Well, we had our usual adventure trying to rent our two reserved vans. When we showed up, Budget had only one van available for us. After some discussion, they finally rented us a Navigator and a Sable to replace the second van, but this meant we needed a third driver. Remy was recruited, although we have to pay $20 a day extra for him to drive since he is under 25. Nevertheless, we were able to leave at 1:20 PM, only 20 minutes later than we planned.

We arrived at Corcoran about 4:30, much earlier than planned. This gave us time to eat at McDonald's at a cost of $2.00 each. We then showed up at the prison by 6:15 PM, even with getting lost and showing up at the wrong prison first. After being chased by the guards and explaining what we were doing, we finally arrived and were greeted by Chaplain Owens. We sang at their dinning room to a group of over 120 prisoners, the largest prison population we have ever sang to. They were wildly responsive, and after Kenny Wong delivered a message, six to seven prisoners expressed a desire to receive the Lord, praise God! The prisoners also had a small group of 6 to 7 and they sang two songs for us wonderfully. We had a few minutes of interchange, got to pray for some prisoners and then we left to drive to Fresno to meet our hosts for the next two nights. This was a wonderful start to our tour!

This morning, a small group of us (originally 8 singers with Kenny Wong and I are to go to North Kern State Prison in Delano. Because they have a small chapel, Chaplain Jordan limited us to the small group. This group included Jason Lau, but because of illness in his family, he could not make the trip and clearance for a substitute takes two weeks to clear, so we were down to 9 (and only one tenor). When we arrived, to our horror, we found out our last remaining tenor forgot to bring his picture ID with him, and try as we might, we could not bring him with us, so we were down to eight, six singers and no tenors, plus I was still recovering from laryngitis. But our weakness is God's strength, so we boldly went in, substituted parts in the skits and covered for one another with me croaking out a few tenor notes. Because it was a weekday morning, we were told to expect only a few, maybe 30, but the small chapel was filled to capacity, officially 55 showed up, and again, though a different crowd then last night and less enthusiastic, God's spirit worked and 5 people indicated their desire to receive Christ as their savior; for this we can only give God the praise - it certainly wasn't our singing!

Tonight, we sang for our host church, Fresno Chinese Baptist Church, a church we have sung in during many past tours, but they have moved to the suburbs in a beautiful new building with gym and with a growing multi-ethnic congregation. We really appreciate what this church has done for us, hosting us and feeding us and housing us. We could not have done the two prisons without their help; they are truly our partners in ministry as our home churches with your financial support and prayers.

Our God has a great sense of humor - just to remind us of our past tours, after gathering at the church for morning devotions, we got ready to leave for Sacramento and the large van couldn't start, car trouble! We had left it parked in the church lot since we arrived Tuesday and for some reason, the battery was completely drained. Fortunately, one of the ladies meeting at the church had a set of jumper cables, we hooked them up, and we were finally on our way. Since we had nothing to do until the evening meeting at Sacramento's Juvenile Home, we stopped at Livingston, Foster Farm's "Chicken Capital of the World" for lunch, a special treat courtesy of the Huangs and also stopped at Oakdale to visit the Hershey Chocolate Factory. Even though we arrived too late for the last tour, we each got a free candy bar.

We arrived at the Juvenile Home, a little concerned about the reception from the inmates and wondering who got cleared. To our surprise, everyone got in, including those under 18, even though I was told they could not be admitted. We went through the double locked security doors, walked down a long narrow hallway, and sang in the gym, a first time experience for the younger members who finally got to experience the insides of a jail. The gym had chairs laid out in sections, and the inmates marched in and sat according to their cell blocks, altogether about 60 of them. They listened politely, then enthusiastically through the songs, testimonies and skits. As the chaplain told us when we left, he really appreciated our testimonies, which came from "kids close to their age, and spoke their language and communicated on their level". Finally, Kenny challenged them about their indifference, that they didn't care, but we did and God did, that they came for an hour's entertainment, but that we wanted that hour to intersect eternity then, and when Kenny gave the invitation, at least 20, perhaps half the number there raised their hands. Please pray for all of them, we really don;t know how many made genuine decisions but we did have a few minutes to talk to a few of them, and at least one girl asked, actually begged for us to pray for her, and her friend also asked the same thing. These are young people, younger than most of our kids, among them a Mong teenager, and so lost and confused, and yet, really no more than most of the teenagers and adults walking the streets in our cities. Look to the fields, they are white unto harvest, our Lord said, pray that the Lord will send forth laborers.

We slept late today, and gathered at Peter and Margaret Shek's home in the late morning. The Sheks had left LA and FEC twenty years ago to move to Sacramento and they had set up our housing and hosts for our two concerts here in Sacramento. We had our devotions together and debriefed and thanked God the wonderful response last night. After a wonderful lunch, we drove to tour the Capitol building and old Sacramento before arriving at the Union Gospel Mission a few minutes after six. As we watched the crowds file in (over 150), I knew we were in for an entirely different experience tonight than the previous nights. We prayed, sensing the hardness of these men and their skepticism, but we went ahead with our planned program and Kenny again preached from his heart, but tonight, when he asked who were Christians, less than half raised their hands and when he gave the invitation, no one responded. Nevertheless, we thank God that we could sow some seeds. We also met some young couples who had recently moved to Sacramento, and could not yet find jobs or whose husband had been injured, so to survive, they brought their families to the shelter to find food. For some of these homeless, our hearts went out to them, but we also thank God that they trusted that God would soon provide for their needs. But in general, when we tried to talk to the men after the meeting and during dinner, we found them uncommunicative and unwilling to talk, very different from the homeless we had encountered in Seattle and Portland in past years. We thank God too for tonight's experience, hard though it may be, because we saw a different side of people, and realized we need to pray so much harder for these.

Midnight adventure - I was awakened about 1 AM by our host who received a panic phone call from one of our host families. It seems Jason and TJ wanted to go out for a walk about 10 PM to get some fresh air and had not returned. This host family lived in a gated complex where most of the houses looked alike, but by 1 AM, they were worried something had happened to the two guys. They had sent out two search parties and driven along the streets but couldn't find them, and were about to notify their complex security. Not knowing what to do, and half asleep anyway, I said we'll pray for them, which we did and I felt very peaceful so I went back to sleep. About half an hour later, or just about the time I fell asleep, the phone rang again and it was the host family telling us the boys had returned after wandering about lost trying to find the right house. Praise God for this exercise in faith.

Today was the morning we were suppose to go to the women's prison, but two days before our tour started, I got a phone call from the Chaplain canceling our visit, so we were kind of disappointed that we couldn't go. So after some sharing and prayer time, we drove to San Jose, stopping at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. We dropped Kenny off at the airport, and drove to Chinese Church in Christ (CCIC) in San Jose, where we were to sing that evening. We toured their church, which is entirely housed in a three story office building of 40,000 sq. ft. and most of the group had a grand time playing hide and seek in this new place. After dinner, we sang to about 120, mostly young people, in their smaller sanctuary. Marshall brought the message since Kenny had left, and he talked about some of the things that had happened to us on this tour and challenged the young people to rededicate themselves. A handful responded, and we praise God for these decisions. One really encouraging bit of news was when we talked to a lady from this church after our concert. She had heard Vision when we sang at CCIC several years ago, and they have been sufficiently challenged to form their own ministry group and go to the midwest for the past few years. One of the skits they perform with great effectiveness was copied from our Pearly Gates skit. I praise God that we had a part in their starting this ministry, and if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then we are truly blessed. We then drove to our hosts homes who were all from CCIC South Valley, another 15 miles to the south west.

This morning required a fairly early start, as we had to meet and drive to CCIC Mountain View, about a half hour northwest of where we stayed last night. We got there in time to sing a couple of songs for their English service, and then spent an hour singing to their youth group - a few collegians, their junior and senior high schoolers joined by their fifth and six graders, about 70 or 80 kids in all. We were able to communicate at their level, and Marshall closed out the meeting with a short challenge to make sure their eternity was secure in the Lord. Three kids raised their hands to accept Christ and for this, we are very grateful. After lunch, we drove back to LA, safely arriving back at the church at 8 PM.

The tour was kind of short, but we thank the Lord for everything that happened. It wasn't that busy a schedule, giving us plenty of time for relaxation, sightseeing, but at the same time, we sang a total of eight times in the six days we were gone. We praise God for all the decisions that were made, and we pray for their continued growth.