I’ve spent the last few days, once again, in SoCal.  Last week I explained in this blog-post that I had spent some time with the National Network of Youth Ministries… the day after I had met with them they called and asked if they could fly me back down for another couple days of collaborating on a pretty special project.

Here’s the brief report on the few days down south…

Wednesday: Grabbed some time catching up with a friend, Mindi, who was also participating in the Wednesday NNYM meeting.  We were able to catch up before heading into the meeting.  Our 3.5 hour collaboration on Wednesday afternoon/evening wasn’t the most exciting, but laid the framework for the next day.  On Wednesday evening I had a blast hanging out with Jeramy once again.  We went out to an awesome Indoor/Outdoor Restaurant (Stone Brewery) before heading to the movie The Book of Eli.  Very interesting film.

Thursday: Jeramy and I went out for an early morning brisk walk (traveling really messes with the ol’ exercise schedule).  After a great breakfast (thanks Jerusha) I was off to the all-day meeting with NNYM.  Fantastic work/progress was done on this project.  Fun to hang out with Kevin, Alon, Daryl and Joel.

I left at 3:15 and started the long-trek up to Simi Valley.  Without any traffic the drive would take probably an hour and 45 minutes.  I arrived in Simi three and a half hours after my departure.  So strange that I could have flown home faster than I drove just 90 or so miles.  Gotta love LA traffic!  Anyway, I had a meeting with my friend Mike and my brother-in-law Scott.  We’re talking about a couple opportunities as well.  It’s fun to partner with my brother-in-law on something and it has been a blessing as well to help Mike on the ministry side of things (he’s a former NBA player who is now doing quite-a-bit of speaking).

On Thursday night I spent a little bit of time with my in-laws before crashing for the night at their place.

Friday: The morning provided a much-needed slower pace; breakfast with my Father-in-law, then off to the Spire offices (and catching up on some admin stuff for Youthmark).  For lunch I was over in Valencia and started my series of meetings:

Lisa: a friend from Alaska/The Master’s College… She’ll be an asset in setting up some of our AK towns this summer.

Joe: another friend from college and currently the Dean of students at TMC.  Great to catch-up and talk thru some future possibilities.

Matt: a meeting my friend Mike had set up.  He is in the film-industry and I wanted to pick his brain about video-production for future possibilities as Youthmark does prom0-pieces and such.

Tim, a Youth Pastor in Valencia who is considering/leaning toward doing a Youthmark Mission Venture.

A very full afternoon in Santa Clarita, but an exciting time with these four.

My evening was very exciting back over in Camarillo as I got to go out to dinner with my in-laws and then head over to Anthony and Stephanie’s and catch up with them!

As this post goes live, I will be on my way home to my family that I miss so much!  Excited to hug, kiss and love on them!

Praising God for a few busy/productive/inspiring days in LA-LA land!

Grace,
Brian