Ode to a Good Summer

I leave for Thailand tomorrow. I think back on my summer and conclude that it’s been a good one. God blessed me in many ways, including in areas I wasn’t sure if He would or not. My faith was strengthened through that. This summer, I saw beautiful pictures of how the Kingdom of God is supposed to function, and what happens when it does function like it’s supposed to.

I was worried about finances and how I would pay for my internship in Thailand – and yet I was overwhelmed at people’s generosity as financial support poured in as a response to my letters. Even random people who saw my group on Facebook supported me. Sometimes I hear people in the US complain about how everyone only cares about their own lives and not at all about the rest of the world. That’s not what I experienced with this internship. I was humbled at how excited people were to support me and the sacrifices I’m sure they had to make financially in order to send me. I had my own friends - not their parents - giving me 100 or 200 dollars! I was humbled and thankful for every contribution - big or small - that people made to help me serve others.

Along the same line of being stretched in my ability and willingness to trust: I was worried about finding work for the summer. I came back from Africa in the beginning of June, but then my family went on vacation to the Smokies. I didn’t start job searching essentially until mid-June. Could I find work for the summer?

Well, thanks to God, there are some amazing, godly people, like Mark Moad. Mark Moad, for those of you who don’t know him, is a man from my church, Hershey Evangelical Free Church. He’s a businessman who has a heart bigger than his body (and he is a big guy!) He had the vision laid on his heart to help young men who couldn’t find jobs for the summer. So he decided to pay them to do work for other people who needed work done - such as the Hershey E-Free Church - as well as other people in the church. Mark got as much financial support as possible from people in the church to help him with this project, but he still fronted much of the money himself.

Imagine paying multiple full-time laborers for jobs that bring you no financial payback! Economically, it makes no sense. But as Kenny Miller, my supervisor in Thailand said: “That right there is Kingdom economics.” Such community support and utter sacrifice is a beautiful picture of how the Kingdom of God should be working. It has humbled me and I pray that more of us can catch that vision.

One of my favorite people in the world and one of my close friend’s dad, Bruce Clutcher, contributed to Mark’s funds and Uncle Bruce had me come work at his house for 2 weeks. I got plenty of work done around the Clutcher’s house, and I also got to enjoy watching YouTube videos and playing tennis with Uncle Bruce! What a great job!

I also enjoyed spending a good week or so at the house of the parents of another one of my close friends: Jeff and Cathy Davis (aka "Mom and Dad II, III, or IV"). To my lovely surprise, the first evening I went over to work, their daughter Jen and her husband (my long-time best friend Ben) had driven up from Annapolis! In other words, I got to spend most of my summer working around people who are very close to me and who mean the world to me! I also enjoyed Mr. Davis’ lessons on leadership principles on our trips to get more mulch!

To help Mark out a little and lessen his financial burden, I passed around flyers in my neighborhood explaining that I was looking for work. Despite getting reprimanded by the post office for using mailboxes, I got several jobs – one doing grounds work at the local animal hospital which provided me work until the end of the summer!

I really enjoyed doing landscaping this summer. I put on my iPod and listened to podcasts while working with my hands all day. I loved listening to podcasts. My favorite included: This American Life, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me, Slate Magazine, NPR’s Planet Money, PRI’s America Abroad, The Veritas Forum, This I Believe, The Moth, Stuff You Should Know, PRI’s To The Best of Our Knowledge, The New Yorker’s Fiction and Out Loud podcasts, BBC Documentaries, as well as sermons by Tim Keller, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, and Rob Bell . I looked forward to work every day so I could listen to my podcasts! It was pretty good simultaneously working with my hands while being intellectually stimulated.

God also blessed me with friends this summer. As all of my best friends are no longer in the area, I wondered how lonely it would be at home. Fortunately, I was blessed to make a whole new group of friends at Infusion! What an awesome group of people! In addition, I also got to spend a great amount of time with my best friends, despite our distance apart. My time in Africa, apart from them, reminded me how much Ben, Jen, Alissa, Dave, and others mean to me. I cherished every moment I got to spend with them this summer. I've had some stuff to work through, and my best friends were exactly what I needed. I also loved meeting Alissa's boyfriend Dhilan and happily receive him into the family!

I was also blessed to spend some great time with the fam this summer, including a week-long trip to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee!

All in all, it was a great summer and the Lord was good.