Back again...

Today was the kind of day a blogger hopes would just happen, so you can get back into the swing of things. It has taken a while. Last week I met a young guy named Joshua, and he has the coolest afro in the world. He is a tall, half-Mexican, half-African American 18 or 19 year old dude. I have never met him before. Well, I just moved into town and have been wanting to get to know as many young people as possible, because I want to encourage them to live life better than they ever have. Joshua instantly was cool, and told me about his upbringing in Long Beach, and that he really likes to skate.
I asked if he'd mind showing me around town and that I would love to hear his thoughts on some things. Well today, I met him up at the skate park, and watched him bust some tricks for a min. Then we bounced and he took me to a 'hole in the wall', as I had requested, and we grubbed the bombest Mexican food. Now, my girl is Mexican, and her mom can throw down in the kitchen, so I have high standards for bomb Mexican food. But, its always a good sign when you walk into the back of some liquor store and see a bunch of Latinos in the back waiting to grub at this place. That means the food is good!
We got to chill and talk about the city, and his views on life, God, church, Christianity, skaters, other youth ministries in the town etc. He said something I've never heard before that was so funny: "I heard that a good rule of thumb for judging how safe or nice a city is, to count how many churches there are, and how many liquor stores their are...which ever there is the most of, will tell you how safe your city is."
Joshua taught me more today than I taught him, I'm sure. I'm looking forward to more.