Well, yesterday was my last day at my internship site.  It was a bittersweet day…I was really excited to be finishing up my internship hours, but I was sad because I’ve grown pretty attached to these students I’ve been working with.  It feels good to know that I am really almost done with this degree.  *sigh*  It’s been a long time coming.

I feel like summarizing some more…so here you go:

• Total years in the program:  4 years, 7 months
• Total classes taken: 18
• Total semesters of Internship: 5
• Total Internship sites: 5
• Total face-to-face clinical hours completed: 500 (plus a few)
• Hours spent writing papers/reading textbooks: countless (and probably not as many as I could have spent on them.)
• Things I’ve learned about myself: amazing amounts
• Number of people who I’ve met during all of this that challenged me & made me think about things: wonderful amounts
• A husband who has been amazingly supportive through the whole thing: check
• A Savior who reminds me every day that these are HIS people & I am merely a vessel to offer hope: check.

I’ll try to share some more thoughts on things I’ve learned through this whole process, but I wanted to share this exciting news right away.

We just sent this email out as a little update for people, so here it is for you if you don’t get the emails:

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First, a little shameless promotion for a friend: Our friend, Cass, has a few songs he wrote and recorded on itunes. Check out his site at www.cassharrismusic.com. If you like what you hear you can buy it on itunes, if you really like what you hear sign up for his mailing list and tell your friends about him. If you don’t use iTunes but like his music let me know and I can probably get a copy of his cd for you.

We will get back to our “all about us” emails after summer camp. For now we just wanted to send out a little mid-summer update.

We thought we would give some stats for the summer:
New Life Ranch: 70 summer staff, 2000 campers, 1 ream of paper (500 sheets) a day for camper eMessages, thousands of candy bars, 40000 meals served, 1 fifty-year celebration coming up, and 96 chapel services

Ben:
Two summer staff working for me
3000 pictures posted to the web
8 summer camp videos
800 DVDs
14,000 50th celebration invitations
800 feet of steel cable for the 50th (What’s that for? Come to the 50th and find out…)

Beth:
3 days per week spent in the Office
1 ½ days per week spent at my internship site
1 morning a week of time off to do whatever I please. (read: clean the house, veg out)
Several times per month I order 3-4 cases of paper (3,000 sheets per case)
Hundreds of times per day I answer the phone (or at least that’s what it feels like)
350 + e-mails I’ve answered regarding Summer Camp since March.
Hundreds of online account payments I have helped process since May.

All this is in support of Summer Camp, it all has one goal: a place and an environment where campers can come and hear the Gospel, and be equipped for a life of bringing glory to God.

We covet your prays us as we finish up the busy season of summer and get ready to have hundreds (500? 700? 1000? nobody knows…) of people at the Ranch for the 50th celebration on August 2nd. Would you like to come celebrate with us? Just sign up on the web to let NLR know you are coming! (It’s free!)

Thanks!
Ben and Beth
www.benandbethwest.com

Here are a few summer pictures by our summer photographer Ally.

Our friend Cass has some of his songs for sale on iTunes. Check out his web site www.cassharrismusic.com or search for him in iTunes. If you like what you hear pass the link on, post it on your blog, whatever…Cass also has an email list you can sign up for on his site if you want to get occasional updates about projects he is working on.

we’ll do a mid summer update soon….