26 Sep 2009 The trip that changed it all

“This story really gives the basis for who Kristopher is and what you see in him,” Kim said. “It has everything to do with where he is right now and who he is as a man.”

Kim and Neil told the story of when Kris went on his first mission trip as a freshman with the University of Central Arkansas chapter of Chi Alpha.
“As a mother, you’re a little worried when your son is going overseas,” Kim said. “This is a good lesson for moms. I wanted to make sure he had everything he would possibly need. I packed everything and had everything labeled for him. I wanted him to smell good, so I put sheets of fabric softener between his clothes before I packed them.

“I made a list of important phone numbers and put them in an envelope to put in his bag. I covered everything.”
The five-week trip was focused in south Spain, but another part of the mission was to trek in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Seven people were making the trip, and Kris wanted to be one of them.

“Kristopher was determined to do it,” Kim said. “I was OK with the Spain part of the trip, but I was a little worried when he wanted to go on this trek.

He felt that it wasn’t Spain that he was supposed to go to, but that it was Morocco that was his whole reason for going on the mission.

“He had never ever felt so much that God was calling him – that he was supposed to be in Morocco.”

The mission was going well in Spain, but the day before Kris was to leave for Morocco, he ran into trouble. “We got the dreaded phone call,” Kim said.

“Kristopher called and said, ‘I have a problem.’ He had been on the beach leading worship, and his backpack was stolen. The backpack had everything in it. It had his passport, traveler’s checks, cash, a GPS – it had everything.”

Kim and Neil immediately began planning a way to get Kris to the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, but Kris would have none of it.
“We were doing anything we could to figure out how to get Kristopher home,” Kim said. “This very quiet, very humble child of ours who had always done anything we had asked him to do said, ‘If I don’t go to Morocco, I’m not coming home.’ We didn’t know what to think about that. We thought he had lost his mind.

“Kristopher absolutely is the epitome of having the spiritual gift of faith. He has lived his whole life through faith. It’s not my gift. I’m not the one who always thinks things will be good. In fact, I’m the one who always expects the worst.”

While Kim and Neil were busy trying to make more arrangements to get Kris home, Kris went out searching for his backpack. He left his group, leaving Kim and Neil with no way of communicating with him. The couple stayed up through the night, waiting to hear from their son. At 4 a.m., Neil’s cell phone rang. It was a call from Spain.

“Immediately my lack of faith kicks in,” Kim said. “We were with some friends, and they were telling me that someone had probably found Kristopher’s backpack. My immediate thought was that someone had found his body. He had his driver’s license on him, so someone was calling to tell us he was dead.

“That’s the mother in me. I just knew something bad had happened to him.”

After the Allens found someone who could speak Spanish and field the call, the truth was revealed.

“It actually was an off-duty police officer,” Kim said. “He had found Kristopher’s backpack. Everything was in it. He noticed that there was a little envelope in the very front of the backpack that had everyone’s phone numbers. That’s how he knew how to call. We were able to arrange for Kristopher to pick up his backpack from the officer, and he still had four hours to spare before heading to Morocco.”

Still, Kris’s trip to Morocco wasn’t quite what he had hoped for.

“I really think it was a test of Kristopher’s strength,” Kim said. “He was so excited to go to Morocco and minister to people who had never heard about God. Instead, Kristopher got gravely ill, and we almost lost him.”

Kris contracted a rare type of viral hepatitis and was too sick to participate in the mission. When he returned home, his parents barely recognized him.

“He had lost 26 pounds, and he didn’t have 26 pounds to lose,” Kim said. “He was as yellow as yellow could be, and he was sick for a year. We asked him if he wanted to go on another trip. He said, ‘Maybe not tomorrow, but absolutely.’

“He feels like God had to take him to that place – a place of almost death – before he would show him what he was supposed to do. Kristopher had never been able to write music before that trip. That summer, he wrote his very first song. Ever since then, the ability to write has been his gift, and the message he has is the words in his music. God had to take him there in order for him to be able to do what he’s doing today.

“That trip has everything to do with American Idol.”