Monday, November 14, 2016

California Trip

Two weeks have passed since I entered US territory again and my time has been truly blessed.

It all started with a 24-hour delay of my flight to California. Due to heavy fog, I got stranded in Amsterdam, right at the first leg of my journey. But KLM had already figured it out: I was going to spend the night in a hotel, and thus got the opportunity to do some sightseeing in the Dutch capital. Of course that was not really what I had in mind, but I enjoyed it anyway :-). 

The AMEN Conference was a blessing. I thoroughly enjoyed the testimonies and the talks I was able to attend, as well as the fellowship. The attendees were mainly physicians and medical/dental students of all kinds of specialties. The people were overall older than the attendees at the ENAD Conference in Germany, but this is something I would certainly be interested in doing again. Of course the weather was gorgious in Southern California - even a bit too warm for my perception. 

My journey up north and then down to San Francisco was beautiful. I really enjoyed Yosemite nationalpark, as well as driving through the Redwoods and mountains towards the West Coast, and then passing the pacific ocean with its beuatiful rocks. Finally on my way down to San Francisco, I passed the vineyards, and then I got to cross Golden Gate Bridge once more. The visits with my friends were very blessed, and the different accommodations I found for Yosemite, Eureka and San Francisco were comfortable and pleasant. In fact, I even found out that my "Airbnb" hosts in Eureka were Adventists, which was a neat experience.

This past Wednesday, I eventually made it to Uchee Pines. Somehow, I'm still on Pacific Time, which makes it really hard to get up in the morning, but nonetheless, I'm happy to be "back home". The weather has been sunny and pleasant - just the way I like it here at this time of year. We had a special weekend with Randy Skeete, which was very blessed and a spiritual challenge at the same time. This man is able to recite the whole book of Revelation, as well as the book of Hebrews! This certainly puts to shame my feeble efforts to keep about 100 bible verses in my memory - and I haven't even kept it up as I should these past few months. 

So I look forward to another period of volunteering at my "Alma Mater". This session, they have me work in the kitchen, which will certainly be a physical challenge, yet another great learning opportunity!

And here are some impressions of my trip to the West Coast: