I am posting from the library of the Azusa Pacific University, where I have been since last Friday for the 30th annual district conference of the Vietnamese District of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

We started Friday night with a prayer meeting like always.

Saturday opening ceremony, I couln't really follow the service because it was crowded and I came in late so I had to sit in the overflow area to the side of the stage and couldn't really hear clearly what was being said because of how the speakers were set up and too much echos. To add to the complaints, the benches on the side didn't have any back support whatsoever.

Saturday afternoon single adults service was great with Rev. Timothy Tran and Mrs. Thi Nguyen were our two speakers, addressing the various issues of single life. We were encouraged to make sure that there are four things we need to be working on: 1) Have Christ as Lord of our lives, 2) To have direction and goal for our life, 3) to continue working on developing the nine fruits of the spirit, 4) to wait patiently and to accept God's will, to serve him diligently and to keep to a life of sexual purity. God only wants the best for His children so don't settle for any less. Also, she told us lthe ten things not to do in getting married: 1) not to do it while we were too young, ie. younger than 20, 2) rush into marriage, 3) to run away from problem with parents, happen a lot in Asian culture with the girls especially, 4) to please the parents, 5) know too little about each other, 6)when one yet to have the mean to support oneself financially, 7) too much differences between each other: in age (more than 10 years,) education, personality ..., 8) not to ignore one's parents' and spiritual leaders' advice regarding a particular person, 9) don't push your boyfriend/girlfriend to accept Christianity, 10) not to ignore any uneasiness in going forward with the marriage because that may be when the Holy Spirit is warning you about going forward with that person.

Saturday night, Rev. Thach Le once again talked about personal developments, the five steps everyone must go through to become a mature adult: 1) establishing one's identity, 2) to work out individual relations with one's family, becoming independent from one's parents especially, this is particular important in Asian culture, 3) to identify one's core values, 4) to development one's core competencies, 5) to choose one's life mate. In addition, Christians must go through two additional steps: 6) spiritual formation, and 7) become trained in Christian ministry and minister in the body of Christ.

Sunday morning worship service was the most crowded of all. Sunday afternoon was the 2nd commencement excercise for the Vietnamese Divinity School. We had to evacuate half way through the service because security and police found a bag left unattended. We had a service commemorating how the Gospel first came to Vietnam in 1911 and how the Vietnamese District was established here in the US in 1975 and the history of the District in the last 30 years.

The first business session started this morning with just the conference adopting the district's annual report.