Coming Out Seeing

This is Neil Mullins, comin' at ya live from SANTA MONICA!

Yes, you heard right, I am here in SaMo (short name for the city) for Campus Crusade for Christ's Summer Project here. It is only the 4th year that they have held it here (it replaced the Newport Beach location), so it's a pretty young project, and it definitely has a "cutting edge" feeling to it. We are in the 2nd full week of it, and a lot has happened; there is still yet more to come in the next 6 weeks though. I am having a blast here; my support goal was achieved and then some, and I also got the required job at, yep, you guessed it... Staples! But not the branch in SaMo, the one in Venice, about a 10-minute drive south from the Palm Motel. One of the greatest things about this project, however, is that even though it's 8 weeks compared to the 1o in Tahoe last summer, the community here has been built incredibly fast. This became quite clear to me last night when we were having the debriefing from our weekly sharing session (which was amazing because we got to experiment with some new evangelism tools). Ken Virzi (Project Director) was giving a bit of talk but also leaving the discussion open to the rest of the group, and while he was saying these things, I was nearly overcome with joy at the sense of family I felt just by looking around at the group. I could see the unity in Christ in everybody's eyes, and well, I just can't say it enough: I LOVE THIS PROJECT FAMILY!!!

Anyhoo, here's this week's poem...

"Not in Kansas Anymore"
by Neil Mullins

Her life has been turned
Upside-down
And her love for it has been spurned
Different world, though same town

See, it's funny how I see the same thing
My house has been tossed
But like her I still find a way to sing
Perhaps for us, not all is lost

But we're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy
This world is similar but not the same
And we can try to change it in any way we want
Yet our surroundings, by far, will never be tamed.

To Finish Well

I am done with another school year. Huzzah! Have a good summer everyone!
Go SMSP 2007!
God bless.

"Finish Line"
by Neil Mullins

One white stripe
Is all that separates him
From the awaiting taste of victory
(And consequential hype).

His lungs, how they strain,
His heart, how it aches at this;
But his arms and legs
Are like a well-oiled machine.

And then it's ten strides,
Five strides, two strides, none,
With the snap of the finish tape
No looking back, he's done.

The roar of the crowd
Feels like an ovation from heaven
Yet, to the spectators' dismay
They cannot find the runner from lane seven.

Where is the runner?
Look past the faces of glee
To find that he is on his bed, at home
Knowing he is finally free.