Special Secret Revealed

I watched the Friday Night Boxing televised events last Friday for the first time in 20 years.  On the ESPN2 channel, two fights were to be shown live from Tulsa, Oklahoma.  There were six fights on the card for the evening, and our son Jason was assigned to judge (with two other judges) the first six fights.  Only the last two fights were to be televised, as they were main events.  This was Jason's first time to officially judge boxing matches.  As we watched the telecast, we could see Jason sitting on the front row watching the bouts.  Because the second fight ended early in a knockout, they showed a previous fight from the night, and naturally that would be one that Jason was standing at the edge of the ring in his position as a judge.  That fight also ended in a knockout, and the boxer landed on the ropes right in front of Jason before falling to the mat.  We talked to Jason later and learned much about the scoring system.  It was fun to watch, as we were looking to see Jason more than we were watching the boxing match!

Snow came down in Rialto very quietly and quickly melted as it hit the ground this past Saturday.  Winter storms hit us late last week and snow covered the mountains around us.  It was beautiful.  The snow level came down to almost the 1,000 foot level.  That is rare here in our area.  It caused a lot of trouble for those living in higher elevations, but we just thought it was magnificent to see.  Here is a picture on the street by our house, looking at the San Bernardino mountain range where Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead are both located.

Our church has been attending several tapings of game shows for the last six months.  We have attended "Let's Make A Deal" and "The Price Is Right."  Next month, we are scheduled to go to "America's Got Talent."  One of the ladies in our church, Lynn Peters, is the coordinator and makes all the arrangements.  This past November, we had a group make the trip down to Hollywood for the taping of "Let's Make A Deal," and (what a wonderful blessing) Lynn was chosen to come down for a deal.  She won a brand new car!  But, it had to be kept a secret for several months.

By agreement with the show, she could not tell this to anyone, as no one is supposed to know until the episode airs.  (If the award became public, she would lose the car per the agreement with CBS.)  So, that was the reason for secrecy.  (Yes, she did tell me as pastor and she swore me to secrecy.)  So, this past week, on February 23, the episode was shown and Lynn went over to Los Angeles and picked up her car.  She actually won a 2010 Chevy Aveo but the dealership gave her a 2011 instead!  The show listed it as a prize worth $15, 285.  Because the dealership gave her a $1000 rebate, she only paid $585 for tax and license and walked away with the title and vehicle.  She gave her testimony at church and just praised God for his favor and love.  We all rejoiced.  Here are a couple of pictures of her car, and she is holding up her keys for the second photo.

On Sunday afternoon, I met with another church in Riverside which has been in decline for many months.  They are down to about 10 adults and 2 kids in the worship service.  My nephew (John Ross Greenwalt) was recently called as pastor, and he asked me to come and meet with the church for the purpose of planning for the future.  I sat down with them and talked about the "life cycle of churches" and the need to start over when the church has "died."  I walked them through the process of developing new statements of purpose, mission and vision.  It was a good meeting, and we will see what God can do with a handful of people who desperately want to reach their community for Jesus.

Alden came over after church yesterday and spent the day with us.  It's always good to have him around.  He is a great guy who has a good sense of humor.  Shawn, Crystal and Bailey came over for a short while to pick up something.  Around all that, we watched the Oscar presentations but did not find that too interesting.  We had seen "The King's Speech" so it didn't surprise us that it won four of the major awards.