And it begins...

The time has come for all good men to come to the aid of their country… or for fellow employees of the Lake Hotel to begin their departures. “Goodbyes” have begun to be spoken, hugs given, and sometimes, sighs of relief breathed. Over the course of this past week, I will have had to say goodbye, in one way or another, to three people involved in my life here. The first was Jasmine, my roommate from California. There are no good words to describe her, so I’ll just say that I didn’t mind it a bit that she only spent a total of probably five nights in our room the entire two months we were roommates. She came out here in May, followed by her boyfriend. Last week her boyfriend was hauled away in a Sheriff car and taken to a jail in Mammoth, only to be fired the following day. Naturally, Jasmine followed him out of the park. I do wish I would have had more time to get to know her, because she was truly one eccentric and relatively messed-up person—very wonderful in her own way though. After her came Erik, the person on our ministry team to whom I was probably the closest. Erik is a fellow Mid-Westerner from Kansas, understands the use of sarcasm, is a man of God, and taught me an incredible lesson on what it means to be detached from material possessions. Throughout the summer he experienced the crashing of his one-year-old Mac computer, the “spotting” of his digital camera lens, and having to spend nearly one thousand dollars (a majority of his summer wages) on his car after it broke down up in Livingstone. His attitude throughout everything was nothing short of Godly. And finally, tomorrow morning I will say goodbye to Meghan, a girl on our ministry team I’ve absolutely loved getting to know. She will make her way back to Louisiana and Sewanee, the University of the South. She’s been an awesome blessing to the team and has truly enriched my life this summer. Pictured here is myself, Erik, and Molly, after having climbed what is called "Elephant Back" to watch the sun rise over the lake and hotel.

Below is the team on our last Sunday completely together. To my right is Erik and below me in the pink is Meghan.

This is Dan Tyers... a most incredible man. Remind me to tell you all about him. No justice would be done to even try to explain him here!

In other news, I got my first ever black eye yesterday. While playing shortstop in our softball game, I took a pretty hard hit to my cheekbone. Swelling was instantaneous… in less than 20 seconds I had a massive lump on my face. It only got worse from there. I made a clinic run, but they said it was too swollen to tell if it was fractured. This morning I woke up with my eye swollen shut and the entire left side of my face soft and squishy with fluid. Thankfully, there was no pain, so I went to work. I think I’m through the worst times now… everyone asking questions, gawking, staring, gasping, etc. Now everyone should know the story and leave me alone. Now I’m just waiting for the swelling to go down so I can see straight again without having to tip my head down and walk without feeling the fluid jiggling in my face. Ahhh… good times on the softball field.
This is after day one.These two are on the morning of day three. The swelling is not down completely, but I can see straight again without tilting my head!