Greetings:

Evangeline and I are having a productive and exciting time in California. The only day that has not been good was our first day at UC San Diego on February 11, where we failed to draw a crowd and gave up by the middle of the afternoon. Other than that each day we have had good size crowds and we have had profitable dialogue and debate. The weather has been very much in our favor, except for this week.

We encountered rain at the UCSB on Wednesday. After Evangeline failed to draw a crowd at the noon hour, I did not bother preaching at the PM break since Evangeline and I were talking to two students in the Union. I considered heading up the road to San Luis Obispo and not even preaching at the 2 PM break, since I doubted getting a crowd in the rain. However, I did decide to give it one more shot, and immediately an even larger crowd gathered in the rain, than we had the day before on a sunny day. The day before we had an attentive crowd, that did not get mad until late in the afternoon. But on Wednesday they were mad from the beginning until we stopped at 5:30 in order to get on the road.

Thursday, at CSSLO Evangeline opened the meeting and drew one of her largest crowds ever, but it started raining by the time she turned the meeting over to me and as the rain fell harder, soon they all scattered. I waited for almost 2 hours for another class break, but there never was a significant number passing by so we decided to quit early and it rained hard for the rest of the afternoon. We decided to visit a used book store. Evangeline purchased a book by one of her favorite authors, Dumas; I bought nothing. Evangeline has purchased so many books on this trip I don't know how we will get them home. In addition we have two boxes of books and tapes that a brother in San Diego gave us. Cindy brought home three box full of books that the same brother donated.

Friday, we returned to CSSLO, the day started slowly and there never seemed to be a significant class break. I determined that they did not have many classes on Friday, which seems typical of the California State system, but not the UC system. Eventually, things picked up with most of the crowd made up of Christians. Of course, they opposed our methods and our holiness message. The crowd kept picking up as the afternoon passed. Finally a group of Calvinists came out who were literally in my face. Their main spokesman proof that we do not have a free will was that we did not choose to be born; we did not choose to be male instead of female, etc. He failed to understand that free will deals with moral choices. Evangeline commented that he would make a knowledgeable Calvinist blush.

The police came on the scene but did nothing but observe. Finally about 5 o'clock I turned the meeting back to Evangeline and a small group with good questions gathered around me asking about omniscience and omnipotence. They seemed receptive to my answers. Finally, with the sun going down it was getting cold and most of the crowd had left Evangeline. I announced that we had been preached since 10:45 and that it was dinner time. I did offer copies of my book. A young man named Brian, who I could tell was receiving my message, wanted a copy of Who Will Rise Up? He said he was not a Christian but had been very impressed by our message. He said he would read the book and give serious consideration to becoming a Christian.

Next week we plan on preaching at UC Davis and CS Chico. This will be the first Sunday I have scheduled a church meeting. Saturday, Evangeline and I will visit the Hearst Castle. Sunday we will have about a six hour drive to Davis.

This mission trip to California has been one of the best in my memory. Sometimes California campuses can be great other times we might totally strike out. But this year every campus has been outstanding, except for that first day. We have preached three days at UC San Diego, two days at UCLA, two days at UC Irvine, two days at UC Riverside, two days at UC Santa Barbara, three days San Diego State, two days at CS San Marco, one day at CS Fullerton and two days at CS San Luis Opispo. Each day we start before noon and go on to at least 5 PM and often beyond that time.

In California one spends a lot of time on the freeways, where there is so much traffic, especially at the rush hour. I am glad that there is two of us so that I can drive in the car pool lane, but there is not always a car pool lane and even it can be slow at times.

I have appreciated the beauty of Southern California more than ever. This is some of the best weather that I have experienced in my thirty years of winters here, although it is usually nice. This place is almost paradise. Seeing all the prosperity and scenery here convinces me more than ever that America despite her sins is still God most favored nation.

Jed Smock