At this announcement, everyone sat at attention. Twenty of us Christian teenagers from all over California had spent the last eight days doing evangelism and teaching Bible clubs for kids. While it was a blast, and spiritually rewarding, it was a lot of work and study. The idea of going out for a night of fun on the town seemed very appealing.
"You'll be doing a scavenger hunt," Tom continued. "We're taking you to the Tyler Mall, and you'll be in two's. The first team to find everything on the list gets a prize."
"Do you want to be partners?" I asked Rachael, a friend who had come from San Diego.
"Sure," she smiled excitedly. "I love scavenger hunts."
"Me too," I nodded. "And I know the Tyler Mall like the back of my hand. I'm the only one here actually from Riverside. So we'll have an advantage."
I went to Christian Youth in Action (or CYIA) every summer of my high school years in the 90's. Fortunately for me, training was held in my hometown of Riverside. Some of the good friends I made (like Rachael) came from different areas. Part of the fun each summer was seeing my friends who lived in other parts of the state. During the year, we all wrote letters to each other. The joy and fun from those times are some of life's happiest memories.
That particular summer that I was sixteen, I was the only summer missionary from Riverside. I liked doing ministry in my area. And I was excited to be doing a scavenger hunt in the mall I had frequented all my life,
The different staff drove us down. I rode with a group of girls. The whole way there, we chattered happily about the fun evening we expected to have. About halfway there, one of the girls started singing silly preschool songs, and the rest of us (being very mature) joined along. I still remember Mrs. East, our driver, trying to drown us out with her cassette tape of hymns (which I actually preferred over preschool songs when I wasn't caught up in the moment!).
We all met at the mall's entrance. Tom gave each team a list. "You have an hour," he told us. "Meet back here then."
"Let's go!" I told Rachael as we excitedly entered the mall.
Rachael looked at the list. "First thing is a gum wrapper."
"Candy shop's this way," I pointed out. Grinning, I added. "We can buy some cheapo gum for the wrapper, but we can also buy candy for us!"
Rachael liked this idea.
After securing the the gum wrapper, Rachael told me the next item was a toothpick.
"Let's check the Carl's Junior [fast food joint--my favorite chain in the western US, but it is no longer in the Tyler Mall]," I told her. "It's this way, My dad always gets a toothpick when we go to Carl's Junior, so I know they have them."
Following the toothpick, we needed to get the price of a deck of cards, which we got at the game and hobby shop. We were making excellent time. We very quickly got the other items on the list. Even in our excitement, we tried to be a good witness. After all, we had spent all week sharing Christ, and we were wearing Christian T-shirts. We were good teenagers, not like some of the rough ones who came through the mall on Friday nights like this.
"We're almost out of time," I told Rachael, looking at my watch.
"That's good, we only have one thing left! We need an ATM receipt."
"Here's the ATM machine," I said. We were in the food court, and the ATM machine was right there. "Maybe someone left their receipt." No such luck.
"What are you two looking for?" A voice asked us. We looked over to a nearby table. Four women were seated around it. They had Bibles open. Clearly, they were Christians studying the Word together. This was great! Other Christians might be able to help us win!
We explained that we needed an ATM receipt to help us win the scavenger hunt.
"You can have mine, as long as it's okay if I rip off the part with my account number and remaining balance on it."
"Of course!" We excited told her.
We were happily telling these women how we were Christians too when suddenly, a heavy hand came down on my shoulder.
Nearly jumping out of my skin, I turned, as did Rachel. A tall, burly man in a uniform stood behind us. Beside him were our CYIA friends Crystal and Jeremy, one of the other teams.
"Are you part of the scavenger hunt?" the man asked seriously.
We admitted we were.
"Well, it's against the mall ordinance for you to have a scavenger hunt, so I have to escort you out. I just caught your friends here," he indicated Crystal and Jeremy.
"Can I at least go to the bathroom?" Crystal asked. "I'll go out right after."
"I'm sorry," he said seriously. "This is a serious rule you've broken and I must escort you out. You can come back to this mall tomorrow, as long as it's not for a scavenger hunt."
"What's going on?" Two other teams came up to us.
The security guard repeated his announcement. "You can come back to this mall tomorrow," he said again.
"Oh, we'll probably never come back," Paulina told them happily. "We're not from Riverside. Only Janelle is!" She pointed at me. Thanks a lot!
"Well, take me to your youth leader," He said. I guess he surmised by our Christian T-shirts and relatively cooperative behavior that we were a church group or something. As we walked out with the security guard, other shoppers looked at us. Parents told their children not to grow up to be bad teenagers who needed to be taken out by a security guard. It was embarrassing!
The further we got, the more of our friends were caught and added to our group. Poor Crystal could barely contain herself!
"Hey Janelle!" A voice yelled.
I instinctively turned at the sound of my name, but then wished I hadn't. A woman from my church was waving excitedly. She was at the mall with her husband and children. This woman worked in AWANA with my family, her husband taught Bible studies in our church, and I babysat the boys. What would they think of seeing me escorted out? Well, maybe she couldn't tell what was happening.
"See you Sunday!" I waved back with no explanation. Yes, being from the same city had been an advantage in the scavenger hunt, but not so much now!
Once we got outside, the security guard confronted our summer missionary staff, who promised we would never do a scavenger hunt in the mall again. After he went back inside, Crystal sneaked back in quietly just to use the restroom right inside.
The good news was, Rachael and I had won. Our prize was a box of candy apiece (we didn't eat it then). On the way back to missionary training, we got ice cream.
"What are our parents all going to say when they find out we got arrested!" some of the guys started laughing. The rest of the summer, everyone kept talking about our experience as our "arrest". Even though it was not a real arrest, there was very little worse for a 90's teenager than being kicked out of a mall!
What I glean from this is twofold:
1) Youth leaders need to clear activities with local authorities (even innocent ones like ours was). I always remembered this when I worked with my church kids on fun activities (and yes, I did a scavenger hunt with them--but at a different mall where it was allowed).
2) In the worst situations that seem like a bad testimony, the best thing we can do is still act godly. I'm sure our cooperation went a long way in being a good testimony to the security guard. Christians are always on witness for God. We may not have control of circumstances, but we can control what kind of testimony we'll have.
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