Furlough May 17 - May 23

Sunday 17th May – in Fresno
Arrived at Faith Baptist Church at 9.30am and set up. Trying out the Digital projector for the first time officially. Forgot about sound so had to set the microphone on my laptop’s speakers – did okay, but not great.
Taught Sunday School by showing our presentation and then answering over a dozen questions. Bro Tony, Dina and Gina from IRELAND were with us still.
Preached the Main Service. Preached on the Value of Your Missionaries. It went well.
Ate leftovers from the Rehearsal dinner! Mmmmm.
Ruth went with Gina on down to Lancaster today. She will stay with Gina for the next several days until Gina leaves at the weekend.
Traveled 2 ½ hours north to Lodi to preach at Faith Baptist Church, pastured by Mel Taylor. A new church, but with some awesome people. Showed slides and preached on The Missionary’s Wish. It went great!

Monday, 18th May – in Fresno
Shopping at first. I got some things done getting back organised – I haven’t gone through our papers and suitcases since we arrived!
I still have to clean out the car.
Joel rand and told us that Liz was in labour! Around 3pm our time she had a healthy beautiful baby boy!
Joel got online later and uploaded some pictures to Picasa. We let a bunch of people know via Facebook and our website!
Got to take Bro and Mrs. Miller to Dinner at a place called Carrows. Great food, and great fellowship.
Downloaded the video of the wedding off of the Hi8 video recorder into MovieMaker. Kind of disappointed because it is very brief and incomplete. Oh well! It is something.
After that we went to their home and Nita first got to spend some serious good time with Lisa Miller, and then we all got to have a good time of heart-to-heart talking and Bro Chuck and Liz were great! What a blessing to have them not only as brother and sister in Christ, but part of our extended family!

Tuesday, 19th May – Travelling to Sequoia National Forest near Fresno
Bought Ruth a new AT&T phone since hers had broke months ago, and she was using her Ireland mobile, and it was working terrible. She was happy!
Ruth and Gina were heading back down to Lancaster/Palmdale.
Bro Tony and Dina were heading up to San Francisco on the rest of their two week tour
We then finally got going, and headed east toward the Sierra High Mountains and the Sequoia National Park to look at the giant Redwoods, and WOW were they magnificent!

Wednesday, 20th May – Leaving Fresno and going north
Took Mom to the Fresno Bus Station at 5.30am. We were so glad she came! She won’t be home until Friday.
Finally got away from the hotel at 11.30am and headed over to Faith Baptist Church to meet up once more with Bro Chuck and Lisa. Nita showed Lisa Sharon’s Graduation picture Album and we took Sharon’s remaining luggage in.
We then headed north expecting to arrive at Colusa to be with Bro Buddy but decided to head into San Francisco – and it was well worth it!
San Francisco was beautiful. Phoned Sharon and we met at Pier 39 and walked around and ate Corn Dogs and took pictures!
Finally headed on further north to Colusa, but arrived at around 11pm. Quite but old little town.

Thursday, 21st May
I discovered a mouse in our room at 1.30am, so the woman moved us to a better room which was nice!
We got up a little late, but got on our way to Redding to meet Carol Verardo and her family at the church. We arrived at 10am, and unloaded the car, and then we all piled into my car and traveled north. Met Carol’s husband, Gerry, and Jenny, her daughter hasn’t changed a bit since Youth Camp!
Halfway along the trip I asked Gerry to drive and what a blessing of a break!
Stopped at several places along the trip to take pictures of some beautiful views. Ended up at the Pacific Ocean – the beach was absolutely freezing because of the cold wind coming across from the water! We then went on North to Crescent City where Gerry used to live since his grandfather was there. Carol booked two rooms by the sea shore with balconys that open to the beach front! It was kind of cold though, but the water was rocky and beautiful. We went out to eat at a seafood restaurant and ate very well.

Friday, 22nd May, 2009
Got up early, ate breakfast with the Verardos and then headed out to a beach to go looking for some fresh sand-dollar shells. Found only one, and it is not in great shape, but at least we got one. Then we headed northwest into Oregon. Beautiful trek through the remainder of the Redwood forest. Oregon was more sparse and has what is called a high desert look. We traveled at about 3,000 - 4,000 feet for quite a while until we got to Medford where we stopped at a Bowling Alley tomplay a couple of lanes of bowling with Jenny for her birthday. After that we headed back south to Mount Shasta! Beautiful day!

Saturday, 23rd May, 2009
Went to soul-winning at Shasta Baptist Church this morning at 9.30am. I got to go out with Ford Bishop, and for 2 ½ hours we had a great time! Bro Bishop is a great man of faith and burden about souls! He had no problem witnessing and telling folks how to get saved! Almost everyone we talked to were extremely attentive. The first man was in the worldwide church of God, and lost as a goose. Still holding to keeping the law and the Sabbath for salvation, and that he could lose it. I tried to give him some important truths to settle. Gave him much to ponder!
At 3pm, we went over to the Verardos for a Bar-B-Q and for Jenny’s birthday. We got to eat venison, and it was exquisite. Josh got to ride a four-wheeler, and we ate well! About 50-60 people were there including Matt, Mark, and the pastor and his wife.