South Cal 2007

Nov 23rd begins our second missionary journey to Southern California. This is the home of Hope LA church and Hope Irvine church. We fly off on a Friday evening. The twins meet a familiar character during our transit at the Taipei airport. As for me, I am fighting a cold since Wed night. We arrive on Fri night.

On Sat I drive out and forget which side to turn into so I wait for cars to go by to get the direction. The GPS is not quite working. We buy drinking water and basic utensils. Then I realise I did not bring my sermon. Later Pastor Chai comes with his boys and my sermon notes which he prints for me. We go to sleep but only for awhile. All four of us are up at 4 am thanks to jet lag.

We are in Hope LA church from 10 am to 7:30 pm preaching, having lunch with members, meeting Pastor Chai and Crystal then having leadership meeting and planning. There are 90 people today with 2 converts. Its the long Thanksgiving weekend and we are flat out. Besides the time difference we are adjusting to the cold autumn nights. We have dinner nearby our hotel then sleep soundly.

We awake late on Mon. Thank God that my cold is gone. We swim in the hotel's heated pool. A pastor calls us from Atlanta, Georgia. He is a friend of a friend. We do laundry, then drive to the music store to rent a cello and have dinner at a place next to the store. Later we speak with Maria on the phone. We sleep well tonight thanks to the swim.

We spend Tue preparing for the coming ministry. In the evening we drive to William Carey International University for a conference with the US Center for World Missions (USCWM). We meet Dr Ralph & Barb Winter of USCWM, leaders of the Third World Mission Association, Asian Mission Association, Global Network of Mission Structures, Institute for International Christian Communication and Cross Global Link. Later that night, Cyn comes with Lin to take the twins to stay overnight with Lin.

Lin takes the twins to her school on Wed as Dinah and I spend the whole day and night at conference. After our conference Lin brings the twins back at night. She is so kind.

Our family goes for the last morning of the conference on Thu. Barb takes our family on a personal tour of the campus then to their home. There we spend time with her and her husband. Dr Winter even gives us two books as a gift. This is an amazing guy. Then we go buy more drinking water and then we swim. I drive to church for Young Adult men's night. 10 guys join in and it becomes a very transparent session.

On Fri, we rearrange our schedule. We do laundry. I drive to church for the College care group in very heavy rain. It does not rain much here. Betty takes Dinah and the twins to the Young Adult ladies' night. We all come back late.

Sat papers report many road accidents yesterday due to heavy rain. We drive to church where Dinah teaches at the Thai unit event. We celebrate grandma Urai's 91st birthday. She has been with the church since the first day. She is joyful and tells me she is only "19" when I pray for her. During this time Derrick gives the twins a music theory lesson. Then we spend time with Jason and Emmy, leaders of the family ministry. Then there is a monthly prayer in church. We have a late dinner tonight.