Itinerary For This Weekend

Sondra and I are getting ready to head up to northern California in a couple of days.  We will leave very early Friday morning on a trip to the San Francisco area.  We have some good friends (Don and Judy Nason) that we have not seen for quite some time.  Both of them have had very serious health issues in this past year, and they are still not fully recovered all the way.  We want to spend the weekend with them.

Then, we will go to Clovis, California, which is close to Fresno, for a Pastors' Conference next Monday night and Tuesday morning.  The annual meeting of the California Southern Baptist State Convention will be conducted on Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday.  But, we will only be staying for the preaching conference.  We will leve Tuesday afternoon to return home, as Sondra will need to be at work on Wednesday morning.

I sincerely enjoy hearing other pastors as they preach to us in this annual gathering.  Every once in a while, I need to relax and have some spiritual feeding for me personally.  I am very much looking forward to next week.

This past week has been eventful already.  I have received various calls for ministry needs that have been quite different from most days.  A man in our church has asked me to deliver some ashes (in an urn) to Fresno for him, as it has not worked out for him to transport them!  That was an unusual request, but I will do it for him.  He is so grateful.

A lady called me a few days ago to see if I would visit a young man in a nearby jail.  The girlfriend of this young man asked her pastor and several other pastors in the Riverside area if they would visit the man.  They told her no, as the drive was too far.  I was recommended by this friend, as she knew I have done quite a few visits to jails and prisons!  I have an appointment early tomorrow morning (Thursday) to visit at the Rancho Cucamonga West Valley Detention Center of San Bernardino County.  I am excited about this visit, even though I have never met this gentleman.

Last night (Tuesday), Sondra and I went to dinner with our church planter pastor and friend, George Nelson.  We had received an envelope with money with a note.  The note told us to go out to dinner in honor of Pastor Appreciation Month and, if possible, take George with us to celebrate together.  We did.  We picked him up and went to the Black Angus restaurant with the coupon for steak, shrimp and lobster for $15.99 each.  It was a wonderful time of food and fellowship, hearing the latest on what God is doing in our church plant called The Vision Plus Church 2 of Chatsworth.

This morning I printed the bulletins for Sunday, and I also printed the Bible Study material for tonight's Wednesday service at church.

I will be getting the oil changed in the car before we leave on our trip, so that will take some time tomorrow as well.  We are deliberating about getting the Sebring's engine done at a machine shop through our mechanic friend.  More on that later.  One step at a time right now.  We'll take our trip and then go from there.

By the way, how do you like the pretty sunsets that fade in and out at the top of this blog?  I like them a lot!