Wednesday, March 28, 2007

San Francisco and Valley Bible Church

San Francisco... sure is a beautiful city! Mayra, Daniel and I arrived Thursday evening around 10 p.m. and were picked up at the airport by Ted Montoya. Ted and his wife Denise were our tour guides on Friday, and we saw a number of beautiful sites...the Golden Gate bridge, Pier 39, the Cliff House and a good part of San Francisco. Thanks so much Ted and Denise! During our time at Valley Bible we enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of Caroline Howard, and I was so challenged and blessed by the always stimulating conversation (not to mention guitar jam sessions) with pastor Phil Howard. We discussed everything from modern guitar chords to a biblical, functional philosophy of church government. We played quite a few games of ping pong...I won't go into too much detail there!!! I'm not used to losing!

Our time with Valley Bible was awesome. It is by far the most multi-cultural church we have ever attended, and the spirit of the place was contagious. Saturday started with a men's prayer breakfast for me. We sang Spanish songs, then I asked us to all praise God in our language. Probably 5 or 6 languages were represented in the prayers that went up to our Redeemer. Saturday noon I was invited by Phil and Ted to meet with a Mexican missionary doing work on the border, then Saturday night we enjoyed a spectacular meal at Salvador and Grace's home. Salvador came down 4 years ago to visit us when a team of 12 or so came down from Valley. It was great to renew acquaintance.

I was given the privilege to preach at the two Sunday services. The praise band was a HARD act to follow, believe me. It was encouraging to talk to probably 10 people after the services that were desirous of visiting Mexico at some point in the future.

Daniel was able to accompany us...and had a great time. Thanks, Lord, and thanks Valley Bible!






1 comment:

vina said...

Man! Glad you had so much fun while you were in San Fran…still having memories of Mexico and the time spent there…tacos…having any late night runs lately? I hope to see you again and mi familia as well. Tell everyone hi and that I think of them often. Take care and stay blessed.