Nephew in Town

It's Monday afternoon and I just got back from the Bass Pro Shop in Rancho Cucamonga nearby.  Our nephew, Steve Greenwalt, who drives for Schneider trucking company came into Fontana for a day.  The Schneider corporate truck stop is there in Fontana and they (he and his co-driver) have a few hours to do errands and get rest.  We picked up Steve around 2 pm and took him to Bass Pro to get a few supplies he needed for his trucking run.  Then, we went to the Islamadora Fish House connected to the store and had a late lunch.

Because my car is down, David drove there.  Then, Sondra was out and about doing errands and then came to join us.  I called Crystal (who lives about 10 minutes for the store) and she brought Bailey with her.  Crystal called Evan (who had been asleep after working all night) and he took a quick shower and ate with us also.  It was a wonderful time of getting family together for some fish and chips, shrimp, appetizers of quesadilla and alligator and calamari (squid).  It's a place that offers sweet tea (rare in California restaurants), so I loved that as well.

Yesterday at church, I had six California Baptist University students talk about their mission trips from this past summer.  the new school year has just started and they returned to church.  One had been to Rwanda, one to Arlington (Texas) for work with children, one to Glorieta Baptist Conference Center to work at the front desk and help with youth attending Centrifuge conferences, two to St. Petersburg in Russia, and one (Jennifer Greenwalt, my niece) to Japan.  It was so inspiring to listen to them share how God had used them in wonderful ways as they went out of their "comfort zones" to serve others.

Yesterday afternoon, we went to a softball game near the church at a "Big League Dreams Field" complex.  Evan is on a team in a league sponsored by the local recreation department.  Two of the Harrison boys (Chad and Ryan, sons of Lorn and Sharon Harrison - close friends for 40 years in Rialto) are on the team.  And for this season, they got Shawn (Crystal's husband) to play also.  They had a lousy game, losing 17-1.  But worse than that, Shawn and another team player ran into each other chasing a fly ball, accidentally cracking their heads together and laying on the field for several minutes.  They were both up and around after some time, but Shawn had a huge swollen cheek to show for it.

Last night, Sondra and I were invited over to a church member's house for dinner.  The man and his wife have had some rocky moments in their marriage recently and we are helping them find stabiliity and confidence in their relationship.  He cooked a steak and potato dinner, with homemade peach cobbler.  It was good, and the fellowship was great.

This morning, David and I went walking at a local park.  We walked the entire circumference of this huge city park, and I found that I need a lot of work to keep this up.  I am settling in to this non-working day and will put myself on a program of exercise and portion control with my eating.

Tonight I go to an appointment with some church folk to talk about matters of ministry.