Sometimes I like a rainy day...

And it's easier to like those days when you live in Southern California, where the average annual rainfall amount is only 12 inches. I like it when it rains, because it provides a change of pace. The world is different for a day. It can also make it easier for me to get things done. I don't seem to mind staying inside and reading when it's rainy and chilly outside. Perhaps I would have been a better seminary student if I'd gone to Gordon-Conwell up in New England where I'd be snowed-in for months. I doubt it though. As you've probably guessed, it's raining here today.

The family that eats together stays together.

More from the retreat...One of the cool things about our retreat is that we cooked all the meals we ate together, AND we ate them all around the table. After too many meals eaten alone on the couch in front of the TV, this was a very welcome change. My roommates know I'm a big fan of eating at the table. As we sat down for one of these meals this weekend I said we could do a lot to change the world if people would just eat at the table together more often. So here we are, having breakfast on Friday morning. Mmmm...bacon and eggs. Thanks to Kyle for doing most of the cooking that morning. And now you can see the whole group; they are (clockwise from left) Ryan (Jones), Ephany, Chris, Kyle, Tim, and Keith. By the way, a little more info about the group - we're all Fuller students who hail from such diverse locales as Kenya, Delaware, Oregon, Arizona, Georgia, Washington (state), and of course...Indiana! We meet once a week to study the Bible and share life together. It's awesome.

Mountain retreat

I just got back from a mountain retreat. I went with a small group of guys of which I am a part. There are seven of us. We spent two nights in a cabin at Big Bear - a place up in the moutains a couple hours east of Pasadena. It was a great weekend. The low was around 20 at night, and it didn't get warmer than about 40 during the day, and last night we got a couple inches of snow! The three of us pictured - (L to R) Keith, Me, Kyle - went sledding down the road our cabin was on between 12:30 and 1:00 a.m. What a nice break from the real world. And what great guys!