The Maynard-Reid's 2014 Annual Letter

December 1, 2014                                                                   

Dear Friends and Family:

We hope 2014 found you in good health and enjoying God’s many blessings. We had another full year – here are some of the highlights:

December 2013:

December began with Natasha having successful surgery for breast cancer. But a few days later one of her

besties, Perla, was diagnosed with the same thing. Such a sad way to begin the holiday season. But we all were happy that Vie could be there throughout the entire time.

Pedrito made his annual trip to Oakwood with 2 students (Macy McVay and Rebekah Rogers) for the Pastoral Evangelism Leadership Conference. He was also part of the leadership of the inaugural meeting of the Association of Black Adventist Religion Scholars (honoring Charles Bradford), where Pedrito’s dear friend, former student and colleague, Olive Hemmings, made a superb presentation.

Last Christmas was the year to celebrate in Florida at Natasha’s home in Gainesville. This was Dalitso’s second Christmas and it was marvelous celebration with all the grandkids and their parents. Of course we had to make the pilgrimage to Disney World!

January 2014:

The only excitement out of the ordinary for Vie and Pedrito was that it was a super busy month both in Florida and in Walla Walla. Vie recognized that God knew what he was doing when he made parents have the kids and not the grandparents! Pedrito was super busy teaching an overload and a new class to Honors’ students (“Religion in a Social Context”), coordinating events that fall in his Diversity administrative purview, and being a bachelor (and all the household chores that that entails)! But it was so wonderful that Vie could come home briefly at the end of the month to assist with Black History Weekend celebration. We both got a little ease from daily pressures – pressures that were enjoyable nonetheless.

In the Maynard-Zhang’s home, Leo turned double digits. Oh, how they grow up fast!

Natasha began chemo! This was the beginning of an intensely rough period for her – every 3 weeks for 3 months! We all were so very happy that Vie could be there with her through it all.

February 2014:

For a fourth time Pedrito was invited to chair the Union Bulletin (Walla Walla’s daily newspaper) Community Council. The monthly 7:00am meetings energize him; and along with his active involvement with Rotary, he has great and meaningful interaction with the movers and shakers of the Walla Walla Valley community.

Pastor Donnival Walker, a former student of Pedrito’s, invited him to be the guest speaker for the North Bronx Church Elders’ Retreat at Camp Berkshire, NY. He gave 7 presentations during the weekend and loved every minute of it.

March 2014:

Pastor Burnett Robinson, another former student of Pedrito’s, also invited him to be the guest preacher for Youth Sabbath at his church – the famous Grand Concourse Temple. What a wonderful wholistic ministry Pedrito’s students are conducting in the New York metropolis! To see Pedrito’s brother and his lovely wife, Joy, topped off a great day. Thanks for the tour of New York, NY!

From NY he flew to Florida. But the night before he left, his host, Trevor Bonney, shaved his (Pedrito’s) head bald! What a shock and happy surprise was in store when Natasha met him at the airport in Orlando!

Thanks again Trevor and Monica for that special time, and for making my solidarity with my daughter memorable.

April 2014:

A highlight of the year was going to Pacific Union College for the West Coast Religion Teachers’ Conference. It was special because Pedrito got to spend the weekend with his dearest friends from Puerto Rico days, Angel and Francis Hernandez. It was like old times. We wish they were living closer to us!

At the Conference Pedrito also presented an academic

paper on the Epistle of James, entitled “James: The Transitional Testament.” He argues in that paper that James is the earliest document in the New Testament, written before there was a clear distinction between Jews and Christians.

In the Maynard-Pemba’s home Mayamiko turned 6 years old.

Vie came home for a few days before returning for Natasha’s final chemo. It was a good break for her, and the homestead was crying out for a feminine touch!

What joy there was all around when Natasha completed the final chemo. Now she could look forward to (not necessarily in a positive sense) radiation.

Pedrito II had his 20th anniversary reunion at WWU where he coordinated the class reunion (he was vice president for his class). This served as a great opportunity (excuse) for his debut Seattle-to-Walla Walla motorcycle trip.

May 2014:

There are 3 or 4 times per year that Pedrito II and his family come to Walla Walla. Mother’s Day is one of those weekends. Though Vie wasn’t home for Mother’s Day, it was also Balloon Stampede weekend in WW. Pedrito was to take his first balloon ride, but the weather did not cooperate! It was great to have the grands around, however.

In the Maynard-Pemba’s home Dalitso turned 2! Yes, the famous “twos!”

Evans was one of 4 accepted to do his internship for his doctorate in Audiology at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC. This was a bit stressful all around, but it was a great opportunity. Again, we were all fortunate that Vie is retired (11 years now), and could spend extended time with the Maynard-Pembas.  And there was some rejoicing that Natasha completed chemo!

June 2014:

Vie has been a trooper this year with the many, many trips from Florida in the Southeast, to the far Northwest of the USA! This month she was home for her birthday at the beginning of the month.

But she had to return to Florida soon because Natasha’s radiation began. This was done 5 days a week for 6 weeks. It was exhausting, but nothing compared to the chemotherapy – in so much that she was able to return to work part-time.

We moved the Thailand trip to the end of June, because the beginning of the school year at Asia Pacific International University changed to the August date, when we would normally make our trip. This was not the best time for either WWU or APIU. But the 5 team members had a blast working with Noone at her

school, with the disabled farmer, and doing cultural things like spending quality time with tigers and elephants, visiting Buddhist temples, etc.

July 2014:

Vie came home for Pedrito’s birthday and had a great celebration at Pedrito II’s home including taking the kids to their first baseball game. We also had a great annual garage sale with Lorraine and the garage-sale gang.

Natasha completed the radiation regimen. And the further big news was that she was promoted to full Professor at the University of Florida. It took a year to go through the promotion process, but in the letter from the President it was noted that “this promotion recognizes your valuable contributions to the students of your profession, the people of the State of Florida and the nation. We are proud to have you as a member of our faculty.”

Mayamiko began 1^st grade at a Charter school that she and we all like very much.

Pedrito II and family took a trip to France. They visited Paris, of course, but also spent much of their time in southern France including Nice, Cannes, Aix-en-Provence, and a day trip into Italy. Lots of swimming at the beaches and shopping!

We have been in Walla Walla for 25 years, but in all that time Pedrito had never preached at the College Place Village church. It was a pleasure to be the main morning speaker for that church’s campmeeting.

August 2014:

Natasha was doing well enough that she was able to take her first major trip since her diagnosis. She attended the American Psychological Association Conference. Evans was in D.C., so grandma Vie was queen-bee in the Florida home.

Pedrito continues to plug along on the writing of the latest Commentary on James. He took out a couple weeks to do some writing at his sister’s, Audrey, home. Vie came down to celebrate our 44^th anniversary with some fun times in the Los Angeles metropolis. We then returned home and immediately joined the President’s Cabinet at our annual retreat at Project Patch, Goldendale, WA.

The Sabbath School Lesson for the Fall Quarter was on the Epistle of James. So the WWU School of Theology invited me to be a conversation partner in the recording of “Good Word,” which was aired weekly during the last 3 months of the year.

The vegetable garden did awesome this year, with lettuce, peppers, beets, cabbage, carrots, onions, green onions, calalloo, red potatoes, red kidney beans (red peas), tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe, and corn.

At the Maynard-Zhang’s home the latest move was that Margaret joined the startup dyne which "brings hosts and guests together through their shared interest in authentic, home cooked food." She is quite a developer of mobile apps.

September 2014:

Pedrito’s work with the Walla Walla Valley Diversity Coalition has taken on a new excitement as we focus on the challenges between the “north” and “south” sides of the track – the poor and ethnic minorities on the north side of town, and the more well-to-do on the south side. Great and positive activism!

It was great to have Pedrito come and visit with the family in Florida. He was able to get some writing done; but more importantly, was able to spend time with Natasha through some rough periods.

Pedrito is very active in his Rotary club. He also got the opportunity to be the guest speaker at the rival Exchange Club in town. He gave them a snap shot of his work in Thailand, both for Rotary and WWU.

Natasha needed a fun break, so she took the family (including Vie) to the beautiful Sanibel Island. It reminded them so much of Miss Lena’s place on the white sand beaches of Negril, Jamaica.

But Natasha developed an infection where she had the mastectomy, and had to have surgery. The surgery brought about a relief from the constant pain she had been going through since the first surgery 10 months before.

Mayamiko got her first report card and she is doing well with a wonderful teacher. Yay!

In the Maynard-Zhang household both kids are having a great year in school. This is Jasmine's last year in middle school (next year is high school) and Leo's last year in elementary (next year is middle school).

Jasmine continues to be in national junior honor society, a program that recognizes "outstanding accomplishment in the areas of scholarship, character, leadership, citizenship, and service.” Leo continues to be in SAGE, a program for highly capable (gifted) kids in elementary school. Jasmine has also started doing gymnastics weekly.

The big event for Jasmine was that she became a teenager. This birthday is always the weekend when University starts for us, but Pedrito had to prioritize and not miss his first grandchild’s very special day!

 October 2014:

On the first day of this month Natasha turned the big 4-0! We made sure that we had a celebration before Pedrito left Florida in September. But Mayamiko and Dalitso insisted on celebrating on the actual day, so they had a second shindig!

Natasha began tamoxifen, with difficult side effects. Ironically, this month was the anniversary of diagnosis -- and during breast cancer awareness month, at that!

Every year for the past 5 years, Pedrito goes recruiting in Toronto at Kingsway and Crawford Academies. Always great to spend time with Janice, and to see and chat with Noel.

November 2014

Sadness and joy in the Maynard-Pemba’s home: Sadly, one of Evans' favorite uncles passed away in Zimbabwe. But the joy was that Natasha started to feel better for the first time in a year. Hallelujah!

The big news in the Maynard-Zhang’s home was that after 6.5 years at Microsoft, Pedrito II rejoined

Amazon.com, this time with the Silk browser team in Amazon Web Services (AWS). The Silk browser is the web browser on the Kindle Fire tablet and Fire phone. By the way, Leo has started doing team soccer this month.

Vie came home for Thanksgiving and we both headed to San Diego for Pedrito’s biblical scholars’ meeting. What a delight it was to stay with Ellie and Larry Veverka at their home. Pedrito had fun cooking Jamaican cornmeal porridge for Larry every day! As always it was great to see Olive Hemmings, and especially this year when she was elected to be president in 3 years of the Adventist Society for Religious Studies (ASRS). We are so proud of her!

Pedrito slipped away from the meetings in San Diego for a day, to run up to San Bernardino to perform the wedding of Sheldon and Titi Parris. What an absolutely beautiful and grand occasion.

Thanksgiving at Audrey’s this year was an absolute delight – warm weather, ocean breeze, great food, fantastic company; it was so good!

The most exciting news in our family this month came in the form of a national announcement. The Governor of California announced that he is appointing our niece, Leondra (Audrey's daughter), to the California Supreme Court. We could not be more proud!

Well, that’s it for life at the Maynard-Reids (and Maynard-Zhangs and Maynard-Pembas) for the last 12 months. Thanks for your love and prayers. If you wish to see numerous photos of this year’s events, please visit our photo site: http://people.wallawalla.edu/~pedrito.maynard-reid/gallery2/main.php ; and visit Pedrito’s blog as well:  http://blessingsfrompedrito.blogspot.com/.

We would love to hear from all of you, so drop us a line at pedrito@wallawalla.edu or violet.maynard-reid@wallawalla.edu or “friend” us on Facebook.

Blessings

Vie and Pedrito