Denton vs. Fresno

Well, I’ve been in Fresno for about three days now- and already it’s been interesting to process living here vs. living in Denton… Here’s just a few of the similarities and differences that have hit me thus far…

SIMILARITIES: (both cities have)

• A college-based epicenter
• A young city trying to grow, surrounded by agricultural farmlands
• Relatively similar climates (a little cooler at night here)
• A neighboring town named “Sanger”
• Chick-Fil-A!
• Denton has Fuzzy’s / Fresno has Wahoo’s
• Denton has Taco Bueno / Fresno has Del Taco
• Denton BBQ specializes in Brisket / Fresno has Tri-Tip
• Denton has ‘emissions’ tests / Fresno has ’smog’ tests
• A conservative, religious/republican base (at least as far as California can go)

WHAT DENTON HAS THAT FRESNO DOESN’T:

• Blue Bell!!!
• Tex-Mex (fresno has ‘fresh-mex’)
• NY Sub
• Super Wal-Mart’s, Super Target’s, &  Super Home Depot’s (Frenso only has small, regular ones)
• Cheaper gas ($2.19 when I left Denton / $2.65 avg. in Fresno)
• Cheaper cost of living
• Allergies (at least worse ones)
• Thunderstorms
• My family (of course)

WHAT FRESNO HAS THAT DENTON DOESN’T:

• Connectivity to beautiful geography (mountains, beach, national parks)
• Roads that have one name and head in one direction
• In-N-Out Burger!
• Collegians that actually stick around here after college
• Bicycle lanes on just about every road
• Christmas Tree Lane (fired up about this!)
• Palm trees & fresh vegetable markets everywhere (Grapes galore!)
• Higher speed limits

Honestly, Fresno feels a lot like Denton… It’s about 5x’s bigger than Denton- but has the same small town feel. I definitely miss my family and friends back in ‘little D’- but thus far am adjusting fairly well to life out on the west coast. Tiff and the girls fly out on Wednesday, so I look forward to having them here with me soon!

New Contact Information

Here’s our new goods for when we get to California… (the house address will only be a temporary location through the summer- we’ll land our final destination sometime in late August or early September)

Home Address:
1332 W. Robinson Ave.
Fresno, CA  93705

Shea’s Email(s): shea@thewellcommunity.org (W) / sheasumlin@gmail.com (P)
Tiffany’s Email: tiffanysumlin@gmail.com

Church Office Address:
7676 N. Palm Ave. (Ste 101)
Fresno, CA  93711

Church Phone: (559) 326-5100
Church Fax: (559) 326-5181
Church Website: www.thewellcommunity.org

Cell & Home phone (vonage) are still the same until we get out there and switch to the “559″ – We’ll keep you posted when that happens.

The Farewell Tour

As many of you know, my family and I are on the stretch run of our time here in Denton. In fact, as I write this I’m realizing we’ve only got 25 days left until I pull out of the driveway in our 26′ Penske and head for California. With that in mind, we’d love to spend as much time as we can with friends and family before we leave…

The following is our timeline of the next few weeks:

• May 3 – Send-off Party @ The Gonzalez’s House
• May 7-10 – Trip to Houston & Lake Jackson
• May 15-17 – Family Camping Trip
• May 22-23 – Time with Family
• May 26 – Close on the House
• May 28 – Shea leaves for California
• June 3 – Tiffany & Girls leave for California

In between we’ll be here in Denton, I’ll be working in the office, etc… There are many of you we’d love to visit with before we leave, so just give us a shout if you’re around. In the next couple of weeks I’ll be posting all our new contact information here on the blog.

Thanks again to all of you who have helped shape our lives in the time that Lord has placed us here in Denton. We’re excited about the new season ahead of us, but also sad to see this season come to a close.

God Bless!

-The Sumlin Family

Welcome to College

Here’s a book that was recommended to me by my friend, Mr. Judd Rumley.  I find it interesting that on the last leg of my 17 years of being involved in college ministry, this book decides to get published – but thus far, this has been the best book I’ve read in helping students prepare (theologically & practically) for their college years.

This book addresses just about every scenario today’s students are facing in college (from dating to academia to liberal professors who preach evolution to movies to finances to alcohol to evangelism to relativism to manhood to womanhood to experiencing the death of loved ones while in college to God’s will, etc…) – but mainly it just teaches students how to THINK through those issues using a Christian worldview. Thank you Jonathan Morrow for writing this!

If you’re a student in college, preparing for college, or a parent with a kid headed into college at some point… then you need to read this book. 

CLICK HERE to review and/or purchase this book now.

ABC’s Nightline Faceoff…

In case you haven’t seen this already, ABC’s ‘Nightline’ did a Faceoff recently in which a panel addressed “the existence of Satan.” The panelist’s were:

• Deepak Chopra (Author, Medical Dr., New Thought Movement, & Spiritual Mentor to Mike Meyers)
• Mark Driscoll (Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Author, Founder of Acts 29 Church Planting Network)
• Annie Lobert (Former Prostitute, Founder of ‘Hookers for Jesus’)
• Carlton Pearson (Bishop, Gospel of Inclusion, Founder of Higher Dimensions Ministries)

Very interesting dialogue from some popular perspectives in our culture today. I’m reminded again of Peter’s plea to “always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness & reverence.” (1 Peter 3:15)

CLICK HERE to see the video clips from the panel.