8/8/09 Worship and the Word Tour

Saturday, we packed up after breakfast and went to Monterey. We played on the beach for about half an hour. It was beautiful but a brisk wind blew. Lisa found a white shell on the beach that she wants to put on a necklace. We had lunch and then headed off to King City.
We arrived at First Baptist Church at 3:30pm and started setting up for leading worship on Sunday morning and a concert Sunday evening. The pastor is Dan Paxton and his wife is Faith. They have 4 kids. They fed us a delicious dinner. There were three families that housed us. Aaron and Jordan stayed with Jason. He was a fun, Godly, single guy who is a kindergarten teacher and he plays drums and electric guitar. Caleb and Levi stayed with the music pastor Steve and his wife. Don, Lisa, Nathan and Samuel stayed with Mike and Robin Foster. They had a lovely two-story home. They were the guitarists for the worship team. Mike is a fireman and robin owns a coffee shop in King City. She is planning on selling it soon and working at the hospital. We had a great time of fellowship and they were very hospitable. Samuel had lots of fun playing with their Chiwawa puppy.

8/7/09 Worship and the Word Tour

Friday Don and James went to James’ music studio at his church to tune a couple pianos. James is wanting to learn how to tune pianos. They ran out of time but Don will come back at the end of August. At 1pm we went to sing at the Life House Care Home. It was the first time the boys sang at a nursing home. There were about 35 to 40 residents there. Don played a lot of songs on the accordion and he and Jordan played a few on the guitar. The room lit up when an elderly gentleman came out to the room we were in. He had a book of hymns and songs (typed in large print). He sang at the top of his lungs and kept requesting more songs. The staff sang along too and seemed to really enjoy the music. They were baking cookies while we were playing and loaded us up with cookies and soda when we left. The staff asked us to please come back again.

After we left there, we went to Guitar Showcase to get a keyboard stand that had broken, had dinner and headed south to Mc Alpine Lake in San Juan Bautista. We camped there and met a Christian Hispanic family across from us- Ruben & Mariviel and their daughter Nathalie. Mariviel is a recording artist and she sang a song for us from her album. She also gave us a copy of her album. We had a great time of fellowship by their campfire. We also met a retired Marine named Max. He sang a song for us called the Baptist Sunday School Chorus. Max was a very interesting fellow just traveling around to all the places he’d never been before.

8/6/09 Worship and the Word Tour

Thursday we packed up and headed toward San Jose. We had intended to sing at a nursing home that afternoon but it took longer to get there than we planned, so we postponed and went there on Friday instead. We stopped at Taco Bell for dinner and then we stopped by Life House Care Home to see how much room we would have to set up and to be familiar with how to get there. We got to our host’s home- James and Katie Nobriga at 6:45pm. Lisa and Katie got to catch up while the boys enjoyed a movie or two. James and Katie have an album they are working on. Their group is called Katie Joy. They are very musical and we really enjoy their friendship. The boys sacked out on the living room floor and Don and Lisa took a hide-a-bed in the office. Samuel slept on a couch pillow in the office. They have a nice condominium in a pretty safe neighborhood.

8/5/09 Worship and the Word Tour

We took our time getting up in the morning and ate breakfast and lunch and made chicken lasagna for dinner later at church. We left about 3:30 and went to the gazebo which was down town Petaluma. At 4pm we started setting up our band and at 5pm played for an hour. There were several families there. Some were dancing with their kids, sitting on the bench and singing along, playing in the play ground or laying down reading a book. There was a man on the street working on his Harley Davidson. This was our first concert on this trip. There was a cold wind and Don’s binder kept turning pages. We put Lisa’s capo on it to hold it open. Samuel did a great job singing the Real People Song and then he ran off to play in the playground. The boys did great. Aaron painted a picture that had an optical illusion. That night we enjoyed the chicken lasagna at the Church of the Open Doors – the Van Meter’s church. Someone bought a copy of Aaron’s Hawk. We went upstairs to an upper room and Don and Lisa led worship with a few songs including Revolution Song. We had church and when we left, a woman gave us $45 as a love offering. It was so good to spend time with Shannon because she shared lots of faith-building stories about how God has been working in their lives. We missed her husband Frank. He was gone for the week doing a tile job for his brother. Frank is an incredible artist and is very talented in remodeling and in music. They have a music ministry called Living Water Music and Art. You can check out their website at livingwatermusicandart.com

8/4/09 Worship and the Word Tour

We slept in a bit and made breakfast cereal for the kids and lunch to take with us and headed to Bodega Bay Beach. We had a hard time climbing the Very Hot sand dunes to get to the water. The kids beat Don and I by far but an awesome time enjoying the clear blue sky and gentle breeze. It was so clear that Lisa got a sunburn on her knees and shins and Don on one foot. Lisa sat in the sand with her fingers and soaking in the beautiful sights, sounds, and smell of the Pacific. We enjoyed our lunch as Shannon made a chicken salad we ate on crackers and Lisa made tortilla roll-ups. When we got home, our 10 bean soup was done and delicious! We ate it all! With garlic French bread and classic cheesecake for dessert. We slept well that night.

8/3/09 Worship and the Word Tour

We finally left Corning at 6:45 PM and headed toward our first destination: Petaluma—Shannon Van Meter and her 3 kids. Frank E, Nita, and Dana housed us graciously. We arrived at 9 PM.

The Townley Family Band takes off!

The Townley Family Band is going on the road! God has given us talent and a desire to share the good news about Jesus. We had three fund-raiser concerts in Corning and God brought in about $1,800 from the time we announced we were leaving to the time we left.