Get to Know a Garden City Member: Daniel Langholz

Hey there! My name's Dan. You might have seen me up on the worship team or hanging out with the PreK and Kindergartners during Kids Min.

I grew up in Bann, Germany, a small town near the French border. I left to go to college in Michigan, then came out to California and met all of you! Growing up, we would go biking in the forest near my house fairly often and then follow it up with a night of board games. Now every time I go back to visit my parents, we hike up to a restaurant overlooking the valley, eat lunch, then hike back home for some games. It's almost always raining, cold, and a little bit miserable to start out with, but it is one of the things I miss the most.

My life group recently split up into smaller discipleship groups meeting on Wednesday with everyone getting back together on Sundays. I definitely miss being able to gather with everyone every week, but it has been a joy to get to more deeply know those in my discipleship group. I'm always looking forward to seeing where our conversations lead. Every week I'm learning something new about both the others in the group, our shared faith, and the finer points of the android vs apple debate.

Exploring the Bay area (both the cities and the parks) has been one of my favorite activities since moving here. One of my favorite hikes is to Berry Creek Falls in Big Basin. There's plenty of redwoods and one of the biggest waterfalls in the area. The elk preserve at Point Reyes is a close second, though. I'm always down to go hiking if someone needs a hiking companion! By far my favorite in-town activity I've been to has been the World Championship Dog Surfing Competition, which is held every year out near Half Moon Bay. I've never seen so many dogs in one place, and you should all go sometime in the future.

I definitely lean towards the introverted side, so this shelter-in-place has been all about embracing that. There are always more books to read and music to practice or listen to. However, I'm immensely grateful for those I have in my life. Phone calls with family, meetings with the life group, and conversations with coworkers and housemates have really helped get through the past 6 weeks. Right before all this sheltering happened, I had started trying to work through cooking dinner from all the different countries around the world. It's a little hard to find the ingredients now, but planning for those meals and future backpacking trips once this is over has been a good way to spend some evenings. Something else I've enjoyed recently is reading Paul's letters from the perspective of his house arrest, though I know it's not quite equivalent to what we're going through. That joy he shows through his imprisonment is definitely something I could work on emulating while working through the rest of this sheltering.

Praying for all of you, and I can't wait to see you again!

Dan Langholz