On October 18, 2020, four anniversaries were celebrated at the Calvary Road Baptist Church of Los Angeles County, Monrovia, California.
Forty-five years ago, Pastor Joseph Morton officiated my marriage to Pamela Lucille Franco. Forty-five years ago on Sunday, Calvary Road Baptist Church of Los Angeles County, Harold C. Beigle established the church where I serve as the second pastor. Along about the same time, 45 years ago, God called me to the gospel ministry with a definite and undeniable call. Thirty-five years ago, God called me to become the second pastor of Calvary Road Baptist Church of Los Angeles County, Monrovia, California.
It is easy to see why last Sunday would go down as
a monumental occasion in my personal life and in the life of the congregation
where I serve. Despite all of the Chinese virus’s challenges and the
unconstitutional abridgment of religious liberties the governor of California
has imposed upon so many congregations, our church people did a fantastic job,
and we had a wonderful time of rejoicing and fellowship.
Because of the transportation difficulties imposed
upon us, I had initially thought that we would not have a special guest speaker
for our anniversaries Sunday. However, Pastor Tom Burns informed me that Dr.
Jack Baskin and his wife Shari would be conducting a ministry strategy seminar
at his church in Norwalk on October 15. I then reached out to Dr. Baskin to
invite him to preach for me. I first met Dr. Baskin in 1976 when I enrolled as
a recent engineering school graduate, then employed by Hughes Aircraft Company
in El Segundo, California (the city that won the Cold War), working on an
intelligence-gathering satellite design. I had only recently married.
Growing up among leaders and having observed military
leaders, I recognized in Dr. Jack Baskin his evident leadership qualities.
Since then, I have never been disappointed. You can imagine how delighted I was
when he accepted my invitation to preach Sunday morning at our special
anniversaries service.
A year and a half ago, our church was privileged to authorize two of our members, Kreighton Chan, M.D., and his wife Winnie, to establish the All of Grace Baptist Church of Atwater Village. Dr. Chan was not only my physician and close friend for years but is also much loved by our church. I wanted his involvement with our anniversaries service but did not want to disrupt a young church’s Sunday services. The solution was to invite him and his people to a Friday night fellowship on October 16. It was super! We sang, ate catered Mexican food, and then had a wonderful time giving testimonies and praising God for Dr. Chan and his congregation.
A special treat was Karla Khammar and her niece showing up.
Saturday was a relatively slow day, punctuated by Christian Butler and deacon Rick Raymundo hanging the auditorium banner that would serve as a backdrop to our anniversaries celebration.
When I picked up Dr. Baskin and his wife from the
hotel, I dropped them off at the front door and drove around to park in the back.
When I walked into the auditorium to begin the prayer meeting, we conduct ½
hour before every Sunday morning worship service, who should I see but Clarence
and Olga Patterson, our beloved friends from Kearny Nebraska, and classmates
from our days at PCBBC? Were he not such a mountain of a man, I hugged him so
hard I would’ve squeezed the life out of him.
Needless to say, it was a wonderful Sunday morning worship. Dr. Baskin preached a touching and strategically significant message from God’s word after Shari Baskin’s testimony about women’s ministries. The service can be seen at https://youtu.be/te5XIJuUPkA
The deacons assembled around my wife and me to present us with tickets to Zakynthos, Greece, as a 35th anniversary as the pastor’s gift.
We are obviously overwhelmed and profoundly grateful.
Pictures with our friends will be treasured.
With Dr. Baskin and his wife departed to a service
at another church in the evening, we enjoyed a service wholly given over to
singing gospel hymns and rejoicing in the Lord. It was a good day. God is
gracious, merciful, kind, wise, and sovereign. My wife and I rejoice.
