US Mainland Trip #2 - LA to San Diego

We enjoyed our 2nd day in Los Angeles. In the morning, Steve and I met with Tom Kimber and Sonny Massey who lead the missions committee at Grace Evangelical Free Church, which our son Michael and his family attend, to talk to them about hosting our PIU Traveling Team when they arrive on the mainland this summer. We are hoping the church will host us for the first week and help us in orienting our team to the US. (Our traveling team plans to be on the US mainland from late May through the end of July. If your church or group would like to host the team or help us set up a presentation in your area please contact me at dowen@pibc.edu) I think they liked the idea and are bringing the it up with the church leadership. We met later that day with Dan Crowley and Kim Imai from Sandals Church in Riverside. This is the main sending church for Jen Rydzik, our new remedial English teacher. We had a very productive meeting discussing ways that PIU and Sandals could work together in ministry and how we could better provide support for Jen.  That evening we met Bayview Church Guam pastor Greg Atkinson at a Biola soccer game. Biola won 2-1.

Wednesday morning we headed down to San Diego. We met Matt at his apartment and I got to see my 5 month old grandson Milo for the first time. (Pictured above left with his dad Matt). What a cute kid huh? He reminds me very much of Matt as a baby. We also met Liebenzell and PIU appointee Sarah Cain at the airport and spent a lot of time with her helping her get organized to raise support. Sarah will work in our development and student life departments and we would ask you to pray that she can get out on the field by January. In the afternoon we met with Lem Usita from San Diego Christian College to discuss some possible student mission trips from SDCC and some other opportunities to work together in ministry. I really appreciated Lem's enthusiasm and helpful ideas. After dropping Steve and Sarah to stay at Dan Field's house to talk media and marketing (Thank you Dan for helping us out in this area), I went back to Matt's house to spend a little more time with that cute baby.