How To Impress Your Famous Pastor

In April 1998 we were between churches and attended a mid week bible study at Saddleback Church because our son, Rick, was singing a solo for it that night. Tom Holladay was leading the study every Wednesday night to about 1,800 people and we decided to start attending Saddleback Church. Tom is Rick Warren’s brother-in-law. An excellent teacher of the bible.

It is not easy to find a time to meet Rick Warren and let him know who you are. At the time probably 15,000 people attended the weekend services. Mr. Warren had not yet written his book, “The Purpose Driven Life” which made millions of dollars for his personal use and made him known world wide.

A few years later we were asked by the Executive Pastor, Glen Kreun, for a favor. Pastor Glen’s in-laws lived on our street and he asked us to bring his mother-in-law to a wedding reception of his step-son’s as she was the grandmother of the groom. We weren’t invited to the wedding but he wanted us to bring the grandmother who we knew. We said ok and made arrangements for taking her to the party.

As you can imagine, most of the guests were from Saddleback Church and we didn’t know most of them. But we can fit in just about anywhere and was assigned a table with some of the staff of the church including Pastor Warren's daughter Aimee.

I wanted to check out the buffet line and while there, Senior Pastor Rick Warren also checked it out. We were alone and I went up to him and introduced myself. I said “Hi - I’m Dick Moore and I attend Saddleback Church. Who are you?” He doubled over with laughter and so did a number of guests who heard what I said. Mr. Warren then introduced himself to me and we had a nice chat.

Everybody knows who Rick Warren is because of his high profile as founding pastor of one of the nations largest churches. He is even more known since his book has been published. As we all know, he was asked by Barack Obama to offer the invocation at the inaugural of the new president of the United States this year.

I know who Rick Warren is but he still doesn’t know who Dick Moore is. Small world isn’t it?

My Teen Transportation - Schwinn Bicycle

This was not my Schwinn bicycle - just a picture of one I found on the WEB.

Transportation Item Number 1

I mentioned in an earlier post that my brother, Ben, and I shared a bicycle during the early 1940s. That was because skinny rubber tires where hard to get making bicycles hard to get also. Our grandfather was fortunate to buy a new bike for us to share.

I was a newspaper delivery boy from 1943 to 1949 for The Daily Standard in Celina, Ohio. I was able to make money to support my "habits" and help pay my own way. I saved everything I could during these years in order to buy tangible things that would last me and make my life more enjoyable.

Right after World War II ended, my Uncle Carlan came home from the service to Celina and later offered me his Schwinn balloon tire bicycle for $30. I grabbed at it as I needed my own bicycle to do the paper route that I had walked up to this time. It was used, of course, but in excellent condition.

Recently a Teaching Pastor of Saddleback Church, Doug Fields, mentioned in a sermon that he had a bike from Montgomery Wards and then asked how many in the crowd had a "Schwinn". Of course there were a lot of us and he then made some remark about the "rich kids" had Schwinns. He was from the other side of the tracks! Schwinn was a very popular brand and was more expensive but not that much.

I had that bike until I bought a kit for a Whizzer Motor Bike that needed a different design than the Schwinn in order for the motor to fit. So I traded it for one that we could put the engine and accessories on. That story is next in my "Transportation" series.

Erin Ochoa - Disney Cruise Cast Member

Disney Cruise Item Number 3

We attend Saddleback Valley Community Church (plug) in Lake Forest on Saturday nights at the 4:30 p.m. service. Sitting around us are friends that make up our "church" and we get caught up on things we are doing. Right behind us every week are Buzz and Loretta Busby. I was chatting with Loretta on June 28th and told her that the next day we were going on a cruise on the Disney Magic for a seven day trip to the Mexican Riviera. She got excited about that because her granddaughter, Erin Ochoa, works on that ship in the Children's Activities. She showed me a picture of Erin and I told her that I would try to find her and tell her that we know her grandmother.

Do you know that there were 2,700 passengers and 1,000 crew on that ship? Finding someone is pretty difficult but we set out to do it. Went to the Children's Activities room and asked about her. She wasn't around that time so we thought we'd try later. One of the staff told Erin that someone was looking for her and she didn't have a clue who it might be.

A later visit to a room where children's activities were going on turned up good information. Erin is somewhat of a standout on a cruise ship -- she is from the United States of America! Most of the crew comes from all over the world but very few from the U.S. The girl that I asked (from another country) told me exactly where she was at that moment. At the children's pool on Deck 9. She was watching the kids and keeping order.

We went to Deck 9 and the pool and there was one (1) staff member there -- Erin! We caught her at a very busy time as she had to get all the kids out of the pool -- an "accident" had occurred and they would have to close the pool for 4 hours while chemicals took care of the problem. When she had a moment, I went up to her and said that Loretta Busby sent me. Her look at me was interesting -- she said "that's my grandma"! We took the pictures shown here on this story and chatted with her for a few minutes.

Erin had just started on the Disney Cruise Lines and the Disney Magic about 4 weeks earlier and loved her job. I wish we had more time to get better acquainted with her but time is limited when you are working as she was. Perhaps when she has her two month vacation we will be able to chat more.

Ann makes beautiful cards of events or greetings using pictures. She made a card for Loretta and gave it to her when we returned to church after the cruise. Since then she has made one for Erin and her mother and gave them to Loretta. Something to remember a chance meeting that we had with Erin.

Ann Moore with Erin Ochoa on the Disney Magic cruise ship.