Palos Verdes, Los Angeles - 25 and 26 March 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 3:53PM 
Graham and I arrived at LAX airport in Los Angeles on the evening of the 24th of March. We are staying with our friends Dave and Kristen Wendorff in Rolling Hills (which is in the city of Palos Verdes, California - I guess by South African standards we would say that it is a suburb of Los Angeles). These are such beautiful, kind people, and their surroundings closely match their wonderful hearts. It is truly lovely to be among such sincere, loving, and dedicated Christians!
Dave is a property developer (like Graham) - he has had a great deal of success in that field. However, what is truly significant is that he has seen his business as an opportunity to bless the people of the city, to develop infrastructure to support transformation in society so that the 'good news' may be experienced wherever he has been busy. So, he prays for his staff, his clients, and even the land on which he is building homes. It is fantastic to be with Dave and his family! We hosted their eldes son, Nathan, in South Africa last year. And their daughter Louisa will be with us a little later this month. Here we are with some friends from elsewhere in Californa, and our friend Larry Ihle from Minnesota having breakfast.
We are speaking at a 2 day conference on Unashamedly Ethical and Transform your work life at the Rolling Hills Covenant Church. It is a remarkable Church (which has a South African, Matthew Kennedy, who is the worship pastor!) We are being hosted by our friend Joy Handley who is the president of Asia Access (a missions organisation that works in Japan). He was in Japan at the time of the earthquakes last week and share some remarkable insights on how things are going there after the Tsunami. He and his organisation are doing truly wonderful work! Then the local pastor is Dr Andy Noch - we have had a great connection. This is a special guy in an awesome Church.
Today we continue to share on Unashamedly Ethical and Transform your work life - there are about 180 men at this men's conference. Yesterday we also had a special luncheon with some business leaders and their wives at a beautiful country club (I have no idea what the place was called!) and some meetings with David Wood and his team from Hollywood who are running a Global Day of Prayer event there.
Today is our last day in LA - we start our long journey home early tomorrow morning (LAX to Washington, Washington to Dakar, Dakar to JHB, JHB to Cape Town). It will take 2 days to get home, but I can't wait to be home with Courtney, Megie and Liam!
Thanks for your prayers for 
all of us! I am so pleased to tell you that Liam has recovered from his tonsillitis and the whole family are doing great! We skype each other every day / morning (when I wake up at 6am it is 4pm back home - so the timing works quite well!)
This has been such a wonderful trip! I know that the Lord has done some wonderful work in the lives of the people that we have had the joy of meeting and sharing with. It is always humbling to be encounter people who are doing such wonderful things, sometimes they just need a little encouragement to seek obedience to God, connection with the challenges the world faces, and one or two ideas for doing ministry for transformation.
Reader Comments (1)
Cheers Dion!
We absolutely LOVED having you in our home!! It was a delight to get to know you and a privilege to get to host you and Graham. Thank you for sharing your insight and for inspiring men in the Los Angeles area. We are humbled and grateful for your willingness to be available to us!
Nathan in his few, but purposeful words did a good job of describing you as a man of impact and significance. I now understand completely what he meant.
Certainly David and I are now further compelled to visit Cape Town. How can we do without meeting Megan, Courtney and Liam?!
The group of students accompanying Louisa to Bridges of Hope had a prayer meeting here yesterday. They are very excited to begin their journey. How beautiful that as my daughter travels to the other side of the globe for the first time, I am comfortable that she will be going to a place where she has "family." We adore your nation and are richly blessed because of South Africa and the hearts of South Africans.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for... it is hard to say - perhaps, mostly for being our friend. We are grateful for you and we bless you as you continue to serve all around the globe.
Much love, Kristen