Maynard-Reid's 2015 Year-in-Review

January 1, 2016                                                                   

We have been sending out family Christmas greeting photo cards and then an annual letter at the beginning of December since 1977. We have decided to start a new tradition: An annual Year-In-Review highlights of the previous year. Because our last update ended with November 30, 2014, we will this last time begin with December 2014.

 

December 2014:

This year Pedrito attended the Pastoral Evangelistic Leadership Conference at Oakwood with Stephen Farr and Eddy Darisime. He was one of the preachers/presenters at Madison Mission Preach-Out. He spoke on, “Is There a Word from the Lord: African American Preaching.”

      We rotate where we celebrate Christmas each year. In 2014 it was at the homestead in Walla Walla.

January 2015:

      Pedrito was the guest speaker to the Walla Walla High School Latino Club for the Martin Luther King Day celebration. He spoke on the topic “MLK and Peacemaking.”

     We are always blessed to worship at Sharon, one of the African American churches in Portland, OR. Pedrito was a guest preacher in January.

     At the beginning of the month Pedrito also completed the first complete draft of the Commentary on James for the Seventh-day Adventist International Bible Commentary (SDAIBC).

      Evans turned 40. He says that he felt his true age for the very first time in his adult life.

February 2015:

      This month Vie returned home from Florida where she was helping to take care of Natasha and her kids to spend more time on her Real Time Pain Relief --
mkt.com/vies-pain-relief (https://www.facebook.com/viespainrelief/?fref=ts)

 

      Pedrito was invited by the Walla Wallla daily newspaper, The Union Bulletin, to chair its Community Council for a fifth year.

       Pedrito presented a Bible Conference on “Music and Worship” and preached at Ebenezer church in Brooklyn, NY. It was good to see his brother, Hugh, his dear friend Maxwell Blakeney, Paulette Cameron, the Pryce’s, and the Shields, among many others.

      At the end of February each year, the Sharon SDA church in Portland put on a grand Gospel concert featuring a Mass Choir and famous artists. It is must attend event. Linda Foxworth and the organizers invited Pedrito to MC the event again this year.

      Evans dear uncle, Mugove, passed away in Zimbabwe. He last saw him in 2009.

March 2015:

      It has been a long time since our friend Marsha Hogg, visited Walla Walla. We were so happy to have her spending time with us and enjoying some great Jamaican cooking.

 

      Pedrito visited his sister Audrey in Long Beach. The highlight was our train ride to San Diego and our time at Sea World.

April 2015:

      Natasha and kids visited her parents in Walla Walla; and her brother and family in Seattle, touring the city and taking a cruise around the harbor. Celebrated Mayamiko’s 7^th birthday. It was a great two weeks.

 

      The Maynard-Zhang’s went on a family trip to Yellowstone National Park.

May 2015:

      There was joy and celebration in the Thompson’s household this month with Lisa’s graduation with her MD from Loma Linda. She is the younger daughter of Vie’s brother, Noel. Vie and Pedrito went for the graduation, along with Vie’s sister, Janice.

      As always Pedrito has a blast at Milo Adventist Academy graduation, where he gets to give out hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships for Walla Walla University.

    

      Rejoicing in the Maynard-Pemba’s home. Evans returned from D.C., released from the US Army with an honorable discharge. Went back to Florida to complete his internship for his doctorate in Audiology.

      Dalitso turned three and started pre-school. 

      Margaret was able to attend the elite Google I/O conference.

June 2015:

      End of school year and end of Pedrito’s 45^th year teaching/training ministers. He continues as Assistant to the President for Diversity; Ombudsman; Professor of Biblical Studies and Missiology; Senior pastor for the student-driven Berean Fellowship – An African American style worship service on the WWU campus.

      Pedrito took another quick trip to visit with his sister, Audrey. They so love adventure. The day at Huntington Beach was heavenly.

      Vie and Pedrito attended the North American Division Ministerial Convention in Austin, Texas, where Pedrito was the presenter at a workshop on Multicultural Worship. It was a delight to spend some time with Audrey’s step-daughter, Jo and her husband. 

 

       The General Conference of SDA followed in San Antonio. It was such a pleasure to be able to stay with our friend, Cyndy who lives there. We were not happy with lots of the Conference itself; but the re-acquaintances of six decades of friendships is more than can be highlighted here. 

      Jasmine graduated from middle school and Leo graduated from elementary school.

July 2015:

      Mayamiko started 2nd grade.  Evans and Natasha celebrated their 10^th wedding anniversary.

August 2015:

      Pedrito made another swing down to Audrey. The highlight adventure of this trip was taking the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. 

        Pedrito has been taking a team to Thailand every year since 2004. Please see earlier blogs for details about this Mission and Cultural trip. This year he had one of the best teams. Especially delightful was to have his theology student from 30 years ago, Gwendolyn de la Chevotiere-Creary, on the trip; as well as his returning (for the 3^rd time) right and left hands, Kalene and Spring.
 

      The highlight of the month was Pedrito and Vie celebrating their 45^th wedding anniversary. Because of the Thailand trip they had to wait until October to have the delightful celebration in the “Camelot” suite at the world renowned Cameo Heights Bread and Breakfast mansion.

       Aimee Broman and family visited the Maynard-Zhang’s and Seattle. The families had a terrific time hanging out together. Margaret and Jasmine went on a trip to China, while Pedrito II and Leo enjoyed some quality father-son time at home. 

 

       Margaret attended the DroidCon conference in New York; the family joined her for a couple days after the conference to do a whirlwind tour of the city.

      Natasha started her 11th year of working at the Counseling and Wellness Center.  Evans and Natasha have lived in Gainesville for 10 years, the place Natasha has lived the longest.

September 2015:

        Pedrito was invited to present four worshops at the Music and Worship Conference in Los Angeles. His topic was, “Diverse Worship Within a Contemporary African American Context.”

      Jasmine started high school (9th grade) at Issaquah High School and Leo started middle school (6th grade) at Pacific Cascade Middle School,

 

      Gardens bore bountifully. Click on this link to see our thousands of flowers and abundant veggies: http://people.wallawalla.edu/~pedrito.maynard-reid/gallery2/main.php/v/maynard-reid-garden/Garden2015/

 

 October 2015:

      For the second year in a row Pedrito was invited to offer prayers for the pilots at the annual Walla Walla Balloon Stampede, and the public prayer for the event. The organizer invited him to take a special ride in one of the balloons. Lorraine Jacobs also got to fulfill a bucket list item with a balloon ride as well.

       Pedrito made his annual trip to Toronto to recruit for Walla Walla University at Kingsway College and Crawford Adventist Academy. His sister-in-law always does a great job as his host.

November 2015

        The annual scholars meeting, SBL and ASRS, was held in Atlanta this year. Pedrito was very pleased that the ASRS adopted a position statement on the Syrian refugee situation – a statement that he initiated and guided through its adoption. He is always happy to see Olive at these meetings. Next year she is president-elect! 

      While in Atlanta, Pedrito visited his last and 50^th state, South Carolina, with his cousin Julian Beckford, whom he hadn’t seen since 1988, and before that, when they were pre-teens was the last time they spent time together – over 60 years! 

      Natasha was elected president of her national organization (Association of Counseling Center Training Agencies) for training directors of psychologists-to-be, completing their clinical practice at a university counseling center.  She will be in a president elect, president and past president position for 4 years.

        We were so happy to have the Maynard-Zhang’s at the homestead in Walla Walla for Thanksgiving.

December 2015

      This year Pedrito took two Theology ladies (Natalie and Shintell) to the Pastoral Evangelistic and Leadership Conference (PELC) at Oakwood University.

        Margaret gave her first conference talk at AnDevCon conference in Santa Clara, CA.

       Throughout the year, Pedrito II continued working at Amazon.com on the Silk browser included on Kindle Fires, Margaret continued developing and teaching Android, Jasmine continued piano and gymnastics, and Leo continued soccer.

        Evans graduated with his doctorate in Audiology from the University of Florida. Vie and Pedrito went down to celebrate with the Maynard-Pemba’s and Evans’ brothers, Alex (who got his doctorate in Chemistry a couple years ago), and Arthur, who came from England for the event.

      We celebrated Christmas at the Maynard-Zhang’s in Seattle this year (though we had a mini-celebration with Evans’ brothers before we left Gainesville). Celebrated also with Marsha eating Jamaican food at the Taste of Caribbean restaurant.

       The year ended with the Maynard-Pemba’s spending a few days in Walla Walla with the kids having fun with the snow.

      We brought in the New Year at the Maynard-Zhang’s. 

Well, that’s it for life at the Maynard-Reid’s (and Maynard-Zhang’s and Maynard-Pemba’s) for the last 13 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