Sharing My Story

I lived in an apartment in Montebello (821 N. Wilcox) from
shortly after I moved to the San Gabriel Valley in the summer
of 1982. This served me well as a place to began work on the
Valiant newsletter and the starting of the Alpha-Omega apa.
At the San Gabriel Union Church where I was attending I met
through the Singles class Jeff Masching and Greg Baker. Jeff
and Greg rented a medium-sized three bedroom house in Temple
City (directly north of Rosemead). During the spring of 1985 they
approached me about becoming their third housemate. At first
I was reluctant because I liked having my own apartment. I had
been living alone for around five years and it was working for me.
I had done the "housemate thing" from 1972-1980 and didn't see
the need to go back into that mode of life. Also the bedroom
I'd be occupying was very small, probably a kid's bedroom.
However, they were persistent and I ended up moving into
the 6011 Agnes St., Temple City home in April 29, 1985. Jeff was
an employee in the mailing department at Focus on the Family
headquarters and Greg worked for Thrifty Drugs. My relationship
with both men was cordial though not necessarily close. This house
was the location for a number of meetings with Ralph Miley
and Charles Whitley and our endeavors with Valiant Efforts.

About three years later Greg moved out. In 1989 Jeff announced
that he was getting married. This came as somewhat of a shock
(though he had previously mentioned he was starting to date
someone at his work) as I had seen him as a life-long bachelor.
There were no other potential roommates in the offing so
I began looking for other housing situations. By the end of
July 1989 I had moved to a large house (really a mansion)
in South Pasadena. I attended Jeff's wedding on August 12, 1989.

By late 1986 I was looking for another church home as the
singles group at San Gabriel Union was changing into a
divorce "recovery" group. I attended several other churches
and during 1987 found that Sierra Madre Congregational
Church was a good fit. The pastor Richard Anderson was
an excellent Bible teacher and the church had an active
singles ministry called Koinoina.