A friend of ours recently returned from 7 months in the U.K. and spent the last several weeks of his time there asking this question. I don’t necessarily have an answer but I can tell you this is a question I have been asking myself quite a bit lately.
As many of you know Theresa and I work for an organization called YouthWorks. For 9 months out of the year we recruit, interview and hire 300 college and post-college aged staff to live and work in 66 different communities in North America to lead and facilitate summer youth mission trips. The other 3 months of the year our job takes us to one or more of these 66 communities. This summer we will be living and working together in San Francisco. We will lead with two others in a team of four, live in a church (see the ”Where We Live” section to find our address and send us mail!), and learn from the people of San Francisco we have yet to meet.
The summer seems to be a season of change for many. There are several people who have been a large part of our lives here in Minneapolis who will not be here when we return - they are also asking what it means to leave this place.
So leaving this place to me means leaving bike rides on the greenway, Saturdays on the front stoop drinking coffee, knocks on the back door from Hope (the little girls upstairs), friends at Solomon’s Porch and mourning those who won’t be here when we get back in August. We are excited for what’s to come and in anticipation of those we have yet to meet and places we have yet to see. Stay tuned for more regular updates and pictures on what’s happening during our summer. We leave for Denver this Wednesday to visit friends and get ready to leave for the summer.
