Two very cool things happened this summer:
1. A bunch of young life people let me go on a trip with them to Colorado...for free.
2. Mom and Dad let me use their mileage on Southwest to fly to Portland, OR to see my sister.
Frontier RanchIt's really hard to describe what happened at Frontier Ranch. If you've never been I could show you all the pictures and tell you all the stories, but it still probably wouldn't make sense. If you have been you understand in those two words what the week had in store.
For the former, I will do my best to help you understand:
The week was a non-stop series of games, skits, songs, and life change. There was a ropes course, a 13,000 ft. mountain, a bunch of hilarious skit characters, and a handful of high school students that were remarkably nice and honest.
The honesty part was what truly blew me away. I met these guys on July 4th, and by July 7th and 8th they were sharing some of their deepest darkest secrets. All of were us in tears, and it was immensely powerful.
They say that Frontier Ranch is the 'best week of your life,' which was a big reason why I went. I was going in thinking, "OK, why is this going to be the best week of my life?" When I got their they said that it wouldn't be the best week of my life as a leader. They were wrong. I got to watch hearts change and fall in love with Jesus like I've never seen before, and now it looks like I may have an opportunity to disciple these guys, which totally pumps me up.
Portland, OROne word to describe Portland: Austin.
There is diversity in Portland, much like Austin, there is a river that goes through the city, there is a huge environmental and liberal mindset, there are old people that are willing to dance like fools in public, there are bikes...lots and lots of bikes, and there is a river to go tubing down, filled with all the kinds of people you might see in a river just south of the River City.
That being said, I love Portland. As if I needed another reason, it is the hometown of one of my heroes: Matt Groening (creator of the Simpsons), so there were all kinds of neat things to see and do.
Nearly the first place I walked into was a comic book store the size of Wal-Mart. They had EVERYTHING. Stuff that I had been looking for for years. Stuff that I didn't even know existed (a Justice League trade written by Meltzer?).
One street alone had about 3 record stores. I think there may be one in Houston.
We got to eat lots of good food, see lots of cool things, and have lots of good conversations. It felt like college again, and I loved it. Some have given me a hard time about that, but that's fine.
Comments (1)
Excellent report. Sounds great!