for realsies. I'm back.

Okay, I'm back for real. I say this with confidence, because my girlfriend is making me....:) well, maybe not, but she does has her own coercive means. But I digress.

I haven't blogged much...(okay, not at all) for almost 10 months now because I don't have internet at my house, but now Amy and I have a new plan to both blog more and to get more into each others' heads: Meet every Thursday night at a coffee shop w/ an internet connection, one person blogs (on Amy's Mac) while the other reads, we switch places; we talk about what we read/wrote. So, here I am, and here we are, sitting at Bean Town in Sierra Madre, one of our favorite places for joe and tea in town, listening to the regular Thursday night troubadour, with a name something like Johnny Rotten--while he hasn't (yet) sung the acoustic version of "Anarchy in the UK,", he did sing one of December by Collective Soul, one of my favorite angry preteen songs. Otherwise, he's nothing spectacular, but what do you expect...

As the less-than casual reader might notice on the sidebar, I am now a Fuller GRAD. As in, GRADUATE. I'm done!... and I'm sad, because I loved seminary. But, now I have a new challenge: as Youth Pastor at New Life Community Church, just down the highway from Pasadena. Very excited about serving there...so, looks like So-cal is the immediate future, for at least a while. Missions and/or Ph.D are still in the potential future, but this is a welcome opportunity to start applying my passion and my seminary education to a church setting. And, I am falling in love with the community, the staff, and the youth here. Which is always a good thing.

Also, still doing homeless ministry on Monday nights, but I have scaled back my role, and have given over leadership to Melinda and to Jerry (who works for Oasis International) and am now focused on mentoring a few folks from the park, one of whom named Phillip is a pastor in the making, and it is a privilege to be considered his mentor. I am currently still tutoring, although now privately in a few homes in La Canada rather than in San Marino. I am also continuing my summer experience as a hospital chaplain intern by volunteering at Huntington Hospital as a chaplain on Friday afternoons. Put a serious relationship in the mix, and your schedule fills up pretty quick.

Our troubadour just sang a song about Bean Town, which means that I need to wrap this up. But as I said, more is to come!