60th Birthday celebration

Well, I'm officially an old man, turned 60 and had a good time celebrating the day! One thing is my brother in law, he and my sister are the ones that lead Martha and I to the Lord in 1979 at CC Downey, his birthday is on my birthday!

So, they wanted to bless me for my birthday and his and took us to Phoenix, Arizona for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball spring training game. Wow, baseball once again!! Something I grew up with as a child, playing ball since five years old till I was in my 40's 

  

It was excellent weather, it was in my shorts and flip flops watching a game that I hadn't seen in a long time, but most of all with and family and friends as we ended up calling pastor Carlos and his wife Susie from Flagstaff as I found out his birthday is a day before mine and my brother in law' so we celebrated three birthdays of men of God on this trip!

We went to Carlos & Susie' new house that he has been building himself, he made it out of Adobe bricks and its in the desert part of Arizona totally opposite of their home in Flagstaff 

We had to drive through city of Sedona traveling from the south desert area to the north mountain area, from wearing shorts to putting on jackets!!

Sedona is a beautiful area!

So, celebrating my birthday was a fun time in Azizona and as we drove home we had good talks to catch up on and then had a party with my family!

Another unexpected blessing

Now, when we look and consider our situation, we wonder what the Lord is doing? We have now been home over four months and right when we begin to wonder, Lord what going on here?" He then does something to remind us we are still in His heart and mind!

Now, since being back we have been blessed with a car and an apartment for free for a couple of months and then saints offering us a place to stay!

But then, we out of the blue was blessed with another car!

Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is our sovereign protector. The LORD bestows favor and honor; he withholds no good thing from those who have integrity.

We are now saying OK Lord we know you care for us and you have a plan and we just need to relax and wait upon Him for the next thing!!

Being blessed at the CC Leadership Conference at CC Doowney

What a blessing it was to go to our first conference since returning back to the USA and it was a great topic; "The God of all comfort"

The speakers were amazing with some radical testimonies that deal with the topic of being a comforter to those hurting or being comforted by others when hurting!

We had an awesome time of worship with Jordan Lasch leading, he's the younger brother of Nathaniel and is a awesome worship leader!

Martha and I had a great time with family members that went to the conference and then seeing old brothers and sisters that we haven't seen in a long time plus meeting new ones at this event, a total blessing!

A day out with my grandson

I had a wonderful day with my grandson Nico who many have been praying for as he still having epileptic seizures. I promised him to take him out and he was so excited to hang out with Opa.

Now, I wanted to bless him but don't know how much he can do yet and didn't want to make him feel like he can't or that I'm worrying about it, so I just trusted the Lord that He will take care of him on our day out and we were going to have fun!

I ended up taking to a Flee Market where they sell everything under the Sun and good food too!! So we have a traditional LA hotdog which is wrapped in bacon with grilled onions!! Yummy!

Nico loved this, we ate and then watched a concert from a Christian artists that sang oldies that he wrote in the former years and re- mixed it with Christian lyrics!!

Then, of course Opa brought him some things and he was so happy but more to just hang out with me for the day

Teaching the Word of God

I was asked to teach at CC Santa Fe Springs which is my sister Renee' church and I was blessed by the worship and fellowship there, I have taught there many times and I loved to exhort the saints there!

My sister says they want me back to teach them on prophecy!!

I was also a guest speaker at Richard & Samantha youth group, a Spanish speaking fellowship, CC Gracia, it was a purity conference for 4 Calvary Chapels in the area... It was an awesome time and afterwards the food was Taco man making fresh grilled meats to make different types of tacos with salsa!!!

Our 41st wedding anniversary

Martha and had our 41st wedding anniversary at the beach, something we can do at the beach in California as it was a nice day and warm enough to lay out a blanket and soak up some Sun!! 

We are blessed and we pray that the Lord will continue to do a work in our lives!!

Partying in Colorado

Our last day in Colorado we celebrated our granddaughter birthday as Adeley turned four years old...Oma had a special time with her and it was hard for Martha to leave there and return to California!

So we have our daughter Jenell with our two grandsons in Pittsburgh a five hour flight away and now Gina with our three grandchildren in Colorado a two hour flight and then a one hour drive north! And then Edmund Jr all the way in Germany with our other grandchildren...all we have now is our daughter Rachelle with our other five grandchildren...but five is not too bad, in fact it's enough for two oldies to handle!!

Helping out family

My daughter Gina and three kids lived with us in our two bedroom apartment for a month and we helped her with the kids on the two hour flight to Colorado. They moved to Fort Collins a real western town that is 1520 meters above sea level and was snowing but much different than Herbornseelbach as it was very dry snow, you couldn't make a snowball as it wouldn't stick together!! 

My grandchildren have their first experience in the snow and have a great time in the minus seven Celsius weather...they kept saying it is cold but still wanted to play in the snow!

While I was there I helped them in the purchasing of a new car and we save $3000.00 in negotiating with them, it was great and fun!

Being light in a dark place!

I think most would remember part of my testimony of being a young man who hung out at a house with a friend and we would take every kind of drugs possible! The guy name is Elliot and I recieved a call from my best friend Mike that visit us in Germany that Eliot had died!!

It was in Eliot's dark room where light reached in and open my eyes of understanding... From that point I was saved and left that room and never to do drugs again! But Eliot's ex-wife was also a girl I went to school with, kindergarten to 8th grade.

Eliot was an atheist and I had tried sharing the gospel with in the years past but he wanted nothing to do with it...so his ex-wife wanted to have a memorial service for him and therefore back into darkness I went, as Mike encouraged me to go and that we can be light in darkness and I said lets go...so the memorial was held in a bar and many bikers were there!

The seeds were planted and Eliot's ex-wife told me that of all the friends he had that he spoke of me and even though he didn't believe in God that he respected and saw a difference in my and Martha's life and spoke good of us!

Being blessed

A brother that understands our return as being a big challenge, for he is a son of former missionaries and has committed to help many missionaries going and returning! He has a bedroom if we need it which is nice to know but he has been obedient to the Lord voice when the Lord told him to buy us a car even though he didn't have the money and when he said yes by faith to the Lord a job came and the money from it was exactly what was needed for the car! 

There is another brother who own auto body shop that paints and fixes cars that called with a little car that will save on gasoline!!

Thank you Jesus!!

Our daughter Gina and husband Adam big move!

We have been very busy helping my son in law pack their home, it seems with the packing of our home and now their home that our new ministry is moving people!

Adam left up to Colorado to buy a home and we have Gina and the kids staying with us... Yes with us as we were blessed with an apartment for two months free as someone had a contact and had to leave and had two months left so we move in and it was perfect all of our needs!! God is Good!!

Please be praying that all goes well for Adam & Gina and the kids!!

New Years with Martha's family

The JOn New Years Eve we went to the famous "Rose Parade" that's held in Pasadena, it's always connected to the finals of the US college football game held close by called the "Rose Bowl"'

It was Martha and I first time going to the parade, we had grown up watching it on TV as its been going since the late 1800' it was the 129th parade!! It started with America Stealth Bomber assisted by fighter jets!!

It was nice as this was our first event with Martha's family