The move to the good ol’ US of A, was done with a naive attitude. All we knew was that we were going to serve the American people who also spoke English and had similar customs.

The border crossing was uneventful because our papers were in order. We had two vehicles, our 1977 Pontiac and the rented moving van. Customs and immigration welcomed us to the United States.

We were now immigrants. We were filled with expectation and even the air seemed cleaner, the sun shone brighter over our new homeland.

It took us two days to get to Walla Walla, and when we arrived we were welcomed like long lost family. My mentor friend ( now the pastor ) and his wife showed us around.

Walla Walla was a community of 30,000 people at that time, 1988. One third of the population was Spanish speaking because of the mostly agricultural based economy.

The city of Walla Walla boasted two hospitals, one Roman Catholic and the other Seventh Day Adventist. The military veterans also had a hospital which was located in College Place, the community to the south which bordered Walla Walla.

The largest employer of Walla Walla was the state prison, opened in 1886, making it the oldest operating prison in the state. In 1988 it housed 2800 inmates. I don’t recall the number of staff it took to operate the facility but it was a great number.

Walla Walla also had a community college ( where I got my high school diploma by taking US history, which by the way, the Americans won the war of 1812, didn’t you know? ), and Whitman college, which was the largest agricultural land owner in Washington State. This was due to people leaving their land holdings to the College upon their deaths’.

My mentor whom I will call PJF, was hired by a board of elders which he phased out over several years. Today, PJF was the sole boss of the church.

The current building that the congregation was in was too small and it was at one time a warehouse so it didn’t look like a church. The plan was to buy an older church building, a structure put up during the early 1900’s and renovate the interior and move into it.

PJF appointed my wife, Lynda, to be the church secretary and the minister of the women in the church. I helped out with the painting etc and all the maintenance work.

Then we moved in and the small congregation began to grow. We began to have meals after the church service was done. I organized them, they were always potlucks. One time one of the wives came to me and told me she wanted to help. I asked her what she wanted to do and she told me she wanted to do my job!

I was a little taken back, but after a moments thought, I told her that would work. I trained her and went and did something else and she did just fine.

Lynda and I moved five times in six and a half years of living in Walla Walla. The second last time we moved we bought a house in the dominantly Hispanic neighborhood which was also close to where I worked.

Two weeks after we moved in, a series of drive-by shootings started on our street. The first shooting was 2 am Monday. After work I took a look at the damage. There were 30 shell casings found on the street and the culprits fired at four houses. Each shell casing was represented by a painted circle which the police placed there.

One house had a bullet hole 18 inches above the ground. That bullet went through the outside living room wall, through the inside living room wall, through the hall wall, through the inside bathroom wall, and lodged in the back bathroom wall beside the toilet.

I was shocked! I set about and talked to everyone who lived on our street. I arranged to have individuals watch the street from midnight to 6am, from their darkened houses and record every movement on the street and report to me.

Three days later I was approached by the City of Walla Walla police who ascertained who I was and told me they were dissolving my group and putting it under the authority of the Police Crime Watch.

I asked why and they told me that one of the people I recruited was sitting in his car with his loaded handgun. He was waiting for the shooters to drive by and shoot so he could shoot at them!

The police also told me they were making me team captain. Leadership? No! Absolutely no! I was told that I’m not to be a leader! I’m support only! This I didn’t verbalize, I told the police I would think it over.

What a struggle then ensued. The argument that convinced me to take the position was that I was already leading, all I was doing was stepping into the title and being recognized for it.

Our street suffered three more drive-by shootings but this time they only shot at one house. The occupants moved into the safety of the basement after the second drive-by.

It turned out that the 22 year old son of the family living in the basement, was in a gang in Milton-Freewater Oregon which was only ten miles from Walla Walla. He would get drunk at a dance and fight with a different gang member, beating him up. The members of that gang would drive by his parent’s place and shoot at the house as an act of payback.

The 22 year old was finally arrested for pointing a firearm at someone along with four other charges. He went to court and was sentenced to 218 months or 18.16 years. He would do a third of that and be eligible for parole if he behaved himself.

Before the son went to court, our neighborhood had a block party as an apology for bring violence into the city. The basement living family and I organized the invitations for the city officials. The food, drinks, barbecues, tables and chairs I did by myself. Not even my wife wanted to help me. Everything was contributed by businesses and our church.

The block party was a huge success! The local newspaper interviewed me. I rubbed shoulders with the Chief of Police, the Fire chief, the mayor, as well as many of the other people, it was great fun!

One of the interesting developments that came from the shootings, was that the Crime Watch had struggled for the previous ten years to organize block watches in the City. In two months, over 200 block watches were formed in the City of Walla Walla, that was 1994.

After it was all done I realized that church leadership has a role to play in ones life, but a very minor role and as time went along I was to learn how much of a minor role that was to become.

continued next week..

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