Hello hello!
Friends, this internship is winding down. I'll be home in about a week. I'm excited to go home, but I'm also going to miss this place. It's hard to tell everyone goodbye and have no idea if you're ever going to see them again. But at the same time, my clothes are really starting to smell, so it will be good to get home and have my mom start catching up on my laundry. I guess it would have been a good thing to learn how to do laundry before trying to live on my own.
I'm making the most of each day here, since there are so few left. I'm squeezing every last ounce of fun out of this California summer. Last week, one of my fun activities was to attend a free concert in the park. There was a classic rock/oldies tribute band that was playing that night. Their music was fun. I mean, you know you're in for a treat when one of the band members has concentrated all of his musical energy and directed it towards cowbell performance. He was tearing that thing up! To be fair, he also sang some harmonies and rocked out on the "Bongo Drum" setting on his synthesizer. Overall, it was a band full of talent.
Speaking of talent, you should have seen some of the 50 year old women and their reluctant husbands get out there and dance! Well, we shouldn't call it dancing, maybe just moving to the music. Well, then again, maybe we'll just call it moving. Whatever it was, it doubled the entertainment value of the whole experience.
On Saturday, I went on a hike in the trails around the Hollywood sign. It was a very unique hike. First of all, on either side of the mountain we were hiking on, you were able to see sprawling smog-tinted suburbs bumping right up to the base of the mountain. Also, there were tons of guys plugged into iPods, hiking with their shirts off, and girls plugged into iPods, hiking with their tiny little dogs. Once we got to the small summit of the mountain, we saw that there were two bulldozers sitting up there.
There's nothing like getting back to nature.
So here I go, I'm jumping into week #10. I have two youth events to lead, several exit interviews to go to, and a boatload of reflections to write, and then I'm hopping on a plane to Cleveland! I can't wait to see Cleveland. The big bummer is that I'll only be there for an hour and a half or so until I catch another plane to Grand Rapids. I'll be back in the G-rap at about 7:30pm, in case you want to greet me at the airport with candy.
But in my last week, I would love it if you would please pray for these things:
-the health of my host family
-that I keep following God's plan
-for safety in the youth events I'm leading
-for safety as I travel
Thanks for reading and praying!
-chris
