I landed in Sacramento Airport at 6 in the evening on the 24th of May. It had been a smooth ride out and I was a little nervous to meet the family I’d be staying with for the first 5 weeks of my internship. Gordon and Cindy Den Ouden met me at the baggage carousel. They took me out to Panera for my first dinner in California. It was quite good. As we were driving back they tried to explain the various roads to me and I knew I would never remember any of it but I played along and tried anyways. The next day was to be my first Church service at Granite Springs were I would be introduced to the congregation and had it not been for my lack of sleep the previous few days with graduation parties and Paul’s 21st birthday I don’t know if I would have slept at all.
The next day at church I was…well…nervous. Doug Bouws met me in the Sanctuary before the service and gave me a rundown of what I was supposed to do. By the way Doug Bouws is the Pastor of Hospitality at Granite Springs and was the one preaching that day since Pastor Adams was in GR for Calvin Seminary’s graduation. Doug had sent me an email the previous week with a few questions for me to think about in order to prepare me for being introduced to the congregation. When it came time during the service we stood up went to the front and he asked me the questions he had sent me in the email. For the most part it was the typical stuff; tell us a little bit about yourself, what is the Jubilee Fellows program, but the question that I had the hardest time coming up with an answer for beforehand was “Tell us something about yourself that no one would ask.” … For the life of me I only came up with two things to say to that question was: 1. Something that EVERYONE was going to ask me “No I don’t play basketball” and 2. Something so absurd that no one would even think to ask it “The reason I have a beard is not some deep meaningful thing. It is simply that when I was growing up my Dad had a beard and I always wanted one. So now that I can actually grow one I have one.” Thankfully they laughed.
During the rest of the first service I worshiped and listened to the sermon and tried to enjoy the Jazz band lead by Gene Thorpe as they played for the songs (it was a little distracting trying to worship with them playing but oh well). The second service Doug asked me the same questions up front and then had me help out with Sunday school for the 3rd through 5th graders which they call Rainbow Club. Essentially all I did in there was watch since I didn’t have any of the curriculum prepared and the teacher already had an assistant. I was also kind of nervous since it had been quite a while since I had been around that many kids (seeing as how Calvin doesn’t have many people under the age of 12 attending). But I made it through alive.
After the service there was a potluck. Every year they have a Jazz Festival and a Barbecue and this festival is why the church wanted me to come out so soon after exams (I started at the church on the third day after exams were over for me it would have been nice to rest between exams and the internship but oh well). Many people greeted me with a smile and a handshake saying they were glad I was there. And there was sooo much gooood food. The main course was something Californian call Tri-tip. As far as I have been told it’s a cut of meat from an area on the bovine where three different cuts meet. It was seasoned and cooked in pans over a barbeque so that it held on to its juices. I wasn’t fully able to enjoy it then because of everything that happens on a first day but as it turns out I had the opportunity to enjoy Tri-tip 3 more times in the next 7 days. A bit overkill but delicious every single time. And the band played the entire time people were eating and talking. Great food, great music, and friendly people sums up my first Sunday Service.
Afterwards Doug drove me to my new home and who was there to greet me but Brandon Haan and Justin Den Ouden (Justin is Gordon and Cindy’s youngest and had driven in from Calvin with Brandon a few hours earlier). As good as it was to be in a place with such friendly people there is nothing nicer than seeing a familiar face. That night the Den Oudens had a Barbeque of their own with some of their family friends. It was nice just to sit and listen to get to know them a little better.
The next day was Memorial Day so I didn’t go into the office but there was a Monday Night Feast going on that night which I was supposed to attend. So the three of us Justin, Brandon, I toured around Rockline and Lincoln (area cities) until 5pm when we went and helped with MNF. MNF is a ministry that aims to feed people when they most need it: at the end of the month when food stamps and government aid is running low. So we went in and helped set up tables and chairs and then served food as people started arriving. After the line had thinned out we were excused from the line to eat and talk to the people who had come. This was the second time I had Tri-tip in as many days. I ended up talking with a man named Dutch who was one of the volunteers. Dutch had been involved in classified rocket engineering stuff and he told me a few stories about what he had done culminating in his advice to me to find a job that wasn’t really a job. Something I woke up in the morning wanting to do. I smiled and nodded remembering full well that Calvin, Dale Cooper, and my parents had been telling me all along was the same exact thing. But I let him have his moment. All in all we served somewhere around 50 people that night and I was glad that I had the opportunity to help out with a ministry that targeted so well a problem in our society.
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