Good morning everyone!  We had another full day out here in sunny (and yes hot, Cindy) California.

The early morning saw us traveling to PLTS in Berkley, CA.  Upon arrival Joel Wudel from PLTS met us and took us over to the dorm rooms.  It was our task to clean those dorm rooms for the day.  Ugh!  Who knew that dorm rooms from Seminary students could be so dirty.  Danielle said it best when she remarked “I don’t think people who are going to become pastors know how to clean up after themselves.”  (I’m sure Linden will love that one.)  But did we clean …

We cleaned windows, dusted mini blinds, dusted the inside of cabinets, vacuumed stairs, cleaned basically four different bathrooms, we swept floors, mopped floors, disinfected counter tops, cleaned out 3 different refrigerators, threw away left behind junk and much, much more.  Then, after we were nearly all done the girls were able to sit down and visit with a seminary student, Nels.  They heard his story of why he came to seminary, what he originally wanted to be while growing up and just were able to hear a little bit of his story.  All in all it was a very full day but yet another rewarding one as we all really felt a sense of accomplishment when it was over.

From there we went on to take a little driving and then walking tour of San Francisco.  We drove across several bridges winding up at the Golden Gate bridge where we parked and began walking across it.  Now if you haven’t been to San Francisco to do this you’ll just have to believe me when I say that it can get very cold and windy on that bridge.  So much so that I was fearful that Emelia and Sidra might just fly off it if they spread their arms out too far.  :- )  But they didn’t, nobody did and nearly all of us walked all the way across.  It was a beautiful experience and we were thankful to be there.

Our next stop was dinner.  For that we went back to Berkley and ate at one of Jill’s old hangouts when she was at school at PLTS and that was Fat Apples.  Fat Apples is a burger place and boy did we eat.  I think the biggest consumer award though needs to go to one Phil Yokers.  Phil had a porta bella mushroom burger, fries from several people who “donated” them to him, a milk shake which he says he shared with Kathe and then a cookie after it was all over just to top everything off.  (Claire was a close second by consuming everything on Phil’s list but didn’t do it with the same gusto that Phil did.)  This was our one planned splurge on the trip and it was worth it.  We had a fabulous dinner and time at Fat Apples and were thankful for the chance to be there.  We then went back up to PLTS for our Bible Study and then back to our “home” in Walnut Creek for a late bed time.

All in all it was a very full day but good one.  We served people that while they don’t meet the traditional definition of being “in need” they were very grateful for the service we did and the presence the girls shared.  With that I’ll leave you all until tonight with a few more pictures.  Enjoy!

In Peace,
PA