Despite the government shutdown I finished my trip to California and have nothing but gratitude for all the friends I met with. For two weeks I visited my Ocean View Baptist Church family in San Pedro; my Biola/Talbot/La Mirada/Buena Park friends; and my Redlands/MAF/Trinity Church family. Thank you all for a wonderful trip. In this post I will recap my trip.
Before I begin, let me inform you about what I have coming up. Sadly, I just found out my trip this weekend to Angola has to be canceled for the moment. I will still go eventually, but the trip has been delayed until later this year or early next year. I do plan to be apart of a Wycliffe Banquet tour this fall in four Southeast states. I might have another trip to Congo late November. I will be having another PD trip in Oregon and Washington in December. I look forward to seeing my friends and family up there.
I would like to give a really big thanks to Tom and Deb Berg, Don and Amy Joel, Ryan and Miriam Tolsma, Jeff and Kathy McNair and my former apartment mates Larry and Nathan for hosting me.
I started my trip in San Pedro at Ocean View Baptist Church. I stayed at the home of Tom and Deb Berg just off the Pacific Ocean. They are a very mission minded couple who have traveled more than I have.
Here are a few pictures of Ocean View Baptist Church. On a nice day you can see way down the coast of Long Beach, make out down town LA and see the whole San Bernardino mountain range. 
For those of you who don't know, I worked as junior high Sunday school teacher and Stamps Intern while at Ocean View. I attended Ocean View while I was a student at Talbot Theological Seminary. Besides helping me financially make it through Talbot; Ocean View also provided the family and support I needed while studying. The pastors of Ocean View demonstrated to me a Biblically centered, grace overflowing, God honoring ministry.
I drove around California in this red Ford Fiesta. I am not a major car person, but I can say I enjoyed the Fiesta. It has nice styling and it felt a lot lighter than my 1999 Pontiac Grand AM. It has some pep to it, so its good that I drive conservatively, or else it would have been easy to speed.
My next visit was in La Mirada/Buena Park. I stayed with my long time friends Don and Amy Joel, plus their family. Don was a fellow Talbot student with me and a fellow co-worker at Biola Financial Aid office. Don's kids have really grown. Here are a couple pictures of their family.
The Last part of my trip was in to Redlands where I visited the church of my youth (Trinity Evangelical Free Church.) Though Trinity is no where near the size of Orlando First Baptist. It is still a pretty decent sized church. I have only respect for the preaching of Gary Inrig the former head pastor. Trinity was a great example for me how a church could impact the surrounding community with Christ like love and truth. When I worked overseas, there were many Sundays I would follow up church with a sermon from Gary. If he reads this page, may God bless your continued ministry.
I also grew up in TLC, or the Trinity youth program under Jeannie Osterberg. Besides being introduced to the musical, which I was in every Christmas, I was given a solid foundation as a young believer. I give particular thanks to Jeannie Osterberg and Byron Low for their impact on me while growing up in the church.
I stayed with Jeff and Kathy McNair at their ranch overlooking Redlands and the mountains. The primary purpose of my trip was to raise support for my ministry with Wycliffe Associates. Ocean View Baptist church is my sending church and happily I am receiving support from friends in California. Indeed I did receive some more support on this trip for which I am very grateful. I still have a long way to go, but I have a banquet tour coming up in a few weeks through four Bible Belt states.
Wycliffe Associates has a banquet tour every Sping and Fall. They speak about Wycliffe and what they are doing to those who are interested. Happily I am being allowed to come along in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Thank you for reading and being interested in my work. I will leave you with a few more pictures from my trip.
Sara Lawson made this wonderful desert inspired by her trip to Australia.
This grapefruit, which is larger than many watermelons I have seen, is from the backyard of Ryan and Miriam Tolsma.
The grapefruit was so large, that half of it could barely fit into a decent sized blender. Despite being so large, the taste was still good.
I took the grapefruit and mixed it with spinach, grapes, banana, mixed nuts and apple juice. I then blended that all together into a drink. My blender was not quite strong enough to break the seeds down all the way. However, the drink was still quite good.
2 comments:
It was great to see you, Adam, and hear about your ministry. I'll be praying!
Thanks Mrs. Freeman. I had a great time back at Ocean View. Visiting was like coming home to family.
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