To California and back

Andy registered to attend Saddleback Church's worship conference and didn't want to go by himself. I was glad to accompany him. We left Tuesday morning and flew into Burbank by early afternoon. Google directions said it would take less than an hour to get to Lake Forest where the conference was. However, we were in California. Have you ever heard of the traffic jams on California freeways?
I didn't take this picture, but it was really this bad. The trip took an extra hour. We stayed in an extended stay hotel that had a small kitchen - only minutes from the church. After unpacking, we decided to check out the local Wal-Mart and get something to eat. We found a Red Robin restaurant, more common in the west, and ate there. I had a delicious salad which tasted especially good after not eating anything all day except packages of cheese and crackers on the plane.

On Wednesday morning, we registered at the conference and heard the first speaker, Francis Chan. Lunch was provided for. Then there were some workshops we attended in the afternoon. Andy and I both sat in on a panel of women, hosted by Debbie Rettino, which was very helpful. She and her husband wrote the Psalty children's musicals of 20 years ago that my kids enjoyed growing up. She is currently on staff at Saddleback and mentors young worship leaders and people going into the arts. Her panel discussion was very helpful as I am very interested and involved with the women's ministry in our church.

Some of the points I wrote down from this session:

1. It's not about me.
2. Leading is learning. If you're not learning, you're not leading.
3. Then what do you do with that learning? (pass it on)
4. Develop a ministry of encouragement.
5. Jesus was always interruptible.
6. A PERSON is never an interruption.
7. Give people a look, a word, a touch - this communicates their value to me.

After this session, we left and found a park and walked around a while. I was a little nervous when we saw the sign warning of mountain lions in the area. There was a list of things to do if you see one; number 1 is "Don't run!" Well, how about if we just don't hike on this trail???

When it was time to eat dinner, we decided to stop at Chipotle (another of our favorite places to eat - good AND cheap!). The one we stopped at was having a grand opening and everyone who came that day got their meals free! Talk about cheap -- if it's free, it's for me! Yeah! What a pleasant, unexpected surprise.There's no complaint about southern California weather. The nights were cool, the days were sunny and warm, with a cool breeze. There were flowers blooming everywhere, in all colors and shapes. The campus of Saddlebrook Church could be the Garden of Eden - it's that beautiful.On Thursday morning, we heard from Buddy Owens (he is a teaching pastor at Saddleback and his parents are Jimmy & Carol Owens who also wrote children's musicals - Antshillvania) and Dan Cathy, the CEO of Chick Fil-A. Both were very good speakers, but we especially appreciated Dan. It's exciting to hear his story of how God is using his company to minister and exemplify Christian principles in the workplace. And guess what we had for lunch that day? You're right - a chick-fil-a sandwich.

After lunch Andy and I went to one workshop then used the rest of the day to do our own thing. We found a couple of parks and explored them.
We ate dinner at Fuddrucker's. When we got back to the hotel, we noticed a path behind the hotel where people were jogging. That was a nice surprise. The trail meandered along a dry creek bed with beautiful foliage along it. It was probably a 2 mile walk on the Serrano Trail. There was another sign warning of mountain lions, but we decided to take the risk and fortunately, we didn't see any. Whew!

On Friday morning, Rick Warren spoke to us. He was excellent and well worth hearing. My tank is filled up again! Everything he said was good, but here are some of the notes I took:

1. worship is not music, but an attitude of loving God. In a word, worship is surrender.
2. Build your life around humility, generosity and integrity.
3. Satan is not creative in the way he tempts us. He uses the same old methods: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
4. The antidote to the lust of the flesh is to be integrous.
5. Humility is a choice - it's commanded. It is a declaration of dependence on God. "I'm willing to resign and do something harder! I belong to YOU...I am your servant."
6. the antidote to materialism (the lust of the eyes) is generosity. The answer to get, get, get is to give.
7. It's not about me - live for the Audience of One.
8. How to not get criticized: 1. say nothing, 2. do nothing, 3. be nothing

Good stuff - huh?

Well, all good things have to come to an end. After lunch on Friday, we left the conference. Since we were in southern California, we decided to look up my Aunt Becky, whom I hadn't seen in about 50 years (give or take a year or 2). She has lived in the San Diego area for a number of years, but in Colorado and California all her adult life.

We had to travel those California freeways again, but they weren't too bad this time since we were on our way by mid-afternoon. My aunt is married to Jimmy, who is Greek. They recently retired from the restaurant business, but for many years had owned and run restaurants in their area. So you can imagine the feast that was prepared for us: spanakopita, lamb, chicken and potatoes, chips and dip, a zucchini flower stuffed with rice and I'm not sure what else, gravies, baklava. She had made everything and it was outstanding.

Our niece and her family who live in Escondido joined us for dinner and it was good to be able to fellowship with them, too.

We had such a good time getting acquainted with my aunt - what a sweet lady and what a joy to get to know her. They have a beautiful home with lemon, orange, pepper trees in their yard. Her son, my cousin, were also there for dinner. I had never met him before, or his daughter. How fun.

Their back yard!

Aunt Becky and me

My cousin John, his girlfriend, Debbie and John's daughter, Aileen

Josh, Heidi and family with Aunt Becky and me

Becky gave me some lemons, tangerines and an orange to bring home with us. I don't think I've ever seen lemons as big as this.
It was a wonderful week - full of spiritual blessings at the conference and a bonus of getting to see and spend a little time with my aunt and family.