Hesperia again

Tonight we were in Hesperia again. We had the opportunity to help out in their Vacation Bible School. Because we did an incredibally thing on Sunday afternoon and left our Bibles in the church here, we had to come back and get them. We had to pass through on our way to Arizona so we were excited when they asked us to help with VBS today. I was in the 4 and 5 yr old class and Jason helped with the teens. The kids had a great time. We made sure that we had our Bibles today. Thankfully, I have a Spanish Bible so I haven't been without all this time.

Audrey is so excited because she got to go on the bus tonight. She went on bus route #1 and will not be home until after 10:00 pm. I hope she doesn't wake up the boys when she comes in.

Tomorrow we travel to Marana, AZ to go to Sun and Shield Baptist Church. We had planned to go through Yuma, AZ and visit my grandmother, but she is in Portland with my Grandpa visiting Grandpa's brother. Hopefully next time we can see them. Now we will try to drive straight through to Marana, but if it is to much for the kids then we will stop a few hours out at a RV camp let them relax and go in the next day.

Schedule

We had a great Sunday with Mountain View Baptist Church in Hesperia and First Baptist Church of Boron. Sunday morning Audrey still had a fever, but it was not high so I let her go to church, but she had to sit with me. She was not thrilled about missing her class, but she did well. After church we got to go to Olive Garden with Pastor Webb. Joey and I split a chicken and pasta dish, but we will never do that again as he ate more than half of it. I did enjoy the salad. I think that Olive Garden makes the best salad anywhere. I also had some peach ice tea with my lunch. It was great.

After lunch we unhooked the trailer and drove to Boron. The church in Boron has supported us almost from the beginning of deputation. They have a new pastor since we have been there. His name is Thomas Kinsfather. We had a great time during the service and afterward fellowshipping with the Kinsfather family in their home. They are a young couple who is doing a great job in Boron. God is blessing the church and there were many new faces there.

After church we drove to Tehachapi to see Jason's parents. We are spending the next few days with them before heading out again on Wednesday afternoon. We are so thankful for the generous love offerings that churches have given us. With what we have received we have not only been able to make our truck payment, but also purchase two new tires for the trailer. We now have two new ones with a spare and two old ones. We are praying that we would be able to replace the one more old one and trade the remaining old tire with the spare so we will be driving on all new ones. We have heard that you need to replace trailer tires once every two years. The man we bought the trailer from had no idea how old the tires were and he had purchased the trailer a year ago. We are so thankful for the safety that God has given us so far. Praise the Lord for his goodness.

Hesperia

Today we travelled to Hesperia from Moreno Valley. Today was blissfully problem free. We made the trip safely and arrived safely in only a few hours. We were able to set up the trailer and then I put the boys down for a nap while Jason helped set up for church. For dinner we got a treat and Pastor Webb took us to Red Lobster for dinner. As we travel in our trailer we bring our food with us so it is always a special treat to go out to eat especially at a place like Red Lobster.
During dinner Audrey developed a fever, but since her appetite was good I think she will be good enough to go to church tomorrow. The kids are all on antibiotics for bronchitis. I took them in to the doctor on Friday and they were all sick. Audrey didn't have a fever at that time. She only had the cough and runny nose, but today the fever came. I am hoping that it will be gone tomorrow as we have two morning services and Sunday School and then we are to drive to Boron for evening service. She will be a lot happier if she is well. If she is running a fever tomorrow morning then I will have her skip the first morning service to rest some more and try to make it for the second service.
Please be in prayer for our digital camera. As most of you know, I love to take pictures. My digital camera has given up the ghost. I had my dad look at it (he can fix anything) and he said it was not fixable. When we left Washington it was taking good pictures, but now everything is grainy with lines through it. I may have to resort to finding a camera with film. I don't know how I ever got along without a digital camera before.

Moreno Valley

Finally, I am online after more than a week without internet. I never realized how much I used it. This may be long but I thought you would like to know what happened after we left Leadership Conference on Wednesday night. It was a great conference. We left there and Jason and his dad took off for Oregon to pick up the truck and trailer. While they were driving I was shopping. A friend of ours from Lancaster gave me a gift certificate during the conference. Thursday during the day I took the kids and Grandma Tate and we went shopping. Wow, what fun and what work. The kids were good for the first part of the day, but they wore out befofre my gift certificate did. We got a lot of great stuff. What a huge blessing that gift certificate was to us.

Jason found out when he got to Oregon that our fridge was not working. It was working fine when we left Seattle, but sometime during our first night out it has stopped working. The Dahl family, who stored our trailer for us, was able to salvage the freezer stuff.

While Jason was driving back to California with the trailer, I tried to call all of the RV dealers and repair shops where he was to try and get the trailer seen. Needless to say, I was not successful. I tried to call Bro. Donny Wilson at Lighthouse Baptist Church where we were headed for next and he found someone to look at the fridge for us. So we set off on Saturday for Moreno Valley, California for our next meeting.
Everything was going great on Saturday. We took the kids swimming in the morning for an hour before we left. They had a great time. We had planned to get to Moreno Valley at around 4:00 pm. We were making great time when we were crossing the middle of the Mojave Desert near Edwards Air Force Base when a tire blew on our trailer. We heard a pop that sounded like a backfire and so we stopped. One of the back tires on the trailer had blown. We tried calling the phone numbers that our insurance gave us for help as we have roadside assistance and no one could help us as it was afternoon on Saturday. I didn’t know what to do so I called Lancaster Baptist Church which is an hour away. They gave me a phone number of someone I could call. They too couldn’t help us, but gave up the phone number of a tire shop in California City that we could try to call. They had a tire and we were able to go and get it. Praise the Lord they had one. We had tried to buy a spare for the trailer while we were in Seattle, but couldn’t find anyone who had any tires that were the right size and weight for our trailer. We were on the way again after only a few hour hiccup.
When we arrived in Moreno Valley we were amazed at how hot it was. We got there at 7:00 pm and it was still in the triple digits. It took a few hours for our air conditioner to work. We had never used it before so needless to say, we were glad it worked.
We had a great day on Sunday. Pastor Preston had some health problems so we did not get to see him on Sunday, but it was great to be able to attend the Spanish service for the morning and present what God has done in our ministry for the evening service.
Monday morning Bro Cal came out to look at our fridge. We found out because of the fact that the bottom of the fridge had melted that we had had a fire. Bro. Cal pulled the fridge out and said that he was amazed that the whole trailer didn’t go up in smoke. Praise the Lord he was watching out for us. We were not able to buy a new fridge as it costs over $1,000. Jason just told Bro. Cal that we would put the old fridge back in until we could afford to buy one. Bro. Cal told Jason that he didn’t want to do that and went and bought us a new fridge. We since found out that God has greatly blessed that family and that they keep a fund for helping people. What a blessing that was for us. We truly didn’t know what we were going to do.

Our friends Donny and Donna Wilson and thier daughter Lily are on staff at Lighthouse and Pastor Preston had Donna take me out shopping. We HAD to spend Thursday shopping. That was a lot of fun as it was great girl time. The guys watched the kids and we had fun. We went to two different malls and got a lot of good deals including suit jackets for the boys from Children's Place for $1.99 each. It was a lot of fun.
This week we have been helping with Vacation Bible School at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Moreno Valley. Jason and I have been helping in the areas of preaching (no, I am not the one doing the preaching) J and dealing center. I have been privileged to lead three young ladies to the Lord and deal with two who had problems with assurance. God is so good to give us these opportunities to serve. Only one of these young people attends church at Lighthouse so it is even more special to me as who knows what kind of preaching they get weekly if they even attend a church.
Tomorrow we are heading for Hesperia, CA to report to Mountainside Baptist Church. We will be there for Sunday morning and drive to Boron, CA to report to First Baptist Church of Boron on Sunday night.

Leadership Conference

Leadership Conference has been wonderful. This is the first year for us and we have received such a blessing. We had a day of rest yesterday with only the evening service. It was great to see our home church again even though we had only left them a week ago. During the service we had to sit in the very back of the auditorium in chairs because it was so full, but we were so thankful that we were able to find seats with our church group.

Today we had the alumni breakfast and then a morning session with two different preachers. I cannot describe how it feels to be able to go to church without having to watch the nursery every service.

Mrs. Chappell hosted a luncheon for the pastors and missionaries wives. We had a Hawaiian theme luncheon. It was gorgeous. The Chappell’s back lawn was decorated with white tents under which were round tables with covered chairs. The chairs had tropical flowers attached to the bows on the back of the seats. The flower arrangement in the center of the table was tropical flowers and leaves with a coconut in the middle of everything. Because of the high winds of the Antelope Valley, they had the flowers and leaves pinned to the table cloth. We received a book filled with the recipes for the food we had eaten and ideas for skits with the same theme. I hope I can adapt it for the group in Ojojona.

Yesterday I had a funny thing happen to me. I was getting my nails done with the wife of our host and I started talking to the stylish in Spanish. The only problem is that she was Korean and not Hispanic. She looked at me strangely and said , “I don’t understand you” I was laughing when I realized what I had done.

We are looking forward to another great service tonight and tomorrow filled with more great sessions.

Blown Head Gaskets and God’s Blessings

Yesterday was quite an adventure for us. Wednesday, we had been having trouble with the radiator constantly running dry. We were contemplating stopping in Salem, OR to have the truck looked at, but the problem seemed to be getting better so we drove on. As we started rather late Wednesday afternoon we didn’t get as far as we had hoped. We finally stopped just south of Eugene, OR thinking the radiator problem was fixed. We got up early and put the kids in the truck in their jammies to start driving again. We had planned to drive south for an hour or so and then get gas and dress the kids. We stopped in Roseburg, OR and while I was dressing the kids, Jason checked the water level. It was empty again, so we called Ford Roadside Service. They directed us to a Ford dealership to have it looked at.

The Ford dealership wasn’t very big so Jason unhooked the trailer in a Wal-Mart parking lot and left us with it. He then went to take the truck in. The kids and I went into Wal-Mart where we enjoyed our time. Jason called us and told us that there was a blown head gasket. We found out that in order to replace the head gasket and inspect the head the cab of the truck must be lifted off the frame. The whole procedure takes more than 30 hours of work. We had to leave the car with the dealer for a week. This was a problem for us as we were on our way to Leadership Conference. We didn’t know what we were going to do. We called our pastor and he gave us the name and phone number of an independent Baptist church in Roseburg. We tried calling and couldn’t get anyone. Our pastor then gave us the number of Pastor McKelroy of Willamette Valley Baptist Church as he was friends with the pastor in Roseburg. While we were calling we were parked in the parking lot of Victory Baptist Church in Roseburg. Some church members saw us and offered to park our 5th wheel at their house. That was a huge blessing for us.

We were able to get a rental car paid for by Willamette Valley Baptist Church and we once again set off for Leadership Conference. The rental car and RV storage were both huge blessings for us. God put us in the right place at the right time. I was resolved to the fact that we were going have to miss Leadership Conference. I am so thankful that God had other plans.

Traveling begins

I sit here in a McDonalds play area in Kelso, WA typing my blog for the first time in a long time. Technology is such a wonderful thing. We have a wireless modem in our computer that our church bought for us and if I am remotely close to a motel I can use their wireless internet connection. There is a Super 8 Motel in the same parking lot so I can check my emails and update my blog.

We finally left Seattle. We had so much to do to get ready. We didn’t get off when we had planned because of trying to fix a generator for the trailer (we gave up and just brought it with us to get fixed when we have time) and finishing up packing. Normally we wouldn’t stop and eat fast food as we have a trailer full of food, but the waste tanks in the trailer are full I cannot wash dishes, hands, and the kids can’t use the bathroom. So as the are tired of being in the car now, we are letting them play on the play area and they can eat when we get to the car.

Joey threw a temper when we stopped at a rest stop earlier. While Audrey was going to the bathroom he discovered the hand dryer for kids. He had to be pulled away from it kicking and screaming. We had to go to the trailer for a time of exhortation.

We are all looking forward to stopping for the night and getting a good nights sleep, but we have to make it at least to the southern end of Oregon tonight or we will never make it to Tehachapi tomorrow.

Please keep the family of Pastor Mark Lawrence in your prayers. He passed away on Wednesday morning after a week in the hospital following a fall from a quad ATV. The memorial service will be held Saturday in Lancaster, CA followed by the funeral in John Day, OR the following Friday. Bro. and Mrs. Lawrence were great encouragements to us while we were on deputation four years ago. He will be sorely missed.