um, parents, there's gonna be a parent episode because parents have sent their kids to these camps. It's like, who would send their kid away for a week? In the parent episode, they're gonna explain why. It's probably because, like, well, sending my kid away for a week is great, it's a break. Um, no, but today um we're hanging out with you guys, some of the students. You guys have been to mix move mission trips. So um what I wanted to do was just kind of really quick go around. We're gonna go around starting with uh Brady, and we're gonna um just say your first name and then what grade you're in.

SPEAKER_05 1:50

Um my name is Brady and I'm in seventh grade.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Awesome.

SPEAKER_05 1:55

Um I'm Sarah and I'm a sophomore in high school.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

All right. I'm Isaac and I'm a freshman in high school. Nice.

SPEAKER_04 2:01

I'm Jaden and I'm uh seventh grade.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

All right. Well, it's on record now, so you guys you guys can't back away from this. So um we will find you. Cool. No, um just uh let's just start out with a really easy question. Um I want to know your CIY role in all this, okay? Were you guys um what okay, Brady, you've been to Mix. Sarah, you've been to have you been to Mix and Move?

SPEAKER_04 2:31

No, just move.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Just move, okay, Isaac? Just move. Just move?

SPEAKER_04 2:35

Uh just mix.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Mix. I get mix and move confused all the time, and I took students there for like nine years. Anyway, um, okay, be honest. At CIY, are you the worshiper, the napper, or the menace? We already know. For those of you who are, I mean, this is an audio only, so um Jaden gave me this very specific look when I said menace. So is that accurate?

SPEAKER_04 3:09

Um a worshiper and a menace.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

We won't tell anyone a worshiper and a menace. Okay. Isaac. Um, mostly a worshiper. Mostly a worshiper, but a little bit menace. Yeah. Not a napper? Not really. Do they even let you let you nap at CIY? No. You have like they let you nap at Elkhorn. Like, why not?

SPEAKER_03 3:30

I know people that took naps.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Oh, yeah. Okay. I'm gonna have to tell Sam to keep an eye on those people this year. Napper, worshiper, or menace?

SPEAKER_03 3:39

Worshiper, and I play ninesquare a lot, so whatever that would be.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Menace. I've seen you play ninesquare.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

Is that a good thing?

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Huh?

SPEAKER_03 3:47

Is that a good thing?

SPEAKER_00 3:48

That you're a menace at Ninesquare?

SPEAKER_03 3:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Uh-huh. Just spiking the ball on kids' faces. Bloody noses? No.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

No.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Oh, okay. And a nice way. Listen, listen. I I mean it happens. I'm not saying you did it on purpose. Brady.

SPEAKER_05 4:02

I'm probably a worshiper. Worshiper.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

All right. All right. And a menace? Yeah. What? I hope your parents hear this. They would be like, no surprise. Um, yeah, so I think I think it checks out for all of you guys. All right. Now let's be honest. What do you think your average hours of sleep is per night at CIY?

SPEAKER_05 4:26

Um, probably uh three to four hours.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

Okay. That's not very good. Sarah?

SPEAKER_03 4:36

Maybe like six over the whole week.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Like six total.

SPEAKER_03 4:42

Six to eight.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Huh?

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Over the whole week. Like six to eight hours.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Like it's a Sarah, it's like five nights, so you're talking like two hours of sleep a night?

SPEAKER_03 4:51

I don't like sleeping at CIY.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

This is this is rough. Um between like two and four. Per night? Okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:01

The most I probably got was like four and a half.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Four and a half. Like you're just exhausted and yeah. Okay. Okay. I see why uh I see why all of your counselors have been tired every time they come back from CIY. Um this is why, as like the leader, I would like go into my room, lock the door, and if kids had an emergency, I'd just say call 911. No, I wouldn't do that. Let's just be honest. If you sleep at CIY, you're missing out on a lot of stuff, right? Yeah. You're missing out on, you know, extra Doritos and you know, drinking too much Gatorade. You're not drinking monster or Red Bull, right? Jaden? Jaden? All right, Menace. Well, this explains a lot of decisions that you guys have made uh that week. Um I asked this to the kids that went to camp because when I thought of a good a good way to represent and give people like we're telling stories about camping about CIY, but there's there's five senses. And uh some people are gonna hear what it's like, they're gonna they they might not get like an actual visible glimpse of what it's like, but what if we could give people a smell of what CIY is like? So in in my office, I have a I have a set of candles. Okay. Each candle has like three scents, uh, three smells. I'm pretty sure the one that's sitting on my desk right now is a mix, it's uh citrus and cedar wood, which I I don't even know what that means. It's smells like the forest. Have you ever smelt cedar wood, Brady? Is it good? Yeah, yeah, I know. It's in my office, it's great. Um, and the no, the third is leather. I love the smell of leather. Anyone else? Me. Okay. So if you were creating a candle that somebody would light the candle and there'd be they'd be like, oh, this takes me back to CIY mix to CIY move or to a trip to Guatemala. What um what what smells would be in your candle?

SPEAKER_04 7:08

Probably um farts count. The smell of like monster and sweat.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Monster and sweat. Any specific flavor of monster?

SPEAKER_05 7:23

The original.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

The Okay, gotcha. Brady?

SPEAKER_05 7:27

Um, it was probably uh like the original white can of monster and then sweat. Sweat.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

So a lot of sweat going on at CIY. But it's a good thing, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Do you guys like the smell of sweat?

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Not really.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Oh, but there's a lot of it at CIY. Listen, we're trying to encourage people to go to Mix and Move. What would you guys how would you guys craft your candle? Um sweat.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Sweat? In a fast food restaurant. Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

Um for CIY, probably uh sweat, tears, and um grass. And for Guatemala, um probably like paint, dirt, and tears.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Oh, okay. So some tears. Some tears. Grass.

SPEAKER_03 8:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

So you guys played outside a lot. I did. You did? Nine squares outside on the grass? Yeah. One of my favorite smells ever is fresh cut grass. Like you pass a yard and they've just cut the grass, and I roll the windows down, I'm like, oh, it's so good. Anyway. Um all right. Now let's talk about the parts of CIY that um people usually don't post on their social medias. Um because these are we're uh let me ask you about your first time you went to CIY. Was there anything that you guys were nervous about?

unknown 8:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Or was it um being away from family for that long?

SPEAKER_03 9:02

I was there.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Yeah, you were there. I was trying to get away from you, Sarah. Um being away away from family?

SPEAKER_03 9:12

Uh I would say just not knowing people because he wasn't going the first year I went.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:16

So just not knowing anyone.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:18

But I made friends.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

You did?

SPEAKER_03 9:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Quickly? Very quickly. Very quickly. Okay. It's one of the things that I've I like about CIY is, you know, a lot of people go into it not knowing a whole lot of people, and by the end of the week, you're like, we're all tight, you know. About you, Jaden. Anything that was you were like, oh, I'm this is I'm a little bit nervous. And maybe you and maybe it's something you never told anybody before.

SPEAKER_04 9:41

I was nervous about um how like it would be.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

And like you didn't you didn't know what to expect the experience of the event was gonna be.

SPEAKER_04 9:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Like what are they gonna be doing? Like, are we gonna be sitting in a room listening to somebody talk the whole time or things like that? Okay. Sweet. Brady, anything that made you nervous about going?

SPEAKER_05 10:03

Um, probably just like being away from my family for some.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Yeah. And then after like one night, you're like, whose family, you know? Did you call, did you anybody call home like every single night or text or I called my mom when I found out there was a Duncan on campus.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yes. I called my dad to ask to order Wing Stop at one in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Yes. Okay. So next time I go to an event, I'm making a call to Joel.

SPEAKER_04 10:30

My mom called me to tell me that uh my baby brother was a boy.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Aww. How how many siblings do you have?

SPEAKER_04 10:41

There's nine of us including me, so.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Well, because I asked this because when we talk about like, hey, being away from family for a long time, to to me, and it and it it doesn't mean like, hey, if if you only have a couple siblings and being away from the family, it it's not as bad as if you're leaving, you know, a lot of people. But did that make it um more difficult or less difficult?

SPEAKER_04 11:04

Like that made it less difficult because I was already used to a bunch of craziness.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

A bunch of craziness, all right. Craziness in that house. Um people are listeners are not gonna like me for asking this. Actually, they they might actually like this because it's just honest. Was there a part of CIY that you really liked that was not spiritual?

SPEAKER_03 11:25

Yeah. What? What was it? Um Ninesquare and um dance parties.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Dance parties? Sweet. Like tournaments and just socializing with people I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Yeah. And and as much as those things can be, they can have a spiritual element to it because you're still building relationships with people. I think sometimes it's really important for students to know that, hey, going to an event like this, God really cares about fun because when you have fun with each other, um, that I mean, it it's kind of a a trick question. There there is spiritual in in fun, but having fun with people is uh is a way to learn about other people. But I mean, I it's a blessing that God's given us. So what about uh Brady and Jaden? Anything that was not like spiritual, but you enjoyed it?

SPEAKER_05 12:13

Um probably nine square and um probably just like all the little games that we played on the side, too.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Nobody said uh cafeteria.

SPEAKER_05 12:24

Mine was probably ping pong.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Ping pong. You're not playing ping pong with Tom, are you? Oh no, don't play ping pong against him. All right, so Tom's my brother. He's he's one of the uh he's one of the leaders that goes to all these events, and every once in a while he takes on some he starts mentoring some of you guys in ping pong. And I've played against some of you guys that he's mentored, and let's just say you guys have beaten me and I'm not proud of it, so don't tell anybody I said that before.

SPEAKER_04 12:52

We played like King of the Court, and I would like I was beating people like every time, just thank you, Tom, for teaching us the ping pong way.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Alright. Um was there anything at CIY that um, and I and I know this is a little bit more personal, you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but is was there anything at CIY where God was just kind of like, hey, this is something that's in your life, and I I'm gonna challenge you to change that. I'm gonna challenge you to take it away, I'm gonna challenge you to do something about that. And if he did, what what happened with with that like after CIY? Like, was there anything that changed in you at CIY?

SPEAKER_03 13:39

Um, so I play volleyball, and so this year at CIY before, like it was we were like doing our pre-training for volleyball, and I was really like focused because it was like my sophomore year and I wanted to be on varsity. And so I was really like focused on that and not anything else. Yeah. So while I was at CIY, like God was sort of like telling me like I need to back off a little bit and focus more on him.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

That's big. I mean well, because you're you you take you take volleyball pretty serious. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I mean, you love to do it, you're good at it, right? Yeah. So what what moment do you think it was, if if you remember the moment, was there a moment in CIY where you were like, you this is actually what God's kind of challenging me to do?

SPEAKER_03 14:24

It was my first CIY, and I was that we were doing our Sela time where they like give us a card and we like read some scripture and like really just think about what we're going through in our life.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

And there was like a prompt to like think about in our head and was like, what's like stopping you from like fully committing to like reading your Bible and like praying? And I was like thinking that I don't have time. And that's like kind of a broad thing to say. And I was like thinking about like what's taking up all my time, and it was like volleyball was taking up all my time.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Dang. I mean, even adults listening to this, I think adults are gonna parents are gonna hear this and they're gonna be like, that is something that would be hard for us to do. Like, hey, I don't have time for this, and then to be self-aware enough to go, no, you have time for a lot of things. You just you have to maybe say no to something else to say yes to this. That's really cool. Yeah. Um, what about what about you guys? Anything that God was like, hey, like I think this should change, and maybe when you tried to make the change, like you were kind of surprised how good that made you feel?

SPEAKER_04 15:29

Um I wasn't really like good at praying every night and everything, and I was asking God if He could help me with that, and ever since then I've prayed like every night and every morning.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

That is a really cool thought. Like praying over your prayer life. I I don't know that I could put it. I I think if I took a hundred people, sat them at this table, and asked them about their prayer life, I'd probably say 99 people in that boat are going, We're in the same boat as you, where it's like I want to be better at my prayer life. And I I think a lot of them would be, including myself, would be like, yeah, like sitting down and just talking to God and listening to God, like that's a really difficult thing. Um I think it's a lot for me, it's a lot easier to read the Bible, but to sit down and because you start thinking about all the stuff that sometimes you don't want to think about. That's a really cool thing about CIY, I think, is for a week you're pulled away from your parents. You're pulled away from some of you are pulled away from some of like your friends from school. Um some of you are pulled away from like, I don't know, distractions, like you get a little reprieve from maybe volleyball or um reprieve from work, or maybe I don't know, maybe there's there's tension somewhere in in school that year or at home, and you get like a you get like a week to kind of just peel away from that and really kind of intensify the effort of like spending time with God. Um do you ever feel has has CIY ever felt like spiritually overwhelming in a good way? Like you just you get fire hosed with Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Cause I mean, at Mix you're hearing a lot of sermons, you're having a lot of small group discussion. At at move, you're doing the same thing. What about on mission trips? Like, are you what's what's the spirit what's the Jesus fire hose on a mission trip like?

SPEAKER_03 17:33

Um that like it's not always about like our life and how like God can change our life, and like we have to think about how we can use God to change other people's lives.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

And so we have to like kind of think change our perspective.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yep. Huge perspective switch. That's really cool. Um some of those answers I expected, and most of them I did not. But um I sorry, fellas, this is only for Sarah, but um was there a moment on the mission trip to Guatemala that you thought, I don't know if I'm gonna survive this trip. Not like mom's in the room, actually. Um not like life-threatening, but like th this might be a little bit more challenging for me mentally and emotionally than I thought. Was there a moment like that?

SPEAKER_03 18:18

Um when we were we were like really closely tied with the church there and we met made a lot of really close connections there. So leaving them at the airport and giving her like goodbye hugs, I wasn't expecting to make close friendships with people like that, especially since they didn't speak much English and we don't speak much Spanish. And like I wasn't expecting to like really even talk to anyone.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:39

But like I made uh huge connections and like friends there.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

I'm getting the chills. Um, I've been on a couple mission trips and a couple of them that I've had to leave. Um mine are a little bit different because the ones that I went on, it wasn't as much like project-oriented. Um, but like the same as the one that you went on Guatemala, um, it's relationally oriented. And I went on a trip to see uh some of the kids that we sponsor through Compassion. I got to actually meet them, and then leaving, it's like it kind of tears at heartstrings. But at CIY, you guys probably experience all the same thing in a in a different different way. Like you spend an entire week 24-7 with a particular group of people, and then when the week ends, you're like, okay, I gotta go home, and all the rhythms that I've built up for a week, you you don't have those anymore. Does that ever is is is is leaving CIY difficult when you go? Very yeah, definitely really, really hard. Yeah. And you guys get off the bus, and mom and dad are like, tell us everything you know about you know the week, like, how is everything? And you guys are just kind of like trying to process what just happened, how could it have been this awesome? When's the next sum that I can go? And um I've actually learned in the past there's actually a slight bit of a grieving process when you come back from a good trip like that because there's some rhythms and some routines that you had built up so strong in a week, and people that you got to know so well in a short amount of time, and then now the next week, you're not 24-7 with those friends and friendships, and and sometimes that can be hard, but it's it's still a really good thing. Um, hopefully you keep seeing them at church, right? So, all right. Um last question. Let's say hypothetically, but I know this isn't going to be hypothetical for people listening. Um let's say there's somebody, and there's probably somebody like this to so tonight as we're as we're recording this, you guys are having your the Wednesday night programming epic nights. When you go back into that room, there's probably somebody in that room that's on the fence about do I want to go to CIY Mix or move, or do I want to stay home and do something else? Like, do I want to go to a volleyball camp or like a band camp or something like that? There's somebody who's gonna be on the fence, like I'm not sure if I want to do this. And I asked this very similar question to the kids that went to that have been to Elkhorn before, and asking them like, hey, if somebody if somebody's not sure about leaving family for that long, or they're not sure if the stacks are gonna be good, um, or if they're not sure if it's gonna be fun or if it's gonna be boring, or if maybe they're not sure if it's gonna be meaningful or or not. Somebody in somebody in the room's on the fence about going. What would you tell somebody who's not yet decided that, but they're really close? What would you tell them about mix or move or a mission trip?

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Um probably that like they really should go. Because like before CIY, I wasn't like a really religious guy. I mean, we went to church every Sunday and everything. But after CIY, like religion actually started taking a part in my life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

Almost like this uh desire that you can't um it's like an appetite that doesn't go away. Like you just you really just desire Jesus so much more than you did before. Yeah. How about you guys?

SPEAKER_05 22:14

Um probably um just like I think it like it's a good experience and that they should go. Um because there's it's like uh I know I like I could tell I got saved there and Oh yeah, okay. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Huge mom huge milestone moment in your life, yeah. So anybody who wants to to have that, like there's no telling what God's gonna do in that week that's gonna be really awesome.

SPEAKER_04 22:42

I saw it change a lot of people's like life and how they live now. Yeah. And like my friend Brooks, he He like cried and he accepted Jesus in his life. Yeah. And I feel like it just changes a lot of people's life.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Yep. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

Um I would say for CIY that like it could truly like change your perspective on like how you want to approach like the rest of your life. And for the mission trip, it feels it like it's like a feeling that you like can't put it like words to, but it feels so good to like know that you're helping people for like their eternity almost.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Yeah. You have a huge, you have a huge impact when you go. Yeah, that's really good. Well, hey guys, um I know we might I I twisted you guys' arms a little bit because I kind of grabbed I kind of got you over here on the spot, but um thanks for thanks for for joining me at the table. Um thanks for being thanks for being honest about the trips. Um because there's there's some things that people might be nervous about, there's some things that people have so much to be excited about, and there's so much value in going to these things. Um but CIY mixes and moves, they're they're exhausting. You know, sometimes there might be an uncomfortable moment. Um, and I mean some sometimes it's awkward when you go and you you might not know a whole lot of people, but then God always uses that week, and there's always people that you get to know. Um, there's always moments that you go from uncomfortable to just really, really excited about what God's doing in your life. Um, but that's where real change starts. God challenges you, and maybe for somebody listening, CIY is a challenge that God's asking you to go, and it's gonna be one of the things that you'll remember your whole life. But hey, thank you guys for for joining, and uh everybody who's listening, thank you for listening to Table Talk.