Alex Buss is my favorite person right now

Alex Buss is a rising 9^th grader at Christ Church Anglican.  This year he decided to come on the High School mission trip to Jacksonville.  I know Alex, but this was the first time I would have a chance to really get to know him.  You have no choice but to know someone a bit better when you spend a week camping out in 100 degree heat.  Initially I was worried about him fitting in.  Alex was the only rising freshman on the trip.  Most of the high school students at CCSM are juniors and seniors.  Alex is regularly at Sunday School, but does not typically attend the Sunday night youth program, which quite frankly is where the community of youth group has been formed.  So…I was worried about Alex being an outsider.  Alex quickly built a bond with three people; Matthew Robertson, Katie Kavanaugh, and me (Joey Phillips). 

Matthew is a great guy, and he took Alex under his wing.  Alex and Matthew rode in the same car together, hung out together, and created the inside jokes with each other.  They stayed in the same tent, and they genuinely liked each other.  This was a great start to Alex being accepted into the group.

Katie did not take Alex under her wing like Matthew did.  she instead attempted to recruit Alex into a club I was simply call the “Aggravate Joey club”.  The purpose of this club is to simple bother me until…well just bother me forever.  She taught him all of my pet peeves, and how to really drive me crazy.  It is not as sinister as it sounds.  It is actually kinda’ funny, but what is even funnier is that Alex did not take the bait.  He quietly learned from the master the skillful art of being aggravating and then he did something awesome.  He took all he learned and turned it on her, and he drove her crazy.  Any one who drives Katie crazy is awesome in my book.  Please note that Katie is not just the Aggravate Joey club president…she is also a member.

Finally Alex spent a lot of time with…well…me, and if you want to be my favorite person right now, hanging out with me certainly helps.  We usually rode in the same car together.  We created dances to the songs we were listening to during the car rides.  Throw up your rock fist!  I also had the pleasure of spending countless hours each morning shaking Alex and yelling, “Wake up Alex, it’s time to go” (good quality bonding time).  Alex is a great guy and I had a blast getting to know him during the mission trip.  I look forward to learning more about him as we hang out more and more in the near future.

There was a time during the trip where an older student was giving Alex a hard time.  This is what happens when boys are together.  They test each other.  Usually a student Alex’s age would not know how to deal with and older student who was standing up to them.  Most students his age would either overreact with either anger or tears, or cower away in fear of the older bigger boy.  Alex did neither.  He did not overreact and look like an out of control middle schooler.  He also did not back down and look like a coward.  He appropriately stood his ground.  He would not be intimidated, and he would not lash out, but he also did not escalate the issue.  He handled things in a great Christ-like manner.  Lara and Michael Buss should be very proud of their boy. 

It is for this reason and many others that Alex Buss is my favorite person right now.