Ivan a.k.a. "The Polar Bear"

So Ivan's leaving tomorrow morning.  Boo!  I guess I wanted to take this opportunity to write about him.  I want to write about each of the interns, and I will eventually get to everyone when I get the time.  Anyway, the first thing to say about Ivan is that he takes great pictures, actually great pictures are taken of him.  Here's Ivan and his cousin's bird.  Here's Ivan playing mini-golf.  Here's Ivan doing something (I don't know what he's doing).  There's also some normal pictures of Ivan.  Here's Ivan painting.  Another thing about Ivan is that he can survive sub-zero temperatures (okay, that's an exaggeration, but he likes to jump into really cold water).  Maybe it's because he's from Michigan, it's got to get pretty cold up there.  That's partly why we call him the polar bear, it's also because he works in "the cave" in the office.  He's the only one up in that corner.  He also just reminds us of a bear :).  It might be the being partly soft and sweet, and partly wild :).

Alrighty, so, Ivan lives on a farm (hog farm i think), and goes deer hunting in the forest in his backyard.  Every year they have a harvest party where 600 people go to his farm and party all night.  Some of the interns are trying to see if we can make it to his harvest party this year.  I really want to square dance!  He also goes to a Christian college where he gets a bible minor with his engineering major.  I'm so jealous.

Ivan's a really really awesome guy.  He's firm in his faith, and seems to have a really cool understanding of God.  I see so much of God in him.  One thing I have noticed is that he will always listen to what you're saying like it's important.  He doesn't think himself more important than anyone else, and it's noticeable in the way he lives his life.  He makes you feel special when you interact with him.  He's also really really funny.  He has great expressions and I wish I could have video-taped them.  Ivan, it's so cu-- . . . I mean you make me smile :).  He quotes Brian Regan at very appropriate times and loves to laugh.  When you first meet him, you get this impression that he's a really quiet, simple, shy guy, but when you get to know him, you find out that he has a pretty wild streak.  He's told us stories of things he's done that we could not believe.  Me and Jenni said that we would hate to be Ivan's mother because we'd be worrying all the time :).  It's funny, we were having a conversation about "Wild at Heart" and Ivan's the type of guy that I would expect to really relate with that book, growing up in the wild, but he didn't really like it.  He thought that God puts people in different places and there's nothing wrong with being nice, if that's who you are.  Ivan's also such a family man.  He's been staying with his aunt and uncle and cousins while he's been here in Colorado Springs and in the beginning of the summer, he'd always go home before 9 so that he could say goodnight to his cousins before they went to bed.  He spends as much time with them as he can.  We were lucky in the last couple weeks because they went on a vacation, so we got to spend more time with Ivan :).

I don't know what else to say . . . Ivan just makes you happy, just his being around makes you feel better.  I know that God will do amazing things through him.  We're gonna miss you Ivan.