Long time

First of all I must apologize to all of you faithful readers out there - I readily admit that by now there might not be more than 2 or 3 of you, but at one time I was averaging 30-40 hits per day...
Anyway, I'm back from a long and wonderful summer as an EFY coordinator in the Northwest. I grew to love my team, we were all about as different as we could be but that was what made it so fun. I need to give a shout out to all of them - they made it what it was and I'm grateful for that.
I love the kids, the dances, the games, pizza night, devotionals, late night talks with counselors, ice cream, big mama (this monsterous black lady from the south who always gave you more food than you could eat), the speakers, the testimonies of the youth, sleeping on a different bed every week, driving, flying, navigating through airports (always made me think of Brian Reagan), rental cars, working with administrators, coordinating, having ample time for scripture study everyday, running on no sleep week in and week out, random trips to lighthouses, tillamook, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, bowling, cafeteria food everyday for 8 weeks, french toast sticks every morning, spending time with my dad, talking to my mom on the phone, telling everyone I met about the color code, refusing to be part of the drama and then getting sucked into it all, being he liaison with the university when we broke their hammock or their big screen TV, making kids get haircuts, dancing, Miley Cirus and all her wonderful music, learning how to fall asleep anywhere at anytime, talking trash with 50 yr old men, having my eyes opened to the world outside Utah, the sunsets over the Puget Sound, the same music at the dances twice a week for 8 weeks, inside jokes, new sweat pants, the doghouse, cheesecake for dessert, French fries everyday for lunch for 4 weeks, giving haircuts, the Olympics, more facebook friends than I've ever had before, the clapper, random talents kids have these days, pokemon, and so on and so forth.
If I could sum up the summer into one lesson learned it would be this: Always give everyone the benefit of the doubt - you never know what they are going through. Time and again this was pounded home to me as I talked with youth, counselors, friends, etc. You never can tell what they are going through and 99% of people really do try to do the right thing and be good. And when they don't they almost always know it - they usually don't need someone to tell them.
I loved it - I'm different because of the experience. The people I met have and will continue to change my life. The experiences I had have and will continue to shape me. If I was Julie Andrews EFY would definitely make my favorites things list...
Right behind raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.