Yosemite National Park

We had a great time in Yosemite. Collin stands in front of the Bachelor and 3 Graces. Look for tree hugging Alex and Willy's attitude in the tree tunnel. There was smoke in the air, that's why the pictures are hazy. The red sun is what we see every night with the smoke in the air. Oh and it was 102 degrees:)

Sailing on the Bay

On Thursday, Josh and I spent the day sailing on the SF Bay. This was an opportunity for us, Kristin (the other intern) and Doug (the pastor at Granite Springs) to talk with Ron (one of the other church planters in the area) about church planting. What a nice way to hear Ron's story and ask questions about church planting. I've still been looking for the cross-cultural link in this internship and I wonder if sailing on the Bay might be it.

Does Josh have hidden Musical Talent?

I have not done any preaching while we have been here, but I have had small parts in worship leading. Since the church has a lot of old people, and since the one good quality of my voice is that it is usually loud and clear when I speak in public, I have had more people than usual tell me they like listening to me speak. (Apparently when older people have a choice between a monotone voice they can hear and a voice with vocal variety that they can’t hear, they prefer the monotone.)

Last Sunday, a few minutes after I briefly spoke during the service, the guy sitting in front of me turned around and said I had a nice voice. He is an older guy, and I assumed he was making the same type of comment others had made to me.

At lunch that day, Amy (who had heard the comment) brought it up and said I should enjoy it because I will probably never hear it again. I told her that a lot of people have said they enjoy my speaking voice. She said: he wasn’t talking about your speaking voice, he was talking about your singing voice.

Anyone who has ever heard me sing (or heard my dad sing) would understand why I have a hard time believing he could possibly have been talking about my singing voice. When the other intern here with me asked a couple weeks ago whether I was tone deaf and I told her that I did not know what that means, she said “if you don’t know what that means then you probably are.”

The most curious thing about all of this is that this was not just some musically illiterate guy like me; he is a guy in his 60s who has played in a band his whole life and now leads one of the praise bands at the church.

So, there you have it: Amy is convinced that a guy who she thinks has a lot of musical talent complimented me on my singing voice.

Maybe instead of this whole preaching thing I need to find a producer and cut an album.

P.S. The reason I believe Gene was talking about Josh's singing voice is because he invited both of us to sing with the praise band in August; thank goodness we'll be on our way home by then. I also have to wonder if Gene was actually hearing some other guy singing near us and assumed it was Josh as that would explain a lot.

4th of July

We were busy most of the week building this float. Have any of you ever had the experience of making and decorating a float? It's a lot more work than you would think. I don't think I'll be building any floats in the near future.

Will and Alex had fun riding in the float for the 4th of July parade through downtown.

This parade was a much bigger deal for the size of the town than I would have thought, but I guess I have to remember I'm in "the All American Town" of Lincoln.

San Francisco

Does this bush look at all out of place next to the garbage can?

It's the BUSH MAN!! I highly, highly recommend looking for him if you're ever in San Francisco. Of all the street performers I've seen (which isn't saying much), he must be the funniest one yet. After seeing him in action the first time, we over heard some people ask "How does a guy wake up one day and decide to spend his life sitting behind a few branches scaring people." Hmm...Maybe it's the big wad of cash I saw him counting later in the day. Whatever his motivation, it's absolutely hilarious to watch him scare people and the reaction he gets from them.

Throughout the day, we walked by several people holding signs asking for money, the best of which were:

• Cash Needed for Alcohol Research
• Cash for Weed
• Spaire Change Pleese

They almost convinced me to give them money...Almost:)

The boys' excitement of the day came from the jelly fish, pirate ship, and porcupine fruit we saw. Josh's excitement came from marching everyone straight up hill 15 blocks(Check out the pics where the bay is way down the street..we didn't get up there by trolly). My excitement came from Chinatown and watching all the people. It sure felt like we just stepped into China.

Enjoy our pictures.

North Highlands

Yesterday we went to a neighborhood on the north side of Sacramento. Part of Josh's internship is to write a proposal for how and where we would plant a church. We picked North Highlands (double the average poverty levels of the US) as our neighborhood. We went there yesterday just to get a sense for the community. We visited a few parks and drove some of the residential streets.

While at one of the parks where Josh, Will and Alex were playing on the toys and I was in the car because Matt was sleeping, this car pulls up with this young guy whose talking really loud on his cell phone. I over hear part of the conversation and I must say I don't think he sees me in the car because what I hear makes me think that some sort of exchange is going to happen. Then Matt wakes up so we go over to the toys too. I keep a watch over at the car and this other car pull up a few minutes later. The young guy gets out, chats with the the new dude, gets in the car for a few minutes and then gets out and they both leave. Now I'm not entirely sure what took place but I can make a guess. I'm sold on the neighborhood as this makes me feel just like I'm home. Boy do I miss my neighborhood. Can't wait to be home.

MondayNightFeast

Last night we went to a free community dinner which I was surprised to see was put on by Granite Springs. This was a simple meal where people all around Lincoln were invited to come out and build some community. It was held at the historic Ladies Club which was right downtown. The church hosts this dinner on the last Monday of the month with the intention of helping those who might need a little help towards the end of the month with food, building community and getting those from the church across the tracks. It got me thinking what a blessing this was for everyone involved and how easy it was to do. It could work almost anywhere (hint, hint:).