The Maynard-Reid's 2010 Annual Letter

December 2009 began with Vie still in Florida with our darling Mayamiko and her parents, and Pedrito attending his annual conference at Oakwood, again presenting on the topic, “Ethnic and Cultural Diversity: Colleagues or Competitors.” He wished Vie were with him when he attended the annual Oregon Symphony Community Gospel Christmas concert. Superb! But they were together with the rest of the immediate family in Florida for a grand Christmas celebration, followed by a fabulous 2 days at Disney World.

Pedrito’s 1^st speaking appointment for 2010 was at Grand Rapids Adventist Academy. He was invited to speak for the weekend on “The Power of One.” After 2.5 months in Florida Vie returned home the same time Pedrito returned from Michigan, and went straight into the project of building a deck for the house, and developing her Travel Agent business. You can email her at vmaynardr@gmail.com to book your travel needs or book your travel and cruises here: www.destinationagent.com/maynardstravel

February was busy with Pedrito coordinating the annual Black History celebration here at WWU (and playing the awesome pipe organ -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEkFRAJkyAI); taking his theology students on a field trip to Seattle to worship at a Black SDA church and a Black Baptist church; and going to Victory Church in the Bronx, NY to conduct a Bible Conference on “Afro-Worship and Wholistic Transformation;” and finally going with his Worship class to witness them conduct a worship service at a church in Davenport, WA.

March was not much different: The Inter American Division of SDA invited Pedrito to make a couple presentations at the Festival of the Laity in Panama City, Panama. He spoke on “Strategies for Urban Missions” and “Reaching the Upper Class.” It was his first time to the place of his mother’s birth; and his cousin Grace graciously showed him the area where his mama grew up. Other highlights were the visit to the Panama Canal, and being part of the Division-wide baptism in which nearly 100,000 persons were baptized in one day! The next weekend he was in Brooklyn, NY where he was the speaker for another Bible Conference on “Music and Worship.” The Berean and Dunamis churches joined together for this event. Both times in NY he was able to spend some time with his brothers and their wives. The following week it was time with his sister Audrey in LA and Vegas, this time with Vie. Audrey also invited Lorraine to join the excitement (these 2 get along great – their birthdays are back-to-back).

In April Pedrito joined his Theology professor colleagues from the Adventist universities on the West Coast for their annual meetings, this year at Canadian University College in Alberta. Then across the great Pond to speak for a Bible Conference in Keynes, England. His topic: “Adventist Hot Potatoes.” We ended May, as always, down in southern Oregon handing out over a quarter million dollars in WWU scholarships at Milo Academy graduation. As always Lorraine takes this opportunity to take us somewhere special for Vie’s birthday – Mount St. Helens (the 30^th anniversary of its eruption). Gorgeous view!

At the beginning of June Vie attended a Travel Agents’ convention in Vancouver, Canada. Our dear friend, Sharon (Angel) Shay was so kind to house her. While she was there, Pedrito was in North Dakota performing the wedding of Scott and Tenielle (who were on the Thailand trip last summer). Vie and Pedrito met up in Seattle and celebrated her’s and Pedrito II’s mother-in-law’s birthdays, Father’s day, and Pedrito’s birthday, at Pedrito II, Margaret, and the grandkids’ (Jasmine and Leo) home. Then we took the ferry to Orcas Island (in the San Juans) to represent WWU at the Orcas Christian School graduation. This was the second graduation for June. Earlier Pedrito gave the Commencement address for Milton-Stateline Adventist School. Natasha also got news this month that she was the 2010 recipient of APA’s Division 17 Section on College and University Counseling Centers (SCUCC) Counseling Center Outstanding Early Career Psychologist Award. This award is given annually to a professional who, with less than five years of counseling center employment, has shown outstanding leadership and excellence in service, training, and/or administrative practice. She was nominated by peers and the committee voted unanimously for her as award recipient!
We attended 2 major conventions in June. As President-elect of Rotary of Walla Walla, Pedrito (along with Vie), spent 4 days in Montreal, Canada at the International Convention. It was our first time in that part of Canada. A lovely city and a fantastic convention that included speeches and presentations from such personalities as Her Majesty, Queen Noor of Jordan, Dolly Parton, and Greg Mortenson (author of Three Cups of Tea). We also enjoyed a fabulous dinner cruise on the river through the city and a Cirque du Soleil program. We stopped in Toronto and spent some time with Vie’s siblings, Janice, and Noel and family. From the 20,000 Rotary convention we went directly to the over 50,000 General Conference Session convention in Atlanta, Georgia. Pedrito attended every business meeting. But most persons attend to reacquaint with friends and former colleague. And we did much of that as well. One of the highlights was the WIC/NCU Junior Church reunion. Pedrito founded that church in 1976 with Maxwell Blakeney as his assistant and Marie-Lucienne as their right-hand. Both were there.

Even with a busy summer of traveling, Pedrito always teaches a History of Adventism class (that’s why he was glued to his seat at the GC). And he enjoyed taking on speaking appointments, such as the one at Sandpoint, ID.

But the big event of the year was our 40^th wedding anniversary Caribbean cruise. It was a family celebration with our son and his family, Vie’s sister Janice, and our adopted family member, Lorraine. Before sailing out of Puerto Rico, we spent a couple days revisiting our old haunts in PR, especially Antillian University. Then on to the islands of St. Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St. Lucia, St Kitts, and the Dutch/French island of St. Maarten/St. Martin. The tours of the islands were lovely and the evenings on the boat were fabulous, especially the dress-up dinner when we celebrated our anniversary, Janice’s and Pedrito II’s birthday, and Lorraine’s “bucket-list” cruise. After the cruise we spent the day at the largest rain forest in the West, El Yunque, PR. Gorgeous!

We were only home for a few hours before Pedrito had to catch the flight to Thailand for his annual University Mission Trip with 6 of his students. Again we conducted English Camps, helped the disabled farmer on the farm, assisted with a health clinic (including treating a leprosy victim), and spent time at an orphanage. But the trip also involved cultural outings like visiting the rain forest, riding elephants, and spending quality time up close and personal with tigers at the Buddhist Tiger Temple. Rotary of Walla Walla was involved with clubs in Japan, Australia, Germany and the USA in building and equipping a library in the hill country near Chiang Mai. Pedrito attended the beautiful handing-over ceremony before returning home.

The sad part of the Thailand trip was that just as he arrived, Vie’s mother died in Jamaica after an extended illness. Pedrito was the only adult on the trip so he could not leave. But Vie and all her siblings, as well as both our children, were able to attend the funeral. Our good friend Joan Francis came down for the occasion. Mama was just short of her 88^th birthday. The only parent we have living is Vie’s dad, who is 102.

Both our children are doing well, and both added to their responsibilities. Natasha was promoted to be the director of the internship of the Counseling Center at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and Pedrito II is teaching a class in Artificial Intelligence at Seattle University. He continues to work as a Software Engineer at Microsoft. We wish if Natasha and family were closer. But we got to see her and to celebrate her birthday when she came to Portland for a conference in October. And Vie was having missing-Mayamiko pangs, so she took a week’s trip down to spend time with her 2.5 year-old granddaughter. It was a great picker-upper for the doting grandma. We are happy that Pedrito II and Margaret, and Jasmine (9) and Leo (almost 7) are so close by. They come and visit every now and then and we pop over the mountain to see them also.

Pedrito continues to take a lot of speaking appointments (that’s why he is graying around his mouth). He did a camp-meeting in Wenatchee, WA; was the Sabbath morning speaker for a Bible Conference at Grand Concourse Church in NY (along with his college mates, Orlando Moncrieffe and Robert Kennedy, and got to see one of his oldest and dearest friends, Dolly). He also spoke at Roseburg, OR and promoted the University; and recruited in Portland, OR, as well as at Kingsway College and Crawford Adventist Academy in Toronto, Canada. He was guest (via Skype) of a Western Seminary class on worship in the California Bay area. They dialogued on his book, Diverse Worship, which just had its ninth printing by InterVarsity Press. At the end of November he returned to Atlanta for his annual scholars’ meetings where he participated on a panel discussion on worship and attended the Berean African American SDA Church. We had Church! He then went on to Jamaica for his 40^th college class reunion. There he launched the Edith (mama) Maynard-Reid Memorial Scholarship for worthy students studying for the Ministry at Northern Caribbean University, and taught the Sabbath School Lesson, among other things. We begin December with Vie on her way to spend a week with the grandkids in Seattle.

Thanks for your love and prayers. If you wish to see numerous photos of this year’s events, please visit our photo site: http://www.wallawalla.edu/campus-life/spiritual-life/gallery; and visit Pedrito’s blog as well: http://blessingsfrompedrito.blogspot.com/.