Maynard-Reid's 2020 Annual Letter

 

January 1, 2021 

397 SE Highland Park Dr

College Place, WA 99324                                                                      

Dear Friends and Family

 

Here is the latest edition of our annual highlights of the previous year in the Maynard-Reid’s life:

 January:

As usual, the new year began on a hopeful and exciting note with Pedrito teaching his graduate students at the Webber Institute of Worship Studies in Jacksonville, Florida, and fellowshipping with  a collegial group of colleagues. Like most of you, we had no idea of what was to come in the months ahead!

 Our son, Pedrito II, was fortunate to get a 3-month sabbatical from Amazon. It was a glorious time during which  he focused on career re-orientation, kungfu, and self-revitalizating activities like hiking, mini-trips, picking up acoustic guitar, and establishing a sustainable morning routine.

Pedrito travelled to Bermuda to attend the planning session for the Pastoral Evangelism Leadership Council (PELC). It was a bonus getting to spend some time with his long-time student and friend, Gwen Creary.

February:

Natasha attended the annual “Link to Pink” with family and friends
again this year. It’s the University of Florida’s (where she is the Associate Director/Training Director of the Counseling and Wellness Center) gymnastics squad’s annual “Link to Pink” meet, an event that shows support for breast cancer survivors. We are so happy that Natasha is still a breast cancer survivor, and doing very well.

Pedrito was invited to speak at Phoenix Beaconlight Church for a Black History Month sabbath. A highlight of the trip was seeing Joy Alexander and catching up on old times at West Indies College and Andrews University.

March:

This was the life-changing month! Pedrito was at the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education meeting in San Diego when COVID-19 hit, and everything shut down including our University. For the rest of the year all his classes were synchronously online.

Natasha’s daughters, Mayamiko and Dalitso, also began doing school online. Her husband, Evans, however, was able to continue his audiology practice in the Villages, Florida and after a brief shutdown, Natasha was able to continue her work at UF.

Jasmine, our eldest granddaughter, who is in her second year at the University of Washington, moved back home a little early due to UW COVID-19 closures. Her schooling was also all virtual.

Vie had to cancel all her Real Time Pain Relief events for the rest of the year. However, she was able to create a video of her products, which you can view here. Her online store can be accessed here. Visit her Facebook page, “Vie’s Pain Relief,” and contact her directly at vmaynardr@gmail.com.

A number of travelling and speaking appointments for Pedrito were cancelled, including presentations on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at a North American Division Human Resources’ conference in Indianapolis, and a keynote presentation at the Seventh-Day Adventist Health, Physical Education, Recreation Association (SDA-HPERA) conference in Salt Lake City.

One upside to the pandemic was the beginning of  monthly family zoom calls with Vie, Pedrito, Natasha, and Pedrito II.

April:

Mayamiko turned 12 years old.

May:

Dalitso turned 8 years old.  Another quarantine birthday!

Pedrito II took a new role with the Amazon Future Engineer team where they focus on making computer science childhood-to-career pathways more accessible to underserved and underrepresented students. You may have seen some of the Amazon TV ads with one of his teammates.

On campus, InTents, the annual evangelistic meetings (since 1992) also went virtual! The students created podcasts. We had to rethink new ways to do everything. Pedrito is proud to say his students rose to the challenge beautifully!

June:

Leo, our second grandchild continues to excel in school, but also in his passion: He achieved Diamond IV rank (top 1.5% among over 2 million players) in the globally popular, massively multiplayer online game League of Legends.

The Robert Webber Institute for Worship Studies also went online with a flex system: in-part, synchronously, and partly asynchronously. Because Pedrito's class had students from China, and all the time-zones of the USA, he set up his base of teaching at Natasha’s home in Gainesville, Florida. What a pleasure for him to hear the word “Grandpa” every day.

Pedrito was able to pop into SoCal to visit his sister Audrey and together visit the matriarch of the Reid clan, Aunt Cissy. We thought that that might be the last time seeing her. She is 98 and was on her last leg (literally and figuratively). However, our prayers for her continued to be answered.

July:

After paying back school loans for the past 15 years, Natasha finally met all the requirements for the Public Loan Forgiveness program!  The remainder of her loans were forgiven.  It was a huge burden lifted.  

August:

Amidst the pandemic we were able to safely have our multi-family annual garage sale (this time in the backyard under canopies), with the regular crew of Pedrito II and family, Lorraine, Loren Dickenson, and Jan Rasmussen and Ron Wheeler.

Pedrito was featured in the Zoom program “Let Us Worship” by the Redemption Praise Temple in Jamaica, New York.

Natasha gave her American Psychological Association, Division 17 (Counseling Psychology) Fellow speech virtually.  This year all of the speeches had to be recorded ahead of time.  She was nervous but it was well received. Her eldest daughter, Mayamiko, was the videographer and editor.  

Vie and Pedrito celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary. To relive their honeymoon trip to Florida, Pedrito II and Natasha gave them an anniversary gift to a lovely hotel in Daytona Beach. Natasha and family, along with Pedrito II, joined their parents the day of the celebration on August 23.

The two big trips for Pedrito to Asia had to be postponed due to the pandemic: His annual mission and cultural trip to Thailand, and a planned Sabbatical that involved doing research on worship in Asia.

September:

Jasmine started her Sophomore year at UW, and Leo started his Junior year at Issaquah High School, Washington State. Mayamiko is in Middle School (7^th grade), and Dalitso in 3^rd grade in Gainesville,
Florida.

Vie spent almost a month at Natasha’s helping out as Natasha and Evans worked and the grandkids did school online. Many a project was completed because of her!

Pedrito II took his annual summer motorcycle trip, 
this time to Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse memorials in South Dakota, by way of amazing stops like Old Faithful geyser at Yellowstone National Park, Sacajawea’s gravesite, and the geographical center of the nation, plus breath-taking rides like Beartooth Pass and Needles Highway.
COVID-19 inspired him to do motorcycle camping for the first time.

Evans (Natasha’s husband), opened an online print-on-demand store. He specializes in custom t-shirts, masks, mugs, socks, phone cases, etc. Please visit his store to view the inventory. You can also contact him about custom designs for weddings, anniversaries, office events, etc.

October:

Pedrito was a panelist on a Zoom forum meeting of The Society of Adventist Academic Professionals, dealing with the topic, “Adventist Christians in the Political Sphere: Should Christians be involved in Politics?”

Margaret (Pedrito II’s wife) received the Google Open Source Peer Bonus Reward for her work on open-source TensorFlow projects. She also launched her online art gallery: margaretmz.art. She has been making traditional, digital, and AI art this past year.

 

The garden did well again this year. We shared lots with friends, colleagues, and the homeless shelter. Lots of juicing of carrots, grapes, and apples. A highlight of October was having Pedrito II and family, and Lorraine travel to Walla Walla for the annual apple-juicing weekend. So much fun...and work!

 

November:

Dalitso and Mayamiko went back to "Brick and Mortar" school after doing school online for several months.

This year was also Vie’s and Pedrito’s 50^th college homecoming at West Indies College (now Northern Caribbean University), Jamaica. Pedrito was invited to be the Sabbath keynote speaker and guest organist for the services. He was delighted that the government of Jamaica gave him permission to travel to the island for the event.

Pedrito spoke for WWVA (Walla Walla Valley Academy) chapel on “Three Lessons my Mama Taught Me.” That was the last live event for the year. Every other speaking event was ZOOMED: Pedrito moderated  a discussion on racism with the Walla Walla Symphony organization. He has been working with their taskforce on how to be more intentionally antiracist.

The Adventist Society for Religious Studies (ASRS) was also virtual. And Pedrito ended the month teaching the Sabbath School lesson for the Simi Valley, CA, church, virtually.

Vie and Pedrito had a quiet but wonderful and delectable Thanksgiving at Lorraine’s.
 

December:

Another great disappointment was that the Pastoral Evangelism Leadership Council (PELC) was virtual. Vie usually has a booth for her Real Time Pain Relief business. However, she did get good advertising press during the virtual sessions. For Pedrito, this was the first conference he has missed since 1992.

There was a quick trip to visit Pedrito’s sister and Aunt Cissy. He also had some quality time with his niece Ruth-Anne, and cousin Liz. A highlight was reacquaintance and conversation with Leanne Veverka and her husband, Nathan Beecraft. Their social justice passion is so contagious.

To end the year we came down early to Florida to teach for the January session at IWS so we could spend Christmas with Natasha and family. Pedrito II and family also came and we spent a week at a beach house in Port St. Joe in Florida’s panhandle. While there, Pedrito took a day to make quick and safe visits to Dolly and Pugsley Moncrieffe, Joy and Hugh Mighty, his cousin Earl Reid, and a life-long friend from childhood, Maxine Brown.

Well, that’s it for life at the Maynard-Reid’s (Maynard-Zhang’s and Maynard-Pemba’s) 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  and visit Pedrito’s blog as well.

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