Intern Chronicles

Reflections from 64 days in California’s Central Valley

Author’s note: This article was born out of a common, simple question, posed to me by a number of people over the last few weeks: how was your summer? This question is not easily or quickly answered well. Thus, I take fingers to keys to tell the world about the summer of 2018.

A fateful encounter

It’s August 26th, 2016. I had been a resident assistant in Hotchkiss Hall on the campus of the Master’s University for 19 days. I had spent those 19 days training, preparing the dorm for the school year, and orienting new students. On that hot Southern California Saturday, the returning students moved back into the dorm. I was an eager RA and was trying to find my niche in a dorm that is notorious for being very close-knit, while having been myself a transfer from a different dorm up the hill. So I poked my head into the rooms on my hall, just trying to be friendly and reach out to guys. There was one guy in particular that I was interested in getting to know. He was rooming with a fellow staff member and was well-known and well-liked among the returners I had already met. Having not yet checked him into the dorm and given him his keys, I utilized a meaningless administrative task to introduce myself. I walked into room 219 and said “Hey man, I’m Daniel, the RA. I’ve got a paper for you to sign and keys for you.”

With a sense of friendly confidence that put my apprehensive, out-of-place self at ease, he extended his hand and replied:

“Hi. I’m Nathan Parsons.”

He immediately began asking me questions about myself. We began talking and hit it off immediately. Within a few minutes we discovered all kinds of common interests — church history, theology, ministry, future seminary education — and we became fast friends.

Within the first days of our friendship, Nathan brought up his summer internship multiple times. Knowing that internships for college students are a dime a dozen, I didn’t press him about it. But the more we got to know each other, the more it became apparent that his time in this internship was extremely impactful in his life. I got curious, and one day as we ate lunch before our Reformation history class, I asked him about it. He proceeded to tell me all about the relationships he built there, the mentorship he received, how much his thinking was honed and affected by his time at this place. The name? Grace Church of the Valley, in Kingsburg, California.

Little Sweden

Kingsburg was original a Central Pacific Railroad town, founded in the 1870s by Swedish immigrants. Built on the banks of the Kings River, the land lent itself to grape farming. So vineyards began popping up that produced primarily raisins and table grapes. By 1921 the town was almost entnirely Swedish-American, earning it the nickname “Little Sweden.”

Nearly 100 years later, in some senses, not much has changed. Fruit agriculture is still the primary industry. That is the locus around which everything turns in the Central Valley, and especially in Kingsburg, known affectionately by the locals as “K-Town.” The city holds an annual Swedish festival to celebrate their heritage, and within the downtown area Swedish-inspired architecure pays homage to the city’s ethnic heritage.

But another feature of the town is far more important for the purposes of my story. Located in what could be called the Bible belt of California, Kingsburg is home to a remarkable 19 churches. Two hyperboles about Kingsburg bear a remarkable amount of truth: 1) there’s a church on every corner, and 2) everyone is a “Christian.” But for a family of Kingsburg fruit farmers, along with some close friends, this was not enough for the spiritual health of themselves and their families.

Grace, born by grace

In 2005, a group of families from Kingsburg began to meet weekly at Kingsburg High School to study the Bible. Some farmers, some from other professions, they gathered with an emphasis on sound doctrine and explanation of God’s Word. As the Bible study grew, the men who were leading the group realized the importance of having trained leadership to teach them. One leader in particular had what could only be described as a divinely-ordained connection: his father was an elder at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, the home church of world-renowned pastor and Bible teacher John MacArthur. Utilizing this connection, with a Biblically-informed desire for a seminary-trained pastor-teacher for their growing fellowship, they pursued the leadership at Grace Community Church, along with the leadership at The Master’s Seminary (the pastoral training school on the campus of GCC) to help them find someone who could teach them the Bible with faithfulness and accuracy and guide them spiritually with the heart of a shepherd. By God’s grace He provided two men from the Master’s Seminary, one to preach and teach, and one to lead the children’s ministry (a great necessity due to the nuber of young families in the Bible study).

In September of 2007, Grace Church of the Valley was born.

Fast-forward to the summer of 2016. The church is meeting in the Kingsburg High School “Little Theatre.” On any given Sunday there could be over 500 people in attendance for Sunday worship. There are more elders, more vocational pastors, a thriving children’s ministry, a youth ministry that is the result of 9 years of faithful teaching in the children’s ministry, and an impending opening of a Master’s Seminary distance location to provide further opportunities for ministry and training of capable shepherds for church ministry. But the ideology driving it all remains the same: A pursuit of the glory of God by exalting the Savior, equipping the saints, and extending the kingdom.

Through a church connection, Nathan Parsons spends the summer as an intern at the church, learning the ins and outs of church ministry, being discipled, and building relationships.

The connection

Nathan’s love for this place and these people spills over constantly as he and I build our friendship in the fall of 2016. So much of who he is was shaped by his time here. The more he talked, the more I became intrigued. He mentioned names constantly — speaking to the strong relational focus of the church — names like Scott Ardavanis, Shay Thomason, Blake Boys, the Jackson family, the Muxlow family. Nathan loved these people. As I grew closer and closer to Nathan, I became more and more curious. I wanted to see it for myself. In all honesty, I was a bit skeptical. Having been raised in a church where spiritual and numerical growth were often hard to come by, despite the faithfulness of the leadership, the things going on at Grace Church of the Valley seemed too good to be true. Biblically literate high schoolers? People willing to volunteer their time and resources to serve the church, purely out of obedience to the Word and the joy that comes from that? A beautiful new building being built on a major thoroughfare? I couldn’t believe it.

Then September of my junior year at the Master’s University rolls around. Through a bizarre, and yet retrospectively divine set of circumstances, Nathan and I wind up leading a weekend ministry team to to Kingsburg to help the staff at the church transition to the new building, set to open in just 5 months. As I’m serving the church in a super practical, hands-on way, I’m starting to see it. The Lord is doing things at this church. In small ways and in big ways.

In January, over my first weekend back in California after spring break, I reconnect with GCV, this time through their youth winter camp as a counselor. I jumped at the opportunity, and Camp Nelson proved to be a huge platform for me as I moved, at this time unknowingly, toward a summer in Kingsburg. Over the course of a few days I was able to lay the foundation for relationships with the high schoolers that are such a big part of the life of this church. It was a sweet time, and one that I did not realize would become so important.

An afternoon with the Ardos

The new building was ready. After years of planning and construction, it was ready to be opened. On a cool March morning, for the first time, the giant doors on the front of the new Grace Church of the Valley worship center were opened. Again, Nathan and I were present, having volunteered to help out with children’s ministry so that the regular volunteers could enjoy the first service in their new facility. That in and of itself was a sweet time, and a great moment to be present for in the life of this church.

But what was truly pivotal about that day (in ways that I am still realizing some four months later) was the time we spent with the family of the senior pastor, Dr. Scott Ardavanis, after the service.

This particular afternoon was not about me at all, and rightfully so. The stars of the show were Nathan and his fiancee Maya. This was one of the first times Maya really got to interact with the Ardavanis family, that is so dear to Nathan, since they got engaged in late December. So I sat back, smile on my face, and listened as Scott and Patty and a handful of their seven children fired question after question about the engagement, the wedding planning, plans for life together, and a dozen other things at the happy couple.

But as the afternoon waned on, for a brief moment, the conversation turned to me. Scott began asking me some questions about my plans for the future, my plans for the summer, what I wanted to do with my life. After a few minutes, Scott tossed out an idea (as anyone who knows him knows that he has a tendency to do): I should reach out to Shay Thomason, the GCV youth pastor, whom I had worked with previously in October and again in January, about interning in the summer. That night I shot Shay a text, and the rest is history.

Hume

A few texts, a few emails, an interview, and 3 months pass into eternity. It was June 5th. I was driving through the northern Arizona desert, thinking, praying, and trying to anticipate exactly what this summer would look like. All I was hoping for was a tiny amount of spiritual impact, even one person who I helped in some way to see Christ more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly. As I was eating breakfast early on the morning of June 6th, in Las Vegas at the home of a dear friend, I got a glimpse of what I was jumping into. My phone buzzed with a text from a number I didn’t have in my contacts. A 559 area code. I tapped the text, and the opening line was “Hi Daniel! This is Lindsey Ardavanis!” She asked me to teach at a first-ever junior high summer event, on the parable of the sower. The picture of my ministry for the summer got a bit clearer. But what became more important about this text was not the content of the text itself, but the person who sent it. If I had only known that morning, as I read that text while eating some bacon and eggs, what my relationship with Lindsey would become, I would have laughed.

On the afternoon of June 6th I rolled up to the church building. I had seen it three times before, in March, and twice in May as I passed through the Central Valley on my way to and from a wedding. It’s a beautiful building, really. Subtle and functional, suited for all kinds of ministry. I met Shay out front and the summer began.

I spent a few days getting settled and moved in. I was boarding for the summer with the kindest, most hospitable family. Gwen and Adrian became such dear friends, and their adult son Nathan, who also lived in their house, subtly became one of my favorite people at GCV. I often had the place to myself while the family was off at work, and it was a lovely place to have lived for the summer. I had the run of the kitchen, which allowed me to hone my fairly limited cooking skills. The Oskams also hosted the college and young adult ministry at their home every Saturday, which proved to be a time I will remember fondly.

On Sunday, the tidal wave hit. It was Hume Sunday. Before services began I, along with the other volunteers, set up popup tents, picked up pizza, and prepared to greet the students and help them get their luggage loaded and board the buses as their parents sent them off after service.

On the bus up to Hume Lake Christian Camps, where we would be spending a week, I was a little bit nervous. I was unsure exactly how to communicate with junior highers, having been saturated in college and campus ministry for three years. I felt I had lost my touch with kids some ten years younger than myself. But as the bus pulled up, and we moved into our cabins, and got checked in, I started catching the groove. I started to click a little bit with some of the junior highers. But in my genuine desire to lead well and set a good example, I think the students weren’t connecting with me because I didn’t seem like I wanted to have fun with them.

The real chemistry came on Monday afternoon. Earlier that day we had our first rec game time. Shay came over and hung out with us, and he was acting insane. Shay is a very high energy guy, and he loves the students and loves ministry and loves having fun doing it. When I saw him jumping around, dancing, and having a generally fun time, I started loosening up. A dab here, a floss there. Eventually I found myself stomping and jumping around a circle of 3 dozen junior highers leading a war chant. The mask came off. The proverbial collar was loosened. I was no longer Daniel the Warden. I was Daniel the Guy Who Doesn’t Care About Making a Public Fool of Himself In Order To Have A Fun Time. Therein lay the first ministry lesson I learned from Shay this summer: have fun. That’s how young people connect to you. Don’t be boring. Be crazy. Thankfully craziness runs in my blood, so it wasn’t difficult. And from that moment on, I began really connecting with the students.

Hume was full of fun, good conversations, laughter, and discipleship.

By God’s grace students were gaining the courage to be vocal about confessing sin and asking me and my co-counselor what it took to follow Jesus seriously. I’ll never forget that week, and I’ll never forget each of those 9 young guys who I grew to love so much during that week.

Perhaps the most impactful aspect of Hume was my relationship with my co-counselors. Seth Costi was co-counseling the GCV boys with me, and it was a blast with him. He has a depth of character and a love for Christ and hatred for his sin that is uncommon in young men just coming out of high school. He didn’t shy away from hard questions and we often found ourselves discussing theology and Christian living late into the night. But he wasn’t a one-dimensional guy. He also has an incredibly unconventional sense of humor, which played well with my sense of humor. He and I laughed hard and often together that week. The counselors for the GCV girls were two sisters who have appeared briefly in this story up to this point. They are (quite literally) two peas from the same pod, having spent 9 months as wombmates, and another 18 years as roommates. They are known affectionately by all who have the privilege of calling them friends as “The Binger and the Bomber.” They are the youngest of the 7 Ardavanis kids, the twins, Lindsey and Lauren. It wasn’t until about Tuesday at Hume that I could tell the two of them apart. At meal time, one guy counselor and one girl counselor from each church would go early and set up their church’s table in the dining hall. I took on this responsibility for most meals for the guys, and the twins would alternate for the girls. In the calm before the storm of mealtime, we had many a good conversation as we set up and ate our meal before the students were allowed into the dining hall. Initially, in the same way that I couldn’t tell them apart by physical appearance, I also couldn’t tell them apart by personality. But as the week wore on and I spent more and more time with them, I began to be able to tell the differences. Lindsey is a thinker. She is immensely practical, highly organized, and very responsible. Lauren is a freer spirit than her sister, laughing often and sometimes (to Lindsey’s and my mild frustration) losing focus on the task at hand. Lindsey pulls information from her memory and logical way of thinking. Lauren gets the same information by her curiousity and question-asking abilities. Lindsey is sensible. Lauren is compassionate. Through a summer of working and playing with the twins, I can say that I am immensely grateful for the contribution of the YEETERmuffin squad to the intern chronicles.

Office life

In what seemed simultaneously like an eternity and the blink of an eye, Hume drew to a close. But the work had only just begun.

Starting Monday, June 18th, the internship transitioned from the woods with no phone service to the church office in the back of the worship center — also with no phone service.

The office is anchored by three women who really are the glue that holds GCV together, at least from an administrative standpoint.

Brynna Hansen (soon to be Patel), Sarah Oskam, and Kristin Torres (soon to be Muxlow) fulfill the roles of administrative assistant, office manager, and assistant to the office manager, respectively. While it may seem as though these roles are of little eternal value, nothing could be further from the truth. Without the hard work that these three put in every Monday through Friday, the pastors and elders at GCV could not do the work of the ministry that they do.

But beyond just working in the office with “the girls,” I also gained friendships with them. Whether it was over Costco runs, trips to Fresno for Dutch Bros and Chick-fil-a, putting on games at Kidsfest on Wednesday nights, or celebrating birthday parties with game nights at Casa de Sasa, I saw how these women not only serve the church practically with their administrative and organizational skills, but also use their gifts to minister to the church outside of their professional context. Women like Brynna and Sarah and Kristin are a gift to the church, and one that should not quickly be taken for granted.

“I’m leaving the group chat”

Kristin’s fiancee, Ty Muxlow, is known to stop by the office just to see his soon-to-be-wife. For me, this resulted in getting to know Ty quite well over the course of the summer.

On June 28th, just three weeks into my time in Kingsburg, Kristin and Ty asked me on the spur of the moment to go with them to Fresno to pick up Kristin’s cousin Silas from the airport. I jumped at the opprtunity to be able to spend some time and build a relationship with this fun couple. We were joined by Fresh GuacaMolly Klassen, for what would be the first of many “squad hangouts” over the course of the summer.

Ty and Kristin quickly become good friends to me, and we spent time together doing all sorts of things, whether it was going to Fresno to get Ty’s heavy ol’ table from his old apartment, or going on a day trip to the Sequoias, or playing board games at night. They are a blast to spend time with, and were partners in deep, fruitful conversations about all kinds of topics. Spending the summer with them has catapulted them to the top of my list of “favorite dating/engaged couples,” right there with Nathan and Maya (even though they’re married now). I am looking forward to September 15th.

The three-fold internship

About two weeks into my time in the Central Valley, a truth began to reveal itself: I did not have one internship. Nor did I have two. I, in fact, was participating in three internships. Internship #1, dubbed “The Shayternship,” was what I signed up for. Named for Shay Thomason, it consisted of youth ministry, discipling high schoolers and junior highers, facilitating four high school events and four junior high events, as well as putting together other “fun stuff” for the youth group to do. But I got two bonus internships as well. The first was the “Blaketernship,” named for music and media pastor Blake Boys, and it had two parts. The first is utilizing my experience in live sound to do sound setup and tear down for 13 outdoor events over the summer. It required me to build a trailer with all the necessary gear, set it up before each event and tear it down after, and make sure everything made it to and from the venues without being lost, stolen, or destroyed (more on that later). The second part of the Blaketernship was helping Blake renovate the house he bought this summer. The second of the bonus internships was certainly the most entertaining, and the one for which I hold perhaps the most fond memories: the Sideternship. In this internship, I was “on-call” to help Scott Ardo with whatever he wanted help with. This usually involved cruising all over creation in the Naglemobile: a 1980s Chevy Astro van, belonging to Steve Nagle, a member at GCV, which Scott often requisitioned to haul such things as a new grill, a bed frame, and trash.

Needless to say, I had plenty to do this summer. I was never bored, but I was also never tired. Perhaps because I loved all of it so much, and loved the people I was doing it with.

Down to the river to play

A staple event of GCV youth ministry is River of Life. Over the course of four Friday nights through the summer, high schoolers are invited from churches and high schools around the Central Valley to come to the banks of the Kings River and play games, eat, and hear teaching from God’s Word. You can’t go wrong with that formula, and Shay and the GCV student leaders have it down to a science. So every Friday I spent 7 hours in Dan and Amy Jackson’s backyard, first setting up, then leading games, on occasion MCing, and leading a post-teaching small group. These four Fridays were highlights of the summer.

One of my favorite things to do in youth and kids ministry is games. From the time I was 13 until now, youth ministry games are near and dear to my heart. This summer I got to do a lot of games. We did Soap Soccer, which is nothing more than a miniature game of soccer on a Slip’N’Slide tarp. We did BoomBall, a game that I poached from a dorm at TMU and modified for my own purposes, which is essentially baseball with a bat that nearly guarantees a hit every time you swing. We also played Plungerball, a game invented at TMU and taken to youth groups around the country due to it’s playability and appeal to all ages and abilities. Within River of Life games this summer, I was reminded of a couple of things, lessons I will remember as I continue in ministry. The first is to not force participation. Some people are content with watching, and the last thing you want to do as a youth games guy is make someone feel bad for not participating. The point of games is to have fun and get everybody loose and hungry and a little tired and ready to sit and listen to God’s Word taught. It’s not to have 100% participation and fiery competition the entire time. Another thing I reflected on, in light of running River of Life games, is that games give a platform for Christian witness. Now before you accuse me of going super-spiritual, let me explain. An event like River of Life represents a church, an organization, and ultimately the God whom you serve.

If you’re complete jerk in the field of play, no one is going to listen to you when you sit down in a circle of chairs and try to speak truth into the lives of students who just saw you lose it during a game of Plungerball.

Games are a powerful tool in the arsenal of a youth leader. This summer I was reminded to use them well and wisely.

The Boys

After each and every message at River of Life, the students are asked to circle up their chairs in groups of 6–8 with a leader and talk through the message, discuss what we learned, and challenge each other to live it out in our daily lives. I had the same group of guys every week. There’s a reason for that, and it all began back at Camp Nelson in January.

I had little to no context with anyone at Camp Nelson other than Nathan and Maya and Shay and Blake, and even then my interactions with Shay and Blake had been limited up to that point.

So it was with a high level of apprehension that I sat in my room, awaiting the arrival of all the students, knowing that I am playing from way behind in this game.

I stayed quiet and stuck to Nathan’s hip for the first 6 hours or so of camp. We at a great meal prepared by Grandma Gail Jackson, and we heard a great message preached by Adam Ashoff. After that it was small group time. This is where things picked up.

We had very little “deep discussion” in that small group, but my guys and I did start getting to know each other.

I quickly learned that my cabin was made up of about half of an infamous gang from Kingsburg High known as “The Boys.”

Known for their late night pyrotechnics, advanced knowledge of memeology, incredible video production capabilities, and prowess on the field of competition, I did not realize that I was in the presence of greatness.

Over the course of the next several days, I began building friendships with Garrett, Josh, Bo, Randall, Tim, and Jadon. Our room was the loudest, and also, without doubt, the most lit.

At the end of it all, I was inducted as an honorary Boy, a privilege which I do not deserve, and do not take lightly.

Fast-forward to River of Life, and it’s a full Boys reunion, again for post-sermon small groups. This time the full lineup is present, having added Trevor, Zac, Jonas, and Connor.

It was such a privilege, at the end of each and every River of Life, to sit down with these young men and talk about what it means to follow Christ. They all have so much potential to lead their homes well, and become leaders in their churches and workplaces, for the glory of Christ. These guys, only about half of which actually attend GCV (the other attends different churches in the area), were so fun to be with, and it was a joy to invest in them over the course of this summer.

Dudescipleship

As you have no doubt picked up through the reading of this article, and as you certainly know if you know me, I have a passion for investing into the lives of younger guys. The Boys gave me an opportunity to do that and for that I am grateful. But there are three guys whom I got particularly close to, and had even more opportunities to invest in beyond just small groups and hanging out after church on Sunday mornings. I affectionately call them the Dudesciples (a big thank you to Reverend Austin T. Duncan for coining that term). These guys are Bo Jackson, Garrett Costi, and Josh “Chavo” Chavez.

On an ideological level it is really hard to pursue discipleship with someone when you only have 9–10 weeks with them. But that shouldn’t stop you from trying to (as Mark Dever defines it) help others to follow Jesus better. So at the beginning of the summer I had to try to rethink my approach a little bit. Normally I try to disciple anywhere from 15 to 25 guys per semester at TMU. That sounds like a ton but it is actually really easy when you live in the dorms with those guys, and you can double up on your efforts by spending time with guys in groups as opposed to one on one. The difference this summer is that I’m not living in the dorms with these guys, and I don’t have nearly as much time. What I realized is that, despite having a desire to invest in the lives of as many guys as possible, it’s just not realistic to pour into a really high number of guys on a consistent basis. So I realized that sometimes you have to pare down your efforts and just focus on a few guys. This summer, Bo, Garrett, and Chavo became those few guys.

These three guys are definitely highlights of my summer.

Garrett is brilliant. Bo is a great leader. Chavo is passionate.

Spending time with them was something I looked forward to every week, and I hope to continue cultivating these relationships beyond just this summer.

“To Timothy, my true child in the faith.”

The Christian life is the disciple life. Being a Christian is being a disciple. But there’s two parts to being a disciple. There’s outgoing discipleship, and there’s incoming discipleship. The previous section described my outgoing discipleship. I want to talk now about incoming discipleship. In other words, the guys that invested their lives into me this summer.

Howard Hendricks famously said that more is caught than taught and I believe that. So much of the discipleship that happened this summer simply was me hanging out with these guys and watching how they lived their lives.

Perhaps less famously, though equally influentially, Greg Behle described discipleship in this way: every believer needs a Paul, and every believer needs a Timothy. The Dudesciples were in some ways like Timothy’s to me. Blake Boys, Shay Thomason, and Scott Ardavanis were like Paul’s to me this summer.

Blake is no-nonsense when you talk with him. He has a super eccentric sense of humor but when you get down to it he is very straight up. He calls it like it is. Through my time with Blake he showed me what it means to come to grips with certain realities, rather thant rying to avoid them, or not talk about them, and hope that they go away. But I learned far more about the Christian life from watching Blake than I learned from talking to him. And that isn’t to diminish the conversations we had, because they were fantastic. To put it simply, Blake experienced a lot of trial this summer. Without going into too much detail, I can tell you that this summer was full of hardship and difficulty. But as problem after problem hit Blake, I watched him handle each one with gentleness and patience, trusting that even if he lost everything, he would still have his salvation and his life in Christ. That was powerful. Sometimes the most meaningful things you learn don’t come from what someone says, but how they handle the situations that come their way.

Shay is funny. He doesn’t have a train of thought. He has a Grand Central Station of thought. He’s insanely talented (before he went into ministry he was a photographer) and has a contagious love for the church. I loved watching his approach to an area of ministry that is so prone to foolishness and lack of Biblical fidelity. Shay keeps God’s Word central, while still keeping youth ministry fun and exciting, and pulling students in with a well-rounded slate of teaching times, small groups, fun events, games and food. Watching him do what he does taught me a lot about youth ministry. If the Lord ever grants me the privilege of being a youth pastor or a senior pastor, I will certainly be applying much of what I learned this summer from Shay. But Shay passed on other important things to me — things like the band Colony House, Mat Kearney’s CRAZYTALK album, Lounge Freak, and Mortimer Adler’s How To Read a Book. His counseling and discipleship methods are extremely effective, and Shay helped me hone my question asking skills to employ as a tool in helping someone follow Jesus better.

Scott is a big idea guy. He’s always thinking, always moving, always trying to come up with the next big thing. I love that about him, and he helped draw that out of me this summer. Scott showed me that it’s okay to dream big. Scott is a great preacher. I had the privilege of having him walk me through the way he preps for preaching, and it was fascinating, right there with talking with my own dad (also a pastor) about his methods in terms of the ways I’ve learned the most about preaching. But beyond that, Scott is just fun. He has a contagious energy that’s not fabricated. He’s genuinely excited about 85% of the time. Some of my favorite memories of the summer were just hanging out with Scott. We took a semi-sketchy trip to Fresno to buy a bed we found on Craigslist, we drove to Santa Clarita for a preaching engagement, we drove around Kingsburg in a beat up old Astro van, we went to McDonalds and Taco Bell more times than I can remember, we talked theology, ministry, and the state of the church. Scott is a shepherd, through and through. He cares about people. He wants to know them, who they are, what makes them tick. He demonstrated that to me personally this summer, and I’m beyond grateful for it.

Let the good times roll

Summers in Kingsburg are just fun. No two ways about it. Here are some of the non-ministry things I did that were just fun.

• Games nights at the Andersons
• Game nights at the Klassens
• Rick Jackson’s Patriotic Extravaganza
• Swimming in the Big Dig approximately a million times after it was finished
• Eating at the Doghouse in Fresno
• Taking boats out on the Kings River

I said these were non-ministry things. SIKE! Something I have learned, both in Kingsburg and at TMU, is that ministry happens everywhere. You can love and serve people in any context. You don’t have to be preaching or teaching or counseling or reading a book together to be ministering to people. A brief word of encouragement in passing or a simple act of service can sometimes be the way in which the Lord uses you in the life of another person. All of these things were super fun, and served as opportunities to invest in the lives of other people, despite not being directly “ministry” related.

The Sweatfest

Five Wednesday nights in the months of June and July, the backyard of Mike and Lori Jackson transforms into an awesome ministry venue. Summerfest (known as Sweatfest because of the intensity of the heat when the event starts in the late afternoon) is a unique event. In all my years of being involved at various churches I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The general idea is that you have a scaled-back worship service with music, preaching, and river baptisms, while the kids do a VBS-style program called Kidsfest. There’s food, and scheduled time for fellowship and spending time together.

I had many a great conversation at Summerfest over pizza and lemonade, trying to avoid getting utterly roasted by the heat.

I watched dozens of members of GCV come together to make this event happen, whether it was people to set up sound gear, people to set up tables and chairs, volunteer leaders at Kidsfest, the hospitality of the Jacksons. It was a highlight of the summer.

Family matters

One of the defining features of Grace Church of the Valley is it’s “family-centricity.” Simply put, there are a lot of families at GCV. Multi-generational families, with parents, grandparents, kids, grandkids. This shone through in many ways, one of which is the sheer size of the children’s ministry and youth group, and on the other side of that coin, the somewhat diminutive nature of the college and young singles group. This is compounded by a cultural reality in the small-town ethos of Kingsburg: couples get married young. Ty and Kristin (mentioned above) are a prime time example of this. Neither Ty nor Kristin have lived outside their parents’ home for any extended amoung of time, and neither have graduated college yet. As some have said, it’s just the Kingsburg Way.™

Thus, between the conservative family values of Kingsburg at large, joined with the distinctively Biblical values of Grace Church of the Valley, families are important. That in and of itself was a lesson for me this summer. I watched the way that people at GCV prioritize their spouses and families. Rarely do people go places alone. They go with their families. If the boys are playing little league baseball, the older sisters are showing up to cheer them on (I see you, Lunde family). When somebody eats dinner, they’re probably with their family. I saw firsthand the fruit that comes from prioritizing the nuclear family the way God does.

Not for a minute am I diminishing the lives and ministries of those of us who are still single. What I am instead saying is that when God blesses you with a family and you steward that gift in the way He has commanded you to, He will honor your obedience. I saw that this summer.

Watching Shay Thomason work so hard, serving the local church, but working equally hard to make time for his wife and four precious kids, made an indelible mark on my thinking regarding my future family. Watching Blake Boys shepherd his kids through an extremely trying and at times (for a kid) also extremely scary summer was unforgettable. Watching Scott Ardavanis take time to invest in the lives of all his kids, supporting them and loving them through all their endeavors, whether proclaiming the gospel overseas, working in the medical field, directing a summer camp, planning a wedding, traveling the world, or getting ready to start their freshman year of college, was so impactful. I want to love my family the way these guys loved theirs.

On the subject of families, I have to give some shoutouts to some families who in one way or another took me in this summer.

First, the Oskams. I mentioned them earlier. They are the family that so graciously gave me a bed to sleep in and food to eat this summer. With the Oskams it was a lot of real life. Watching movies with Nate. Watching sports with Nate. Shooting crows with Nate. Helping Adrian install an air conditioning motor, or build a sunshade, or feed the chickens. Morning conversations about life over coffee in the morning with Gwen and Colton and Owie (who so accurately titled me “the adult boy who lives at Mimi’s house). The Oskams were a subtle blessing in my life, and some of my fondest memories from the summber are with them.

Next up, Dan and Amy Jackson and their six kids. What a sweet family. They opened their home to me more times than I can remember (or maybe more accurately their pool). Whether it was cruising on the river, playing Wiffle Ball in the yard, or singing the national anthem at the top of our lungs in the Cave of Wonders, there was no shortage of good times at the Jackson house. But many times it went beyond just fun, to the more serious matters of life. Bo, Jett, and Trace reminded me so much of my three younger brothers back home, and spending time with them was always a joy.

Thirdly, the Torres family. Where do I start with the Torres family? It was honestly scary at first (and a ton of fun after that) how similar they all were to my family. No subject was left sacred, sarcasm and roasts abounded, and I laughed hard and long with Jason and Sarah, Mark (aka Archie) and Alexus, and Parker and Kaitlin. Whether it was trips to the Sequoias or the airport, dinner at the Doghouse, playing video games, board games, and card games, eating inordinate amounts of Taco Bell, relationship advice, or spirited conversations about relatively obscure issues, the Torres family took me in and made me feel like one of their own and for that I am thankful. (Also I just want to make it known that Parker and Kaitlin’s little boys Rhett and Stryder were some of my favorite people in all of Kingsburg. I never thought I would find myself looking so forward to seeing a 3 year old and 5 year old every week.)

Finally, the Ardavanis family. I probably spent more time with them than with anyone else this summer. One of the funniest moments of the summer demonstrates my relationship with the Ardos (or at least with Scott): the Ardos were hosting a missionary family for lunch and I was there. Scott asked everyone present to introduce themselves and their families. Scott promptly introduced his wife Patty, and then introduced me as his “adopted son DC.” He then moved on to asking some of the others to introduce themselves and their families. All while his two daughters were standing right there, the three of us bursting with laughter. It’s hard to describe just how much their family means to me. Scott was always ready with a word of advice or a good quip. Patty made sure I was well-fed and was quick to laugh at my lame jokes. The twins became like the sisters I never had. I just had fun with the Ardos. Going over to their house to hang out was a consistent highlight of my week.

“The shepherd is not above the sheep. He is with the sheep.”

This summer Shay gave me a couple of books to read. One of them was called “The Minister as Shepherd” by Charles Jefferson. It was overall a good book and I enjoyed it immensely, but one prevailing idea stood out to me: a good pastor is with his people. I learned that firsthand this summer.

I did a surprising amount of manual labor this summer. I helped several people move, I helped Blake Boys remodel and renovate his house, I helped carry things, and move things, and generally did a lot of activities that make sense for a moderately strong young guy to be doing. While that certainly does not have the glamour of the pulpit, it gave me much practical experience with that idea: a pastor should be with his people. So when I was carrying boxes, painting a wall, or wrestling an unbelievably heavy table down a flight of apartment stairs, I was seeing firsthand what it means to be with the people. If I learned anything this summer, I learned that: ministry happens in the everyday. It’s not limited to church property or church events or the pulpit or the office. It happens everywhere God’s people are gathered to love and serve one another. I knew that in principle before, and this summer I learned it in practice. And as a good friend and mentor once said, when you taste that kind of community you’ll chase after it for the rest of your life.

“I’ll be back.”

I don’t know if I’ll ever spend any more significant time in the Central Valley. But I do know this: the Swedish Village has carved a place for itself in my heart. The people at Grace Church of the Valley will be my friends for a long time. The impact that those 64 days had on my life is immeasurable. The relationships I built, the memories I made, the people that impacted my life, are all things I will treasure for years to come.

So whether it’s a football game, a long weekend, or a wedding, one thing is certain: I will be back.

Thank you for this summer, Grace Church of the Valley. It was a gift to be able to part of you for 64 days.