On Top of a Mountain

One of the highlights of being back in Cali this summer has been the opportunity to get out camping and hiking at elevation! The Midwest is fun and I enjoy getting out to Forest Park and state parks around, but they do not have much going on for getting up above everything and looking out over it. On Saturday morning, after a great night at an Angels game with Alan, I went with the college group from Friends Church Yorba Linda (where my brother-in-law serves as pastor) to hike up Mount Baldy. In just a 45 minute drive from Orange we were at 6,000 feet positioned to hike 4 miles and climb another 4,000 to get to the top of the mountain. I got excited to see snow at the top that I would hike to and got excited for the view I would see on the summit.

After a couple hours hiking with Nick Alvarez and pushing my legs on the climb I reached the top and felt a great sense of joy and satisfaction in the climb and the view from up there. The marine layer, or June gloom, covered the LA area with a couple peaks sticking out through it and the eastern mountain range shining clearly. Here's a shot of Krista, Aaron, and I at the top.



The trail was steep and the way down a bit painful, but it was awesome to get up high and get a perspective on everything below. The last couple weeks at Harbor have been a chance for me to get away and get a big picture view of what I have learned over the last couple years at Covenant and where God is leading me. My meetings with the various site pastors of Harbor, have been excellent and their questions have helped me reflect on my strengths, gifts, and vision for ministry. Just this morning I had a great conversation with an old friend from Cal Poly, Danny Kim, and he encouraged me a lot as we talked about Strengths Finder and what is important for me in being effective and content in ministry. We also talked about the need to fit volunteers within the church with the areas of leadership and positions they take. The conversation was extremely encouraging and I am thankful for the time with Danny and even the opportunity to be in San Diego serving with Harbor.

This came after a triple header of Harbor services yesterday with meetings or updates at each, Harbor Mira Mesa, Harbor North County, and Harbor Uptown...lots of Harbor, lots of processing, and lots of driving along the beach between them!

2 weeks in and loving Harbor and San Diego!

Settling in to SD

I'm already to day 5 in San Diego (though I was in the OC yesterday for Memorial Day) and it's been a fun last few days. Here's what I've been doing:



-Dinner with Steven and his fam (pastor of Harbor Uptown & Downtown)
-Friday night meeting of a Campus Ministry @ UCSD with the name of Little Spark
-Ultimate Frisbee in Balboa Park
-Strolling the Beach at La Jolla
-Visiting Harbor Chula Vista for their Sunday AM service
-Lunch with Russ and his fam (pastor of Harbor Chula Vista)
-1st Sunday evening service at Harbor Uptown
-Memorial Day in Cypress (BBQ @ Ted & Randa's, disc golf with Austin & Scott and they beat me, Tri-tip NERTS and Chris Tomlin bowling video () with Mom, Dad, Krista, & Aaron)



This morning I left my parents house around 6am to try and beat traffic on the way back down to SD and got back in time to hang out at Ocean Beach and Sunset Cliffs. While there I was offered weed twice within 100 yards of cops, watched the pelicans dive in to catch fish, people fishing off the peer, surfers thrashing, and then stood for close to an hour watching, listening, and feeling the the waves crashing against the rocks and the ocean mist blowing against my face. I could have stood on those rocks for hours more enjoying the beauty and power of the ocean, but work was calling. Seeing the expanse of the ocean and the continual pounding of the waves against the rocks reminded me of the passage in Ephesians 3 where Paul prays for the church to understand the length, breadth, depth, and height of God's love. God's love is greater than anything I can imagine, even the great Pacific Ocean that I love so much. This brings to mind the hymn, the love of God that speaks of the ocean as ink not being enough to write of all God's love,

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.



After leaving the beach I went to the downtown office for Harbor and met with Russ and got a packet explaining more of my internship and had some questions answered before hopping in to a couple meetings for Harbor Uptown and Midtown. These meetings were helpful to show the heart of Harbor and their focus on prayer to seek the Lord for what they do. We also discussed the the parable of the Lost Sons (Luke 15) and in that process of reading and discussing the text I couldn't help but see the exceptional love of the father for both his sons and the exceptional ways he showed it. He loved them when they both wanted to get away from him. Just like the ocean waves continuing to crash on the rocks the father continued to love on the sons that stood against him. The ocean of God's love continues to crash upon me and I look forward to experiencing his love and grace afresh this summer while interning at Harbor.

Harbor Internship Day 1 - Getting Settled

After a weekend celebrating the end of the school year and an early BBQ to celebrate my birthday and a couple days hanging out with my family at home I made it down to Harbor Presbyterian Church around noon today.

I pulled into the Horton Plaza parking structure and looked at a trusty map to try and find the office building for the church in the heart of Downtown San Diego. After a couple blocks walking and a few turnarounds I made it to the office and quickly met the administrative staff before grabbing lunch with Stephen Cooper, pastor of Harbor Downtown & Uptown at J Wok, , a hip asian fusion restaurant just a block or two from Petco Park.

At J Wok we talked about what my goals are for the summer and what I'll be planning on doing. I am hoping over the next 6 weeks to learn more and get more experience in evangelism and Church Planting and also discerning if that might be where God is leading me.

Also, I do hope to get time to reflect on my gifts and direction for where God is leading me. I am hoping that being close to the beach will help me in slowing down and listening to the Lord's voice and discerning his call. Pray for me that God will lead my time here and that I will be faithful to his calling upon my life.

After I finished up my time at Harbor I drove to my new place to meet my host Dale and get settled in at his place. It is in a great location just a block away from Harbor Uptown () and just over a mile north of Balboa Park (where I hope to play some ultimate frisbee on Saturday mornings!). Dale recently lost his wife so I know that a large part of my ministry while here will be spending time with him to process, listen, and love on him. Finally, at the end of the day I made my way over to a community group and had a good time discussing what it looks like to live under authority. I really enjoyed getting back into a small group and just seeing the ways everyone was processing through the discussion. I also saw again the value of asking people to pray for me. So with that, I went to sleep and had many dreams, but my questions I was working through at the end of the day...

Do I really believe God has empowered me with his Spirit to be his witness? (Acts 1:8) If not, why not?

Do I trust that God's power is made perfect in my weakness or do I use my weaknesses as an excuse for not following God's lead on my life? In what ways can I practice ministering out of weakness that I might gain trust in God's power?

Do I trust in the Lord with my whole heart or do I trust in myself and lean on my own understanding? (Prov. 3:5-6) How do I move towards that trust?

These questions will be the beginning of my journaling in the morning, let me know if you have any thoughts on these questions.