NZ: Gisborne - Food & Waiuni Beach

The food has been good :) The family and views wonderful!

Sai, 1995 - 2008

I love animals.
I haven't had as many pets as I would like, but I have loved a few cats.
One of them died today. She was old and it was time.
I am very sad.

This is my small tribute to Sai, who no longer is.

4th of July

Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood CA

Classic Baseball tunes, American tunes... celebrating USA and the Dodgers 50th anniversary.

We went with the family: Jon, Mum, Trena (Dad's cousin-in-law), Dad & Kevin (Dad's cousin).
Us (Bill's having a hard time smiling - he broke a rib last week and is in a bit of pain!)
The show...

STEP 2008

We enjoyed hosting the third Summer Team Evangelism Partnership this year, from June 18 - 30. Here's a short summary of our time together with:

10 from Wisconsin
1 from Nebraska
2 from South Carolina
4 from Washington
1 from Oregon
and a bunch from Southern California!

Field Trip to Downtown L.A. - walked around Fashion District (visited a garment cutting factory and wholesale store...)Spent an hour at Olvera St (where Los Angeles was born a couple of hundred years ago).
Took the metro there and back - this is walking into Union Station.
Over the weekend and each morning we had Bible studies and practical lessons on evangelism.
Plus Spanish-speakers from around Latin America sharing their perspectives on life as immigrants to the USA.

The Children's Outreaches... we had 4 different locations and the team split into 2 groups to then go to 2 places each (4-5:30pm and 7-8:30pm). While the "youth" team focused on reaching the children, several older and bilingual members of the team visited with parents.


Began with games...Most days performed a skit to illustrate the gospel truth....
Five lessons on different Genesis stories were taught (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob & Joseph... and the aspects of their lives that point to Christ!)

Songs were sung...

Then the kids were split up into small groups to go over the lesson...




Mealtimes were eaten together in our church... we had a bunch of wonderful cooks with meals from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Korea, New Zealand and USA.

By the end of the week... naps were needed.The last Saturday the team was with us we had a play day down at Mission Bay in San Diego. Stopped for dinner in Oceanside on the way home. Here I am with Helen, Sara and Sonja enjoying the sunset!
Most bodies were burnt from too much time in the sun and not enough sunscreen! Here are three of the worst cases:

Sunday afternoon veging...

Church Picnic

Here's a selection of pictures from our church picnic last Saturday... in no particular order....

Nanhee & Lety:
Eva & Darlene:

Eric & Bill (yes - they're talking Theology!):

Debra, Shawn & Braulio (S.S. awards):

Mike - our chief BBQer:

Julio & Dad:

Michelle, Celeste & Angie:

STEP 2008....

June 18 - 30 we'll be hosting the team from Wisconsin who join our church every summer to reach out to various communities through Bible clubs for children etc. We have three different cross-cultural housing complexes lined up where we'll be holding these outreaches - two in Westminster and one in Gardena.

Old Students...

Nora, Angel, me & Brenda

Yesterday Bill and I had the opportunity to meet up with some of my old students from Millikan High School where I taught for three years before moving to Colombia (1994-1997). These three were students I had many lunch discussions with throughout my whole time there. I have sort of kept in touch with them ever since and it's been neat to watch them grow up. Nora has a family now (5 kids), Angel was ordained as a priest last Saturday and Brenda is studying/working.
The occasion that brought us together was Angel's ordination - we went to his first mass and then the celebration with his family and church.

This photo was taken at their graduation back in June of 1997. It was purely coincidental that we posed in the same order! (I just dug this photo up today.)

Summer Visitors

School is finally over for the year...

Last week was our first week off for the summer & my cousin and her family were in town, staying with my parents...(Dad, Anthea, Tani, Dylan, Mum, Dior, Jon & Bill)

Spring Women's Retreat

A group of women from my church went on retreat in April. We drove down to Pine Valley (San Diego county) and stopped off in Oceanside for lunch on the way...These were my roommates: Dawnita & Debra...

The speaker for the weekend was Ruth S. from Milwaukee - she was so down to earth and godly in her way of sharing and the scriptures she exhorted us with (also pictured are Carrie and Rebekah)...

Group photo of all who went down from WBC...