When Bonna was preparing for the ordination, she told me she wanted to buy a special outfit for the occasion. She went to several stores and found this outfit at a store whose name will not be mentioned. Sher really looked sharp in the outfit. She liked it, so she bought it. Bonna is very frugal so it didn't cost much. Standing next to me, is D.W. Thaxton, District Superintendent of the Houston District of the Church of the Nazarene. Before the Ordination service, all of the deacons to be ordained and their spouses met with the Genreal Superintendent and the District Superintendent and their wives in this office for a little talk and prayer. When Bonna walked in, several people mentioned how nice she looked in her outfit.

Then the District Superintendent and his wife walked in. I almost went into shock. The DS's wife was wearing an absolutely identical outfir to the one Bonna is wearing! I leaned over and said to Bonna, "I guess we know where she shops." Bonna scowled at me. The two ladies looked at each other with that weird look women have when two of them show up wearing the same outfit. Our pastor said out loud, "Bonna, I thought you left the Salvation Army to get away from wearing uniforms."

Then the General Superintendent and his wife walked in . The scene was so spooky nobody said a word. The three women looked at each other. It was unbelievable. Not since our days at the Seattle Temple Corps had we ever seen so many women in identical clothing in one room. All three women had the identical outfit you see Bonna wearing int this picture.

I can only imagine what the audience of 600 Nazarenes were thinking when Bonna walked out, then the District Superintendent's wife walked out, then the General Superintendent walked out. I kind of took the whole thing to be God's way of saying that Bonna belonged with that caliber of women on that level of the Church.

As Childrens' Director for the Houston District of the Church of the Nazarene, Bonna's responsibilities included planning and coordinating large events such as summer camps for children and the Caravan program.

The caravan program included a day of fun and competition for over 400 children. Bonna had to contact all of the churches on the District and coordiante all of the activities surrounding the even. One main responsibility was recruiting adults to help with the event.

The Caravan day event included visits by local Fire Department trucks. This truck is from Port Arthur, Texas. The kids got to climb all over the trucks. The firemen asked all kinds of questions about the equipment. Caravan is the Nazarene scouting program and it includes both boys and girls.

Tables were used to display projects the kids worked on for the past year. Alsok materials were available from various publishing houses so that each local congregation could buy the materials they wanted to help their kids with Caravan and Sunday School.

One of the biggest events was the Pine Car Derby. Even though these cars were made by the kids, adults helped put finishing touches on them. The wheels were put in drills so they could be turned to remove all burrs. The cars were weighed in and lead weights were attached by a highly professional crew that made sure all of the Pine Box Derby cars were up to code.

This is the Pine Car Derby track. It's a very professional piece of equipment with electronic starters and electronic clocks. All of the cars from Spring Branch Church had an "S" painted on them, so whenever one of our cars was on the track I would start the chant "S Car Go!!! S Car Go!!!" Then I would watch the adults faces when they realized they were shouting, "Escargot!!! Escargot!!!" which you realize is a snail. It was fun for a while.

As the day went on, prizes would be awarded in an assemly. There were recitals and skits in this room. The whole day was spent at Pasadena Church of the Nazarene. They had a huge piece of property. With vast lawns. It was perfect for Caravan Day.

One of the highlights of the day was the landing and exhibition of the local Rescue Ambulance helicopter. This is my daughter, Jordana at the helicopter.

The helicopter stayed on the ground until each kid and adult had an opportunity to look it over.

Another aspect of the program was personal performance. Jordana started playing violin in the Suzuki school in Houston. She actually started at about three years old using a violin made from a cigar box. She then graduated to a 1/8 size violin, then a 1/4 size violin and ended with a 3/4 size violin. Then she moved to the Alto Horn and French Horn. Here she is demonstrating all of the positions of holding and playing the violin. At the end of the day, all of the kids who had won in the performance competitions put on a program in the main sanctuary.

You may visit the website of Spring Branch Church of the Nazarene

Dr. Jake Blankenship, our Sunday School Teacher. Jake taught physics to physics teachers at the University of Houston. He also had contracts to teach physics teachers who taught overseas at US Govt schools attended by children of American embassy employees and other US Govt employees.

Bonna outside our Sunday School classroom at Spring Branch after he ordination.

Our church had a wonderful drama department. We had dinner theater in the old sanctuary. As a work project, many in the church got together and rebuilt the old sanctuary for use as a dinner theater. I broutht my table saw and set it up in the hallway. We had quite a few contractors in the church and with all of the help, we extended theplatform to make a nice stage and installed theater lighting. This is a play taking place in the main sanctuary. Bonna was in charge of the children's musicals and theater. She directed plays that were held in the main sanctuary on Sunday mornings.

This is the most wonderful choir I have ever participated in. Whenever we had a cantata, our soloists would voluntarily spend their own money to hire voice coaches to make their soloes perfect. Each cantata we had, there would be scalp hunters from the surroiunding larger churches trying to hire our choir members away. None of them ever took any of the job offers excetp for Penny, who managed to sing at another church and be in our choir too. Our piano players were well known concert pianists. One of them had been a pianist for the Gatlin brothers. Another occasionally toured the USA playing piano for the daughter of Pastor Criswell of the Dallas Baptist Church. A mile or so down the road to the east was Houston First Baptist Church. They averaged 20,000 in attendance on Sunday mornings. A mile or so down the road to the south, was Houston 2nd Baptist church. They averaged around 20,000 in attendance on Sunday mornings yet neither church could ever buy our choir members. Bonna's church growth team worked so well that when we left the church to move to Seattle, 35 other families also moved back to their home states yet the church continued to grow. A few years after this picture was taken, the choir had 75 members and there was a full orchestra in front of them.

Bonna supervised a "tracking" program for making the church accountable for every person who entered the church. As a person entered the church for the first time a greeter would talk to them. If the person were interested in a Sunday School class, the greeter would choose a class where the greeter felt the guest would be comfortable. The greeter then would accompany the guest to the door of the class and chat with them on the way. If the class had not started yet, the greeter would take the guest to the class teacher and introduce them to each other. At the end of the lass, the greeter would meet with the guest and discuss their opinion on the class. The greeter would explain to the guest that there were other class options. If the guest wanted to try a different class the following Sunday, the greeter would meet the guest at the church door the following Sunday and accompany them to the new class. This continued until the guest had seen all of the classes of interest and chose a class to try on a more permanet basis.

If it was discovered by anyone that a member of the church had stopped attending, the member was visited by someone on Bonna's team. The team would interview the member to find if there were any problems that warranted a pastoral visit. They would also try to ascertain if the member were upset with anything going on at the church. In any event, every body who came to Spring Branch Church of the Nazarene was accounted for. The church employees were accountable for how they treated the members and all Sunday School teachers were accountable to the church for how people were treated in their Sunday School classes.

Because of these caring procedures, very few people left the church and most of the peopole who were new felt so cared for that they stayed. As time went on, most of the peopole leaving the church were going back home to whatever state they lived in before moving to Houston.

Dan Ross Bonna Ross Jordana Ross Dan & Bonna Ross Dan and Bonna Ross drdan71, drdan71@aol.com cornucopiagenealogica 09/30/03

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