This week was incredible. I worked with an all city youth group this week, which means that I worked with a group that did not go up on the mountain. We spent almost all of our time downtown with street kids. This group was so much fun and they had such compassion; it was a blessing to spend time with them. My 21st birthday was this week and I went out to eat with all of the staff in Boulder- lots of fun! My favorite part of the week was Thursday/Friday. We went camping with the youth group and 9 of our friends who have either lived on the streets or are currently living on the streets. It was such an incredible experience to spend time with so many people who have such different life stories and such different ways of seeing God. It has been really wonderful and very challenging to be around people who see God in such a different way than I do. It has often made me feel uncomfortable, but it is so good for me to be pushed outside the boundaries of my perspective of Christianity. I often think about all of the names of God in the Bible and how I am not able to relate to many of them; the people I have met this summer understand the names of God that I don't. I have learned so much and I can not wait to keep on learning. I do have one request to all of the readers- I beg you to leave the place you grew up, or the place where you are comfortable, and wander into a place where you will be challenged. Go to the dark places of your city, the place where you think nothing good can happen, and take God there. Quit hanging out with only Christians. A light shined in the darkness is so much more effective than a light shined in the daylight. As Francis Chan said so eloquently, "Christians are like manure. When they are all together in a big pile, they stink. When they are spread out, they make things grow. " This is what God commanded.