Happy New Year!!!

We arrived in Washington DC on New Years Eve and rang in the holiday with over a dozen friends that we've traveled and done work with over the past few years.  We spent most of the night playing Apples to Apples, random card games, and even brief dance parties.  By the time midnight came around, we were worshiping and praying in the New Year and honestly, even missed the midnight countdown.  The days since then have been spent processing through future plans with each other, praying over those of us headed out of the country, and just enjoying each others company.

Today, most people are headed home, back to work, and back to the "real world".  While we could spend time dwelling on our last few days together, almost stuck in this utopian mindset, we have to go back out at some point and live the lives God has blessed us with.  Too often in life, we retreat to these mountain top experiences only to return to our lives with good stories and fond memories that never really have that long term change.  I worked at a summer camp for four years and left each year with nothing but fond memories.  I know these experiences are necessary and highly valued, but I want to leave one of these mountain top experiences, never to be the same again.

The thing I've learned with the passing of another New Year celebration is the value of community.  We need each other to get through this life.  We need each other to talk to, process with, laugh together, encourage each other, pray over, and just be together.

With that said, I have a New Years resolution.  First, I need to respond to e-mails, answer the phone, and just be more available for my friends and family.  On top of that, I need to send e-mails, make phone calls, and just pursue my friends and family.  We're here for each other, yet we're so fond of isolation in the form of back porches, "alone time", and caller id.  We need each other, and even if we're going to Africa, it's a good thing we have internet and e-mails.  We have to prefer each other...