Daniel Williams is an intern at Terra Nova Church and a student at the northeast branch of Mid America Seminary. He and his wife Lea spent the summer working at a camp in Mt. Hermon, CA.

It’s good to be home, though it has taken some adjustment. Working at a summer camp (especially as a counselor overseeing college students) is a little like your first semester of freshman year: New people, dormitory living environment, exciting social life, and a lot of those interesting (but not necessarily “real”) conversations you have with people during the “get-to-know-you” stage of the relationship. Only by the last few weeks did I begin to feel like some of the friendships I was making were really starting to blossom and move past the surface-level stuff. And so, to go from this set of circumstances (not to mention a whole different location and culture that was just beginning to feel normal) back to my apartment in NY just felt a bit premature and abrupt – but that’s just the way it goes some times…

It really was a great summer though, in so many ways. It was a growing experience for Lea and myself as a young married couple, an opportunity for ministry which bore fruit, a chance for Lea to reacquaint with old friends as well as for us both to spend time with her family, and an opportunity to explore a culturally and geographically diverse area unlike anything I’ve experienced before (It may sound weird for me to describe California as another “culture”. I admit, that’s a relative statement; but it’s true for me, nonetheless!). It also seemed to be a continuation of a journey I’m on to discover a more balanced perspective of how God works through the body of Christ… Something that has been consistently evolving in my mind over the past couple of years.

Find me some sunday at Terra Nova and say hi. I’ll be the guy who seems to be about a foot taller than most.

Photos: Below left – Backpacking in the Ten Lakes Wilderness Area of Yosemite. Below right – Lea and I posing with McWay Falls as the backdrop (off California Route 1).