Tom & Brenda's Family Journal

We traveled from Shafter to Temecula in California-from one Moorhead household to another. We are at Dave & Jan Moorhead, Senior. Temecula is wonderful and a beauitful drive down through the mountains. We stopped in Pasadena to see the Rose Bowl facility. We are having a great evening watching the Michigan State-Michigan basketball game while looking out at the mountains in the distance.

We have been in Shafter , California the past three days visiting Dave & Mia Moorhead .   Shafter is near Bakersfield which is in the San Joaquin Valley.  This valley is an extremely fertile area with a desert climate.  The desert has been irrigated and huge farms abound.  The valley is rimmed by mountains on all sides.  There was a snow fall yesterday in the southern mountains and we could see them far in the distance.  Dave says they are about 60 miles away. Ben, Dave & Mia's son, works on an almond farm.  It is owned by a family from New Hope Community Church.  We had a tour of the area today and got to tour the facility where Ben works.  This time of year Ben is involved in sorting almonds by size.  You can see him moving huge pallets of almonds.  The operation is huge and  it was fascinating. The San Joaquin Valley produces 100% of the US almond crop and 80% of the world's almonds.  The valley also grows other kinds of nuts,  fruit and vegetables . Each of these c...

Today we are in Shafter, California visiting Dave & Mia Moorhead, our pastor and wife from Caledonia.  We attended their new church, New Hope Community Church.  They are meeting in a youth canter close to their home.  There were many similarities to the work at Dutton School. Here is the music/worship team preparing for worship.  Yes, Dave is playing the guitar.  The team sounded very good and we sang some of our favorites including "How Great Thou Art".  They also had a children's choir who presented.  It was so good to hear Dave preach again.  His sermon on Nehemiah 5 was very applicable to the economic situation in our country today.  You might want to look at it. There is lots of work to a church that meets in a public building setting up and tearing down every Sunday. We also spent some time learning about Shafter.  It is a small town outside of Bakersfield.  In some ways, it feels like a town from the 1960's.  Small town with close families.  The girls can ...