Our Last Week

The days are short and they are cold. When we got here it was quite hot but not anymore. We are adjusting to the climate. Then Deb said on Wednesday, "I'm beginning to get used to people here." I felt the same way too but this is our last week here. Here's the story of the final week.

Dinah and I wanted to go for a jog on Sat but it rained. This is the second time we have seen rain. It hardly rains here. Jason and Emmy came to take the twins to a birthday party for one of the church kids. Dinah and I speak with Dee from Seattle. Once Jason and Emmy brought the kids back, we had dinner out. It rained again.

Dinah preached at the pre-Christmas service. After service, I met with the church admin team leaders as Dinah conducted a training for service leaders. Then we met Chai and Crystal as usual. We led the DMM and at 8:45 pm we left for a quiet family dinner.

Mon started with a conference call with Dave Tucker from Michigan. We're doing a seminar together in Urbana '06. Then there was a call with David from Chicago. Next was time with Angela (Hope Irvine), Betty, Lee and Cynthia (all from LA) at Camarillo city out in Ventura county. This is north of LA county. We had a great time despite the 10 degree temperature. Later I had a conference call with Elaine from Singapore. But I had to pump the washroom later. Well this is something I won't miss.

Tue was another fun day. We drove 2 hours to San Diego. All of us enjoyed SeaWorld though San Diego seemed colder than LA. We hope to come again in future.

I had to rework my Urbana '06 seminar on Wed. Though it's been 5 weeks but four people in a studio is not conducive. Dan was playing his cello, Deb was reading whilst Dinah and I are working on our notebooks. Also this getting dark early, the dryness and the cold does require getting used to. Night time was our farewell dinner at Lee's place. The steam boat was nice. The church leaders gave very moving testimonies even about the twins. We've made some good friends out here.

Thur was the day Dinah and the twins hoped to fly back to join Christmas services in Singapore. Their wait listed seats just did not materialise into firm seats. We are thankful for confirmed seats on Christmas day itself. Today the twins were in a local school at Fullerton city. Lin got her principal and administrator to okay this. She said this has never been done before. Dinah and I could wrap up some work. There was corporate prayer then I had a conference call with our Urbana '06 team.

The twins were in school on Fri too. They were nervous yesterday but they were just fine today. For us there was follow up from last night's conference call. Then we spent time with the student leaders - Derek (from Singapore), Pao and Cynthia. Later we started preparing for Christmas eve service this Sunday.