Blogging From the NPC: Day 4

Any guesses how I started my final day at the NPC? If you guessed "running" you'd be almost right. Actually what I did first was sneak into the Zondervan store and update my blog. But then I ran with the runners club. I only ran 3 miles, which means I was shamed by Rudy, who ran for 45 minutes (and did stairs... and walked like a 90 year old the rest of the day).

We decided that showers would be a better idea than seminars, so we got cleaned up (and started the extreme job of packing - when you come home with a truckload of books, it makes packing into an art form). Then we went to the final main session.

Efrem Smith was our speaker again, this time for a Communion service. He also led us in some hymn singing - as an aside, this was a great moment for the tech team. Efrem started a well-known song and then we went to the second verse and stopped and asked, "Do you know the second verse?" Then he turned around and noted, "Oh, they've got it on the screen!"

Communion was wonderful.

After communion, Rudy and I went out for lunch, but shortly after lunch, my old friend Jeff Rosenberry came down from LA to hang out. It was fantastic to see Jeff; it's been way too long since our days together playing soccer and at Chapel Hill. He is definitely one of the good guys.

He and Rudy and I drove around and saw the sights, walked on the beach, saw a famous hotel (that's been in lots of movies) and ate ice cream there (it was really good, and despite the fact that it was not all that warm out, it melted and got all over the place; I felt like I was one of my boys eating it). Thankfully I had napkins, so when the ice cream got on my nose, I could wipe it off (and I did know that it was there before Jeff started whispering and giggling about it - I knew Rudy wouldn't tell me it was there; not after the time I had suffered a bloody nose and spent the afternoon in the office with crusted blood under my nose and he never said anything about it. Nope, not bitter or anything). So anyway, before I went on that tirade, I was talking about that hotel. Its picture is below.

After that, we drove around some more, talking and having a good time. We decided to check out Point Loma Nazarene University. Rudy had a friend who went there for a while, and we were there, so we drove over to visit. The campus overlooks the ocean... yeah, pretty spectacular. We drove in and there was a "guard shack" where we told the young woman, "We'd just like to visit campus."

Later Jeff (or was it Rudy?) said, "that girl is going to be really upset when we start shooting the place up." Hilarious!

We ended up parking and walking around campus.

Yes, that picture is for real. But we ran out of plutonium for the flux capacitor, and we couldn't get it up to 88 mph in this crowded parking lot.

Our tour of PLNU was uneventful; it seemed like the students knew we were coming and disappeared (or maybe they all went home for the 3 day weekend). We seem to have missed seeing Abraham Lincoln in concert (by a day), but we did see a mouse in their chapel.

I had been told that I had to try In-n-Out while I was in California, and it was certainly interesting! First of all, I guess they hadn't heard that there's an economic downturn; the place was consistently FULL (or maybe these were the people who usually would eat out at more expensive places... or they're just addicted and can't stop eating there!). By the time we left, there were people standing around waiting for tables. Lots of people.

I was thinking that In-n-Out mirrors many churches. 1. There weren't many choices. 2. There were more choices than there seemed to be, but you had to have insider information to order them. 3. They used specific insider language and terminology. 4. People regularly come back (and order the same thing) religiously. 5. You had to be a great driver to maneuver the parking lot.

By then it was time to go back to the hotel and let Jeff head back north. It was so good to catch up with him, to share fun stories, to hear how God is using him, and to just hang out with a great friend.