Ministry Update

The noise in our truck turned out to be a bad wheel bearing. I was able to get it fixed and the church in Escondido gave us money to cover the cost of the repair. Praise the Lord!

After a wonderful service in Escondido, I began preparing myself for a week of sitting just wishing I had a place to preach. It was not be the case, however. Bro. Dave Earnhart, pastor of Fundamental Baptist Church of Escondido, gave me a flyer advertising a pastor’s fellowship in the Los Angeles area. The fellowship was to be Monday night and Tuesday morning. I left early on Monday so that I could be sure to make it on time in the event of bad LA traffic and so arrived early, being the first person there. The evening service was well attended with over 200 people there. I was able to make many good contacts, one of whom said that he would consider having me preach to his people on Wednesday night. The following day, he said that the Lord had given him the green light to have me preach to his people. He is a Filipino pastor named Larry Obero. Another Filipino pastor out of his church has asked me to preach to his mid-week service tomorrow night.

The fellowship meeting was a Baptist Bible Fellowship meeting, and those are always fun. You never know exactly what to expect. This was a good meeting, however, and the Lord used some of the messages to really speak to my heart. The commute for me was 120 miles one way through the variables of LA traffic. The service started at 7:30 with two preachers for the evening, finally concluding at about 9:30. The host pastor asked me if I would be staying the night. I told him that I was simply planning to drive back and then to make the trip again in the morning. He insisted that I stay in a motel and that the church would pay for it. Though I was grateful for the invitation, especially considering the lateness of the hour, I did not tell him that I had not come prepared to stay overnight. I simply resolved to be flexible and see what I could do for myself. I having had no supper, the pastor invited me to join him and another pastor for a meal. The meal finally concluded at 11:30 and I headed to my motel room. After a couple of futile attempts to open the wrong room (my memory failed me as to which room was actually mine), I finally opened the door to my room only to find it flooded. The toilet shutoff valve was not working properly, vouchsafing me a deluge immediately in front of both the outside and bathroom doors. In the back of my mind were other problems that my lack of preparation had already caused and now this complication! Undaunted, I called the front desk asking for another room. Unfortunately, the motel was completely full and I would have to weather the night in the swamp. At least I had been able to shut off the water to the toilet so that the flood was not getting any worse. In truth, my situation was not that bad: your feet are always wet when you get out of the shower anyway. I knew somehow that the greatest challenges were to come.

In our culture, when a person stays overnight unexpectedly, he usually has few problems in the evening during his sleep, unless, of course, he has a favorite teddy bear or blanket or the like. Since I gave those up years ago, my night was a restful one. The morning, however, soon turned sour. After a time of Bible reading and prayer, I had to engage in some necessary activities of life – activities for which I was unequipped. In order to get everything ready, I resolved to purchase the items that I so desperately lacked. “Surely,” I reasoned, “there will be some place that is open, even before 7:00 in the morning.” I found to my dismay that not only were places not open, they did not open until 8:00. Frustration began to mount. As I saw it, there were several things that I needed:

· Wardrobe items – while I have no qualms about wearing the same sport coat two days in a row, there are certain items which could not do for two solid days.
· Toothbrush and toothpaste – it would be wrong to go to a pastor’s fellowship with scummy teeth.
· Deodorant – it has been a bit warmer than usual here in Southern California (mid to upper 70’s). Though the Filipinos are shivering and complaining about the cold, I think the opposite of the weather and need to take some necessary steps.
· Comb – no self-respecting man ever takes his out of the bathroom except to pack for an overnight trip.

There was one pharmacy that opened at 7, solving all of my problems but the first one. But, by the time I fought morning traffic back to my motel, it was well after 8:00 anyway. There were some men that looked at me quizzically, doubtless thinking, “Isn’t that exactly what he wore yesterday?” But that didn’t bother me really. I ended up getting at least two new contacts out of the meeting and I am to preach bother tonight and tomorrow. When I checked out of the motel, the lady behind the desk said that she would try to get them not to charge for the room since it had flooded. I was grateful for that, as well. All in all, it was a good pastor’s fellowship.

It is somewhat of a tradition to play basketball with Pastor Earnhart while I am here. Today, I was assigned to guard a man that was taller, quicker, and stronger than I. I felt like a mosquito buzzing around a giraffe, but that is another story.