Ontario/Chino

Been back to bus life for over a week already—living in southern California, and loving life. Our home has been at the B&G Hay Lot. Everyday we get the pleasure of hanging out with Linda, Johnny, and Hockey—our friends who have put up with looking at our bus on a daily basis for the last six weeks. Now, we continue to hang around and they at least pretend not to be sick of our presence. The weather has been amazing here—sunny and delightfully warm all the time. We live in an area that seems to be the only undeveloped land in southern California. All around us are shopping malls and traffic jams, but our home overlooks pastures and farmland—the San Gabriel Mountains are always there on the horizon to put a smile on my face. We get around by bicycle, hang out with the racehorses, feed the cows, sell hay, play with the dogs, and talk with friends—a slow paced and simple life for now.

We’ve had the opportunity to get involved with Cross Point Church in Chino. They are very involved with the community here and helped get us plugged into some projects in the area. Super Mario, our main man here at church has been a huge help—always willing to help us out and go out of his way to show hospitality. He helped us get connected with Three Way Thrift—a second hand store on town that donates its profits to charitable causes. We were able to spend a couple days helping with their massive operation. I spent most of my time doing deliveries and pickups with Martin and Bill. The store makes a lot of money donates all its profits to Christian organizations in the area— they have a big impact in the community here.

The city of Chino designated a big chunk of property for the homeless to live without being hassled—its called Camp Hope. What was once a massive tent city has now dwindled down to a few tents and maybe 20 residents. Sadly, everyone will be forced to move out soon. Cross Point has been involved with feeding a meal to the people there every week for the last five years—just trying to show the love of Jesus to some people who really need it. We were able to be a part of that effort last Thursday. It was a really cool opportunity to meet the people there and help fill some bellies with a hot meal.

Johnny and Hockey are into breeding and raising racehorses. Their horses compete all over the country and even overseas. Johnny was willing to give us a glimpse of the sport and invited us out to the track. We had been hanging out with the horses all week and were all about checking out the races. We went to the beautiful Santa Anita Park to watch the festivities on Saturday. Johnny hooked us up VIP-style and we had a good time out there. It was a really great southern California experience… I had never seen anything like it. I even got to meet Rob Dyrdek—he was watching the races right by us… nice guy! Oh yeah, keep an eye out for a horse by the name of The Lost Bus. He/she will be born soon and should hit the track in 2014. I think it’s going to be a winner.

On Sunday we attended Cross Point and we were overwhelmed by the welcoming hospitality of everyone here. We had several lunch invitations and ended up going with John and Pam to their house church. It was a pretty awesome thing—a diverse group of Christian friends who get together every week for lunch and fellowship and food and fun. They welcomed us into the group and treated us like family. We met some wonderful people and really enjoyed our time. Thanks for letting us be a part of it! I must say I am inspired to get involved in something like that—whenever I find myself in a stationary home. From there we went with Marv and Carla to a walk in Chino Hills to raise awareness for human trafficking. We met with a big gathering of participants and walked the streets to draw attention to a problem that is very real here in southern California. I never realized that it even went on here in this country. It was a cool thing to participate in, and a good education.

Overall, our stay in Ontario/Chino has been a memorable one thanks to all our new friends here. It will truly be a hard place to leave. We’re heading into L.A. tomorrow to see if we can’t win big on The Price is Right. Then, it’s southbound—to San Diego. Life is good.