There's Something About...

I love my hometown. Valparaiso, Indiana (or as some know it -- "vale of paradise"), is my hometown. I love everything about it. It has a small town feel, yet it has a big city feel at times. The downtown is beautiful and there are so many businesses to satisfy any need. My family's house of about 15 years and still going is 5 minutes from the thriving downtown areas, yet it is surrounded by farmlands and a beautiful and small subdivision. We have a pond (sort of...more like a swamp) in the backyard and a hill in the front that is perfect for sledding. There are old oak trees out front, maples in the back, and pine trees on the top of the hill that have been growing for years. The driveway curves around a big oak tree and causes people to avoid backing down the driveway in their cars. There is a huge school of 2 bazillion kids in town, but I got to go to a small school called Morgan Township and spent 13 years there. Yes...I went from Kindergarten to graduating senior at the same school. The entire school (K-12) had 500 kids...the high school had 200. My graduating class was 45 or so and a good majority of those were people who were there with me on my first day of Kindergarten.

I love my hometown. I used to write a column in my school newspaper called "Things You Need to Know About Valparaiso." It highlighted little known facts about Valparaiso and touched on random things that were around Valpo that might be cool to people to know. I learned a lot about that town doing this. I went to college at Valparaiso University for one year and hated the school, but I loved Valparaiso.

Plans are in motion for Sonia and I to return to Indiana in ministry. We are not going back to Valpo, but it still feels good to be going back to Indiana. I wrote a song recently that talked about missing home. One of the lines says, "There's something about...being home." It's a great feeling thinking of home. Sure there are many bad memories of home and Valparaiso, but I still love it. The pros definitely outweigh the cons. I have a dream that someday I can go back to Valpo and plant a church there. It is a great town for it. That would be awesome and I would live there forever. Of course, living that close to the parents and in-laws might be challenging, but we would take advantage of the free babysitting when we have kids. :)

I hope you have a hometown that you can call home. I know some people don't and it's sad to hear that. I really think God meant for us to find a place that we could call home. There's something about...leaving home....missing home...being home...someday.