Between my junior and senior years of college, I spent my break from classes serving as a summer missionary with the North American Mission Board in Maryland.  My ministry area was focused mostly around the Annapolis area, but extended along the “I-95 corridor” reaching into the Baltimore area and occasionally included different parts of the state as well.  

Because of the types of ministry we were involved in, the two missionaries I worked the closest with (and lived with) and I often had weekends and/or evenings free to explore.  We went on several memorable outings that summer, and I absolutely fell in love with many of our discovered locations, but my favorite place was the Baltimore Inner Harbor (with the Annapolis Harbor coming in a close second).    

Surrounded by shopping, restaurants, eclectic boats, a small amphitheater for live music, the aquarium, Federal Hill, historic housing, and downtown, the Inner Harbor has come to represent for me not only a place for summer missions, but also… 

 A place for fun.

  A place to relax and renew.

  A place for thinking and processing.

  And a place where God speaks.