PHILLY.

A piece of my heart will always be in Philly. Four summers ago, I went on my first inner-city mission trip, and it was to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While in Philly, two missionaries from my hometowm, Frank and Carisa, connected us with various organizations and non-profits in the city. My group also worked a lot at Cornerstone Community Church in Kensington, which is located in one of the roughest inner-city areas. Despite the brokenness, there is beauty.

During my NYC trip, I took a day-trip to Philly to revisit some of the places that are the most special to me, and to visit my friend Andre, a formerly homeless man that I had not seen in four years. It was a wonderful Philly day, filled with LOVE Park (based on Andy Warhol's famous "LOVE" logo), Philadelphia water ice, a visit to St. John's (a transitional housing facility), and a walk down the streets of Kensington. I couldn't have asked for anything more (well, it would have been pretty incredible to stop by "The Simple Way," but Shane was out of the office--check out www.thesimpleway.org, or better yet, read "Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne).

And just for the record--I forever thought that the Andy Warhol museum was in Philly, but to contrary belief, it's actually in Pittsburgh, where Warhol was born. So a visit to the Warhol Museum will have to be a separate trip...one day.