Long time, no blog. I went to Utah yesterday and I came back today. Whew! I think I talk about Utah in every blog entry, ha ha. Well, last week I did a little site seeing in Utah. I went to Antelope Island which is in the Salt Lake. It's pretty big and it even has a buffalo ranch on it. I only saw a couple buffalo though. There was also a ton of mosquitos. I guess the area isn't that popular with the locals for that reason alone. Anyways, there was this cool lightning storm on one side of the island and it was clear on the other. My coworker had a film camera so we took some (what I hope is) awesome photos. I'll scan them and put them online soon. I really wish I brought my digital. Next time I go out there for a couple days, I'll take some photos there. I doubt there will be such a cool storm to cast the lighting effects we had this time.

This Saturday I'm moving to Torrance. I haven't packed anything. I haven't had any time. So the plan is to get the truck from Budget early in the morning. Bring it back and put everything that doesn't fit in my car into the truck (i.e. furniture) and take it to Torrance and try to return the truck before they close that day so I won't have to wait until the next day since that's the day I'm going to visit my new church. I hope I like it there.

People are shocked that I'm leaving Grace. It has been my church for 10 years, but I have many reasons for leaving:

1) I live in Westwood. My church is one way and my work is the opposite way. I am spread way too thin. Either I have to get a new job near church or get a new church near work and then live near both.

2) Because I spend all my time driving, I get really worn out and it's hard to really serve in a church. I really want to get involved with youth ministry. I have wanted to do that since I was in college, but I couldn't at Grace because all the stuff was in the valley and met a couple times during the week. That's a long drive through L.A. traffic to go from work to Grace.

3) Since Grace Community Church is not really a local church unless you think of greater Los Angeles as being local, I really struggle having community in my church. It's more like Grace Commuter Church for me. I really need a church family, not just a church.

4) From the beginning, I knew I wouldn't be at Grace forever. It was a great place to learn a whole lot, but now I feel like I need to use what I've learned cuz I'm just getting fat on it. I haven't come close to learning all there is to know, but MacArthur has plenty of materials online so it's not like I will be without. And there will also be plenty of his books to read still of which I am way behind on. Plus the pastor of the new church is a Masters Seminary grad so the teaching is built on a solid foundation.

So everyone I tell this to says these are all excellent reasons for leaving a church, ha ha. I'm glad I came up with them and didn't get them from someone else who was telling me to leave, ha ha. I will be going to the Foundry reatreat for Labor Day and then I'll be done with singles ministry, but not done being single....WOOOOOO! Ha ha, j/k.