Sunny Southern California

Well, I was in Southern California over the weekend of August 18th. I arrived on the 17th and left on the 21st. I was a guest of Immanuel Baptist Church in Ridgecrest, CA. The church and the people were just wonderful - it was just not how I pictured southern California. When I was younger, we traveled several summers down to Orange County, CA., to visit cousins and family. That was my impression of where I thought I was going. I knew things would be different, when after driving 3 hours from the LAX, we passed the Ridgecrest city sign - it read "Welcome to Ridgecrest - the gateway to Death Valley!" I thought there would not be a breeze of salt water in the air tonight!!!

However, the environment did not determine the happiness of the visit. I had a great time, met a lot of wonderful people and preached and shared at a great church reaching out to its community. They definitely filled my schedule starting Saturday at noon.

We met at the Harris' house for lunch and I shared with a small group there about our work in South Africa. Later that evening, IBC has a Saturday night contemporary service, in which I shared and preached. We then went out to eat at the Texas Steak House. It was an early Sunday morning at 8:00 am that I preached again. I was chauffeured to their educational building for the Sunday school hour where I shared again about what God is doing in our work. I was then taken back to the Sanctuary and preached again. We went for lunch at a Mexican food restaurant. Later that evening was the a mission Safari where I talked, shared, and showed 'slides' about our time in S. Africa. Just before that, I talked to some children for about 15 minutes. I allowed them to ask question - boy did I get some doosies!!! So, in about 24 hours time, I preached, shared, talked 6 times in 5 different locations. I was great!!

The next day, Rich and Kay Fowler, took me into LA and dropped me off at some of Jody's cousins house. They are LA Angels fans and they took me to the Angel-Yankees game. Before we went to the game, Jessica and Jenna took me to downtown Disney. We walked around and was able to go into the ESPN-Zone. They have restaurant, studio, and shop there. I got Bethany and Melody a shirt that says - "You can't spell princess without ESPN" on the front. It was good to see them and to be able to go to the game. They do not like the Yankees at all. I told them that I had Alex Rodriguez on my fantasy Baseball league - Julie did not like that at all. I didn't have the courage to tell them that I also had Cano and Matsui also - so I was silently cheering as they played. (they went 5 for 14, 3 runs, 5 hits and 1 HR) I also have Vlad Guerrero, who went 1 for 5 and 1 RBI. We were also spotted on the JumboTron TV at Angel Stadium. The Angels won the game in 10 innings with walk-off hit to center field.

The only disappointment was that I was the only one that was able to go. Everyone else stayed in Longview. It would have been a great experience for everyone to be able to go.