Our Life Together, Vol. 3 Nr. 35, September 2, 1975

Vacations were a wonderful time for the households. Westby Household, headed by Ken and Mona Pagaard went to Whiskeytown Lake outside of Redding, CA. This was a natural place because Mona came from Redding and her mother and other relatives still lived there. Where the household camped out at the lake it was really beautiful. Since there were about 25-30 of us, the operation was somewhat like organizing an army. This year was the first time that Linda and I were a part of the program. Linda had never been camping and she was pretty much overwhelmed by the whole thing. I believe that the household went there one more year. Then things changed and we had our vacations a little closer to home. It was still a very special time.

Larry Clark and his household (Mitscher) went to Yosemite. In this article Larry reflects on man as the pinnacle of creation. I really liked this article. In it he does give some warnings about our use and abuse of our spiritual gifts.
Bud's article reminds us of the fact that we always had mission trips going on; it wasn't just the large ones. Bud was one of our traveling elders. I can't remember all of his places of ministry, but I do know that he had significant ministry in Kansas.
As I have written before, one of Ken's major ministries was to our American Baptist denomination. Here we have a testimony of the moving of the Spirit in another of our baptist churches located in King, CA.
This weekend of renewal was one of our major efforts to keep the whole church moving in the same direction. Everyone may not have lived in residential community, but everyone understood it, may have experienced it and, most importantly, supported it. At our peak, about one third of the congregation lived in residential community. Most of the rest were involved in our non-residential households. These were run like a residential household with the difference that the people lived in their own homes.
Children were always very important in the church -- and in the residential community. Both of these articles reflect different aspects of that importance. Cheryl Herndon discusses the birth of Gwen Hunt's baby. It is a beautiful picture of God's grace. Incidentally Gwen became a Methodist minister a few years later. I have lost touch with her, but I assume that she is still active in the pastorate.

Judy Alsop discusses our preschool. It was not only important then, but I believe that it continues to operate at the church. This had been a thriving ministry for many years. Kids are and were important, certainly to God, but also to us.