Supafly.com

These are the people who I hung with last week. I’m not in the picture b/c I was on my way to the airport.

I just got back from an 11-day trip to Georgia to Arizona, and now back in California. It was really exciting to be back in my hometown with Mom and Dad. I love helping them around the house with random projects. I know how discouraging it can get when a project stalls because it’s too difficult or complicated.

Dad and I woke up early a couple mornings and hiked up the mountain. It was fun coming back home for the first time as a married man because it gave me something new in common with my father. It’s a profound change in my life. It was so much fun cooking and grilling with Mom and Dad, bringing in new flavors and food that I’ve learned since I graduated high school. There’s something sacred about the family dinner table. Mom and Dad are such extraordinary people, so just being around them is inspiring and healing for me.

Bizarre News

One of the most bizarre realization that is worth capitalizing: MY HOME TOWN HIP. Hip as in cool, a nice town to visit. I can’t even believe I am writing this. I mean my home town has become a cute, classy lakeside community in the mountains. The kind of town people in Atlanta love to brag about visiting or owning a summer home.

When I left 10 years ago, it was a sleepy hick town insulated from the outside world. It was as boring as you get. Not anymore. The storefronts on Main Street have been redone and look fantastic. There are fashionable boutiques, a coffee shop, classy antiques shops, and a hip restaurant. That’s right: A. Hip. Restaurant.

The homes surrounding the lake are well made and beautiful. There’s lakeside townhouses, yacht clubs, and bars. I am jealous! Why didn’t I see this coming? It’s about to become a town that becomes too expensive for people to live in.

Camp is Fun

It was exciting to be at Covecrest again this summer. I realize that I now have a different perspective than in years past. I guess I realize how much I’ve grown up, and my life is so different than that of the teenagers who come to camp. I forgot how vulnerable and insecure you feel in high school, how difficult it is to make new friends. I also know what it’s like to feel like to not “feel anything” at church and to think it’s a waste of time. It hit me how that for many of the teenagers at camp, itmight’ve been the first time they felt completely accepted by their peers. That’s something they’ll never forget. Anyway, here are few photos from the week.

Here’s me leading a goofy dance.

The mud pit is a highlight of the week. Some people manage not to get dirty.

The groups on the left are actually teenagers going to confession. It was a beautiful scene.

What could be more fun than whitewater rafting?

Steubenville West

For most of the past several  years, I’ve been obsessed with how many people come to our events. I want to see a revolution, and it can’t happen if there aren’t any more people this year than there were last year. I realize now that I take for granted the fact that people show up at all.

As I stood on stage on Saturday and looked out at 2100 people, I realized how much I have to be thankful for. This was a big event/party that my friends organized and hosted. How cool is it that 2100 people re-arranged their life to spend a weekend with us? I’m not some college kid that picks up the microphone and talks from the stage for 30 minutes. I’ve become one of the grownups who lead events like this. I know the people who hang the lights from the ceiling, the musicians who play in the band, the people who order the food at the end of the day.

We actually did this, and we did it together. The fact that this event happens at all is a sign of success.