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GREENSBORO - Every Wednesday after school, they listen to spy music and slip into lime green T-shirts .

Then, they're off. One time, they hit downtown to collect pennies. Another time, they descended on Washington Elementary to dig, get dirty, plant flowers and scream when one of their own dropped a slimy worm in his mouth.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!''

They all have ideas. They want to make Christmas garlands, open a lemonade stand and collect enough pennies to build schools and buy pencils for their peers in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

For them, it's all about creating that intangible called peace, something it seems we adults have a hard time grasping when everything around us is described as a fight.

But these kids know what peace is.

Says Trip Hughes: "Love and no violence.''

Says Mary Helen Wood: "Everyone gets along, and everyone is happy.''

Says Jacob Kremer: "Help people even if you don't know them.''

Says Caroline Phillips: "Raise money for people so they can have clothes and food and stuff they need.''

But is it really that simple?

It is for these kids, all young parishioners at Greensboro's West Market Street United Methodist Church, all no older than fifth-graders. They're collecting pennies, wearing garden gloves, thinking they can change the world.

They're Mission Possible kids. It's a nonprofit group that helps kids understand social responsibility and justice.

Last month, the West Market Street church started its own program. And every Wednesday a few dozen kids come to Room 304-E.

As the theme from "Mission Impossible'' plays from a Fisher-Price cassette player, adult organizer Ginger Shields picks up a red Fisher-Price microphone.

"What are we collecting for?'' Shields yells.

"Peace!''

"And what else?'' Shields asks.

"Schools!''

The Mission Possible kids from West Market turned juice jugs, coffee jugs and potato chip cans into penny-collectors. They approached businesses in downtown Greensboro with their spiel.

It worked. Walk downtown and you'll see the jugs and the cans beside many a cash register.

The Mission Possible kids want to collect pennies for students in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where a penny can buy a pencil and $20 can buy school supplies for an entire year.

They'll go back next month and round up the pennies they collected.

Meanwhile, closer to home at Washington Elementary, just five minutes away from their church, the Mission Possible kids dug, planted and watered flowers for a school where nearly every student is on free or reduced lunch.

Ask the T-shirt crew about gardening, and they'll talk about planting "beautiful flowers'' and making students "happy.'' Or ask them about pennies, and they'll talk about someone their age writing with sticks.

"One small thing,'' Trip Hughes says, "can make a big difference in the whole world.''

Sure, you might wonder. And the older I get, the more jaded I get.

But last week, I found this quote on Esquire.com from actor Paul Newman, a man who donated more than $200 million to help sick kids and establish such camps as Randleman's Victory Junction Gang.

"You're not doing anything special by putting money aside for those who need it,'' Newman said. "This is an essential component of being a human being.''

I thought about that as I watched a crew of kids in lime green shirts circle a new garden at Washington Elementary, grasp hands, bow their heads and pray.

An essential component, indeed. And they're learning it early.

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com.