




From Palm Desert head west on I-10 and get off one exit past the Joshua Tree National Park exit. Turn right (If the road looks like it goes no where you made your turn correctly.) Go until you see a paved road on the the left. (It should have a sign that says some scary things about fire, no trespassing, and what they will do to you should you ignore the signs. The sign is easy to miss, so keep going) Continue past all the warning signs and drive until the road dead ends in a parking lot. There are two lots with ample parking. I would guess maybe 70 cars could fit. There were about 40 cars today. This place is a cattle ranch that became government property. The cows are now happily being raised where they belong in feedlots, and the free range has been preserved for our enjoyment. This is our first watering hole. Now littered with 36″ trout! (They are not native – trucked in)












This winter, we are hitting different churches hoping to learn more about our beliefs as Christians.
We tried Revival Community Church in Menifee, Ca. A Small Christian church in a school in Palm Dessert, Ca. and Southwest Community Church in Indian Wells. Revival and South West Community Church were alike in that they are both very populous churches. All the churches were similar in that the service was like a show, and meant to be entertaining, but yet our 13 year old is still bored thought the services. Maybe the life of Christ needs to be distilled to a video game much like the Nancy Drew series with high stakes. At any rate it is obvious that a church is a business that relies on huge numbers of peoples to support the building, the staff, and outreach. To what length a church will go, we have yet to find out.
Revival is geared around college students, they play their music loud! Sarah’s ears were ringing for days after the service. The players reminded me of 80′s bar room rockers playing contemporary music. The problem we had at Revival is was rather funny, we walked all over the place trying to find the entrance leading to the sanctuary. We finally had to bother a guard at one of the doors and get directions. We came in through the A/V entrance where they had TV’s cameras, computers and sound systems beyond my wildest imagination. So much so, that it would be fun to come in during the week and stealthfully fire up the equipment and do Madonna imitations on stage. The sermon was good enough, but it escapes me today. The church is a great place to attend if you like your music loud, no hearing aid is required here.
South West Community church has one of the prettiest nicest laws we have had the privilege of being allowed to walk on. I would attend this church just for the lawn! Lawns in this area could soon become an endangered species: there are those who are in high positions lobbying to remove every last bit of green in the valley. Do they not know how precious green is? Obviously the members of this church do not know its value. While one of three parking lots was indeed full, two others were empty, and yet the members are parking their cars on the front lawn. Is this stupidity? Laziness? or a publicity stunt to make people driving by think the church is so popular the members have no where to park but the front yard?
Once in the church it was not obvious where the sanctuary was. We had to stop and watch the natives that did not park on the lawn and follow them to the service. Compared to Revival their technology was antiquated, but they really knew how to use it. The sanctuary was dark, so dark I tripped over my feet and landed in some empty seats, which I choose to use. On sitting down, we noticed they had fogged the stage, had some spinning can light sending light rays across the room, spinning fire on the ceiling, electric guitars and poorly dressed men and women rocking out on stage. Reminded me of my last concert with the Bangles in the mid 80′s. The speaker had a good message to ponder for the holidays. Mary, was seen as illegitimately pregnant by her family, it was not millionaire acres for those people, it was likely lots of fits. If Christ family had it rough, what makes us so special. He did not say how to handle this. At the Holidays my advice, is be ever so pleasant, the grumpy ones around you need the example. Forgive what you do not feel the need to forgive, be long suffering, and steal as much rest as you can.