the things I do

Someone spilled salt all over the grass.  I vacuumed it up.  Yes, I vacuumed grass.

There was a mud fight on the grass.  I squatted and sprayed down the grass for 45 minutes.

I ruined grass with fertilizer.  I helped grass to grow with fertilizer.

I week whack the grass.  I mow the grass.  I water the grass.  I blow the grass off the path ways.

I do other things you realize.

I have grown to love the land of this place.  I try to tend to it closely, spending my time over the grass, the trees, and the flowers.  I am so passionate about it all.  I want to see the land grow and be appreciated for it's beauty and uniqueness.  It brings me joy here.



But if I'm being honest, I'll tell you that tonight my mind feels very scattered.  I am not as peaceful as all that may sound.  I do a lot of thinking and scattered amounts of doing.  I am becoming busier.  I am now left picking up the pieces of homework I need to accomplish before summer ends for Europe Semester.  I have not been spending as much time in quiet with the Lord as I would like to.  I am finding myself writing many emails and spending long amounts of time on the phone talking with people I miss.  But I am still here, I promise.

Community is good here.  I am thankful for the peace I have been given about it.  I am aware that any friendship I am given is truly given.  It is a gift from God.  My seasons in Santa Barbara have been a true testament to that.

I am currently waiting upon Jesus.  Waiting to know him and love him and understand him and hear him.  And I am not hesitant to wait.  I am fully ready to trust and know that he will arrive.  But I am human, and I am weak, and I am tired of waiting.  And I want the good things the Lord has in store for me.  Pray for this if you find the time, will you friends?

Pray for the next week as I will be leading kids at Woodleaf with Santa Barbara Young Life instead of landscaping.  Pray for the kids as much as you find the time to pray for me.  Pray for our hearts and our conversations.

And above all please please pray for all those who knew our dear friend Katie Parsons May who passed away just yesterday morning.  Pray for her family, husband, and many friends.




I hope this finds you all reflective and attentive to the hearts and sounds around you, enjoying this wonderful summer season.

one month here

For all ya'll that don't know, I am working at a Young Life camp in northern California called Woodleaf all summer as the Landscape Intern.

Once again, I don't think I know how to start talking about this.

I have two wonderful landscape bosses who are such a blessing to me here.  I live in a place called the Falck House with 15 other interns.  Many of them have known each other from past Young Life summers so that was a little daunting to me in the beginning.  I am really missing friends from Westmont.  The one-on-one conversation are hard to come by here.  Sometimes I've found it hard to be myself which is a foreign feeling to me.

The first two weeks it rained and hailed.. every. single. day.  It was hard.  I learned how to drive all of these janky camp vehicles and would get them stuck in the mud almost every day.  Most of those two weeks consisted of picking up piles of branches, weeding, and over all cleaning after the long long winter.  But the then the sun came out!  And Summer Staff and Work Crew came!  And then CAMPERS came!

I am so thankful for that sunshine.  Every morning I walk outside to the old lake and sit on the dock to spend time with the Lord.  It is so peaceful to let my mind rest and wander while the birds talk.  Here is an old picture facing the dock I sit at.

This session I have three landscapers working with me.  The first is Alex whose Dad is a mechanic at camp.  He is 14 and thinks I'm absolutely insane, but he kills at mowing lawns let me tell you.  Then we have Crockett (yes that is his name) who is from Jackson, Mississippi.  You could not find a more country southern man, but he is NOT a redneck.  He is such a joy to work with and I can't wait to know him better these next two weeks.  My last worker is Mile who is from San Francisco.  Mile makes everyone around him laugh and has a lot of joy in his heart.

My days look a little something like this: waking up to our bathroom sinks which are perfectly placed in the living room, spending time at the lake, going to breakfast, then working till 5.  Most days we mow, weedwack, weed, prune trees/ bushes, and take a lot of brush to our burn piles.  Recently I've gotten to plant a lot of flowers and learn about irrigation which I LOVE.  I have also learned how to use a chain saw and drive stick shift!!  After work I'll shower then we'll eat dinner.  We have an intern Bible study every week and one night a week we get to be fed by a property staff couple.  We have one day off a week where we lay in the sun and enjoy each other's company (and that day is tomorrow praise Jesus!)


That should be a good preview I hope.  If ya'll find the time to remember me in your prayers I would really appreciate it.  Please pray for all the campers coming to Woodleaf.  Pray for my Young Life girls coming in July.  Pray for patience for me with my Summer Staff.  Pray that the Lord would bring close friendships to me here.  Pray that I would understand His love.
And I will leave that for another blog.



Bye now.



P.S. if you're at all interested in sending me a letter (which I would love) my address is as follows:

Laura Shank
11359 La Porte Rd.
Challenge, CA 95925

some homes

College seems to be the stereotypical time to talk about home... and I've come to realize that I fit a lot of stereotypes, and that's ok.  Whatever, here it goes.


I'm sitting in an old chair.  A chair that used to be in Sierra Roasting Company.  In high school, that place was home. It was home before I worked there, and then it was home when I worked there, 9 months, 18 hours a week, it was home.  Senior year it was still home, an escape, safe and calm, never-changing home.  And now it is gone, the chairs and tables have been recycled into another coffee shop that I now sit in.  A remnant of home.


I call both Westmont and Rocklin home.  I switch between them.  Westmont is home, but not Santa Barbara, and I don't think that will come with more time spent there.  My car is the most stable home I have at this time of life.  But the Santa Barbara roads aren't home, the lanes are two small and the one ways are terrible.  But I love driving in Nor Cal.  There is freedom in the wide lanes for my songs and thoughts.


And yes, people make you feel at home, that is why I use the name for both places, but for it's more than the people.  It is the familiarity with the place.  Or is familiarity not enough, must you enjoy that which is familiar to call it home?  Or is it merely just a choice of what your home will become?  We are at home in the Lord alone, and our feelings towards one home or another are divinely given?




Soon I'll be going to another home, Woodleaf.  But the people always change there, and it is not just familiar.  I sense the presence of the Lord so strongly in those trees.  I am home in my Father's house.  The smell of the Dining Halls, the way the air feels on your face in the early morning, the constellations, the old pond, the red dirt.  
The way camp seems to set my soul free.  But that is not Young Life's doing.  That is the presence of God.  A love that sets us free.  A love that sets us FREE.  All encompassing, accepting, forgiving love that sets us free.


We find our home in his freedom.  We find our home in his freedom.