Let Me Tell you 'bout (the Birds and) the Bees

For the past couple of weeks I've been noticing some citrus trees near Orange Cove and Cutler that have had this white netting covering the trees. Today I saw someone at church who is an agricultural expert (John Slaughter). John explained that the netting is protecting seedless tangerines from being pollinated by bees. If bees pollinate these trees, the fruit will not be seedless. Wow!!! How cool is that?

Chris cheering on his favorite college team!!

Tonight I also learned from my son Chris (aka Cramer) that the Phillies have been cheating on the MLB game on his PlayStation 2. He claims that the game is glitching, but I believe that it's part of a greater conspiracy against his beloved Mets. Oh well, who said that life is boring?

"Jesus Take the Wii"

Ah, to work in the same city as one lives - that would be a treat! Today I had a rare opportunity to attend a workshop in downtown Fresno. I still woke up early, but instead of a 42 mile, 50 minute commute to Orosi, I took a leisurely walk down the block and rode the 26 down Palm Ave. to the Bus shelter near Van Ness and Fresno and walked to the Fresno County Office of Education. It took a total of 20 minutes to get downtown and cost only $1.25.

Maybe I was destined to drive. I was born and raised in the Los Angeles area and commuted to UCLA from the Valley (the original) for 4 of my 6 years. Then my first job was a 27 mile, 1 hour 30 minute commute from Sepulveda to El Segundo. When I moved to Lake Co., I did have a 5 mile commute from Nice to Upper Lake, but the lure of the big city took us to Lakeport where my commute turned into a 10 mile commute. In my twenty years with Cutler-Orosi I have gone through at least 8 cars.

The price of gas is becoming painful to say the least and this compounds my driving woes. I seem to have two options, well maybe three: 1) move to Orosi, 2) get a job in Fresno, or 3) stay where I am for now and see wait to see what happens. As much as I'd like to move to Orosi, my family is not too keen on it and they have lots of reasons not to be. I'd love to work in Fresno, but the current economy and the current budget crisis in California seems like a train wreck in the making. The third option to stay where I'm at is the more likely one.

As I was reflecting on this tonight this a verse came to my mind:

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” - James 4:13-15.

I can't forget that ultimately, God directs my path and He controls my life. Yet, it is so easy to fall into the trap that I'm at the wheel and driving my life. If you dare, look at this video. It has nothing to do with today's muse except for the title of today's entry.

Energy Crisis

Weston did not wear Scott out in spite of what the picture shows.

Is it a sign of getting older when you do absolutely nothing the day after a week-long trip with a group of high schoolers?

I didn't sleep all day but felt completely unmotivated to work in the backyard on Friday. Kaylene went to sleep at 8 P.M. on Thursday night and slept for 17 hours. So maybe it's not old age -but then again, I don't think my bladder would let me sleep for 17 hours.

At least I had Saturday to work in the yard. It was good to get the jungle under control and make it look decent, however I think I'll need to re-sod or re-seed the backyard grass. It's pretty thrashed after 3 years of abuse from lack of watering and the loss of our great shade tree that we had removed.

This Easter break has been much different than previous ones. We went on a "mission trip" but this was not a service-oriented project. We learned a lot and time will tell what's been retained. It's great to be home and it's been nice not to think about work. The good news is that I get another day off tomorrow to clean out the garage. If anyone  doesn't believe in the 2nd law of Thermodynamics, come spend the day with me on Monday.

LA Recap

Well, we're back from our youth trip to LA and it was great! I'm tired after having slept on the floor of a church for the past five nights and driving over 1,000 miles in Southern California. Before we left on the trip we wrote letters to ourselves and then opened them on the day that we left for come home.

I was amazed at how most of my expectations and hopes were met. In my note dated April 10th, I wrote, "I hope that as a result of this experience I will be less judgmental of other traditions and that I will appreciate some of the differences there are in the church. I hope that we will alll see the church as being made up of various parts - all glorifying God and presenting the Gospel of Christ accurately and faithfully."

That pretty much is what happened. One student commented that he appreciated the differences that we saw at the churches we visited, however he did have his own preference for worshiping and it wasn't necessarily any of the ones that we visited.

This picture at the right is the Mayan theater in downtown LA. This is not a concert but the stage for Mosaic's Sunday evening service. This church seems to reach out to young (20's - 30's) professionals. We saw a wide range of worship expressions (dance, singing, testimonies) and heard testimonies from people who had been transformed by Jesus Christ and were living changed lives. These people would probably not have gone to a traditional church and I saw how this church was used to bring people to Christ. This was one of the two places that I anticipated I would be judgmental towards. I really enjoyed the experience but like the high school student I mentioned earlier, I probably not regularly attend here.

The other place where I felt I would be challenged was Saddleback. When people talk about their church grounds, they sometimes call it their "campus." Well, Saddleback is truly a campus. It was huge and felt like a theme park minus the rides. One person commented that it felt like they were trying to create a village-like atmosphere. I would agree. We noticed that even the stones had music coming from them; but of course, they were outdoor speakers.

Saturday night ate at Saddleback - yes, we ate at one of the eateries they have on campus - and attended their high school worship service. There were students to greet us at the door when we came in. They handed us pens and an outline of the teaching that we would be hearing that night. The worship band was student led and very good. Students also ran the cameras, lights and sound for the service. Throughout the service they had videos to advertise upcoming events and interviews with their student interns. The guest speaker that night was Doug Fields, their former youth pastor. He's still on staff and disciples a group of freshmen boys during the week. Our kids were excited to hear Doug as we had just completed a series on sex and dating that Doug had produced through Youth Specialties Ministry.

The message was that night was clear and biblically strong. For some reason I thought that things would be somewhat Christian-lite. I guess that was part of my judgmental-ism coming out. However it was great. The picture above is the outside of the youth building. They call it 'The Refinery.' In the front is a sand volleyball court. Out back is a skate park and an outdoor restaurant. Inside is a deli and a coffee shop. There is also a half-court basketball set-up and a video arcade room upstairs.

We did get to eat at the Original Tommy's at Beverly and Rampart. Some kids liked it while others did not. I guess it's like the different churches we visited. Afterwards we went to Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. The kids got to see the famous footprints as well as the freaks that frequent Hollywood Blvd. We then went up to the Griffith Park Observatory for a couple of hours. On Monday we went to Dodger Stadium and saw the Dodgers beat the Braves 4-2. I think Kaylene is now a Dodger fan. Now I don't have to celebrate alone.

Surprisingly, I was most affected when we went down to Skid Row to partipate with a ministry that has karaoke night every Wednesday. Driving east on 6th St. from the Harbor Freeway, we quickly left the highrise buildings and ended in a section of town that had literally hundreds of people living on the streets. I've seen the homeless in the Tenderloin of San Francisco and the homeless in downtown Fresno, but the scale of homelessness was almost overwhelming. I think this is because people are drawn to LA for a chance of fame or success. The weather is not harsh as well and these things contribute to the number of homeless people in LA. There were also more women and children than I have seen in other areas. On side streets, the more fortunate had cars to sleep in. Most were on the streets however. The karaoke night was fun and the people that participated had one night in which they could escape the harsh reality of living on the streets of Los Angeles. They had a prayer room set up in which people could share prayer requests and praises.

I think it will take a couple of days to see what kind of impact this trip will have on me as well as the kids. In the meantime I'll try to keep this blog going from time to time with thoughts and views on what's happening. Thanks for your prayers for us. It will be interesting to see what the students get out this.

Don't Anticipate!

Well, it's the night before the big trip to LA. I'm almost packed but not quite. I've burned CDs for the trip as I couldn't find my iPod adapter for an older car. Tomorrow night we'll be going to Saddleback to visit their youth group. Sunday morning we're planning on going to Cathedral of our Lady of Angels, Faithful Central Bible Church and possibly Emmanuel Reformed Church. Sunday evening we'll be headed to Mosaic Church. As you can see, lots of different traditions and beliefs. As I said in an earlier blog, I'm in for some stretching.

I need to follow the advice that I hear so often when I participate in the Walk to Emmaus - Don't Anticipate!

However, there are a couple of things that can hardly wait for: Tommy Burgers - the absolute best, a Dodger game Monday night and working with the Dream Center on Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm sure there's more - like the great So Cal weather, the traffic, etc.

I'm looking forward to this next week. It looks like Kaylene will be going too!!! She's a tough one. However if she needs some quiet or down time I might be contacting some friends down south for help.

Stay tuned!!

Just Checking In

It's two days before our big youth mission trip to L.A. and I'm excited and curious at the same time about what we're going to experience. This trip will have some elements that a traditional youth group has during spring break. We'll be involved in some kind of service projects throughout the week with various ministries. However, the main purpose of this trip is to study the church. I know that some of the places we will be visiting will really challenge me personally. It's funny because God has been bringing one Christian personality to me and I'm not sure what to make of it. This person is not a heretic but I wonder what God's "purpose" is in all of this.

If you read this and thing about us (and me), you can pray that we will receive all that God has for us in LA and that we will come home changed people.

You can follow our adventure on the blog that our youth will be contributing to over the next week (FirstPresinLA).

It's Been Too Long

I started this with good intentions of journaling to develop some spiritual disciplines. But like all good intentions, I got sidetracked with life. It's been over two years since I last wrote here or even visited my own blog.

In the past two years I've experienced the loss of my pastor, a change in my job, celebrating 25 years of marriage and now my oldest son is getting married in October. Chris graduated from high school two summers ago, Kaylene is now in her second year of public school, Wendi is subbing in Fresno and Cutler-Orosi, and I'm finishing up my first year as an elder on Session.

Lots of other things have happened too, but looking back, makes me excited about what's in the future. Next week I'll be in L.A. with the youth group. I'll write more about that tomorrow.

In the meantime, look for more blog entries in the days and weeks to follow.