A Note from the Editor
With November, comes Thanksgiving. With Thanksgiving, comes reflection. When you reflect on the things you have been thankful for the past year, the typical things, although very important, come to mind; family, friends, employment, health. In the wake of Covid-19, health is especially important this year.
So many people have been personally touched by this pandemic, whether they became ill, or a loved one or friend did or possibly have died. It would be safe to say that not too many people are thankful for the Covid-19 pandemic. However, I am. Oh, not because of all the tragedy it has brought, but because of some of the good things that have come out of it instead. For example, families are finding creative ways to spend their time together. Folks have discovered what they can live without and still function as normal human beings. People have been making more home-cooked meals. Okay, that last one is probably beginning to grate on a few nerves, but I think you get my point.
But my personal favorite Covid thing to be thankful for is CBP. I was already a member when everything went south, but my involvement in CBP increased. Instead of just attending the weekly meetings, I became more present at the meetings, even after our meetings went virtual. I became excited when we got visitors from other chapters, including PA! I never knew I would have so many new friends half-way across the country.
When I was approached to become the Secretary of the Glendora, CA chapter, I accepted. When I discovered that chapter minutes are only allotted a maximum of 3,000 characters, I made it my mission to meet Pastor Doug Wilson and convince him that the allotment needed to be increased. He patiently listened to my arguments, understood my reasonings, appreciated my interest and dedication to wanting to do the best job I could, and then graciously, kindly, and ever so gently, told me no. (Yes, Stephen. You warned he would say that.)
But things haven’t stopped there. In subsequent conversations with Pastor Doug, the subject of a CBP newsletter came up. Pastor Doug told me that CBP once had a newsletter, however, due to time-constraints and host of other issues, it fell by the wayside. Well, long story short, the newsletter is not only back, but we have a great team of writers, lots of ideas for future content AND Pastor Doug promised I wouldn’t have a character count limit!!!!
Now that’s something to be thankful for!
Psalm 100 – A Psalm for giving thanks
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
God’s blessings upon you,
Gayle Garcia, Secretary & Editor
Pacesetters, Glendora, CA Chapter
November Ministry Minute: Operation Community Cares
Mike Petry, the President of the Rancho Cucamonga chapter is also the President of Operation Community Cares. He has had this position for two years but has been involved with the charity for many years. He didn’t serve in the military and views this as he way to serve by “Serving those who serve.”
This organization involves many members of the community as they gather items for care packages to send to active military. In the past, their large packing parties resulted in 800 to 1000 boxes being packed and shipped per event. Through God’s grace, they were able to get one large event in at the end of February before the shut-down (see that story in the video.) They are hoping to get out 150 boxes for their November event.
Ways CBP members can help is sharing about Operation Community Cares:
You can use the site if you want to donate money. Donate
This page shows items you can donate. Item Donate
You can also view our complete conversation here and share the video with others who have a heart for blessing active military soldiers. Testimony
There is a very touching story at the 6-minute mark about the impact a box can have. At the 10-minute mark you can find other ways to support Operation Community Cares
Valerie Pugsley,
CBP Regional Director, Orange County CA
Year End Giving
As the days begin to get shorter, the leaves begin falling, and kids continue to settle into their school routine (even if it’s digitally), these are true signs that the end of the year is coming close. It’s the transition from summer to fall that has people focusing on the things they may have pushed off on their to-do lists all year. From working out, to cleaning out the garage, and even giving, we are all trying to catch up with the goals we hoped we would accomplish by the end of the year. This is a good time to reflect on your blessings.
Your prayerfully considered gifts to CBP will help us reach our goals. The healthier that CBP is, the better it can serve us, and serve others. When you support CBP, it can grow flourish and bring Christians together in a profitable business relationship. Charitable giving deductions may not apply to you, but many corporations that you work with often are looking for valuable nonprofit organizations to donate to before the end of the year. All you need to do is ask. Thanks for your gifts.
Robb Montgomery,
Power of the Spirit, Gibsonia, PA Chapter
Interview Donna Edmond, Yorba Linda CA, Chapter Founder
“I’ve always been interested in visual art even as a little kid… I think my father was the one who encouraged my creative interest bringing home things and asking what do you think this is and how do you think it’s used? It was a game to think creatively.” In high school Donna started collecting and filing images she liked out of newspapers and magazines. Later she started weaving with fibers making baskets and tapestries she did ceramics for a long time making containers.
When she started creating art she :saw it as a hobby and didn’t put much value into it its just something that I did” It’s unfortunate, I think, that art is not valued, but keep reading and you will see how the above thoughts have changed for Donna.
But, before that Coding (Ugg)
Studying social work, she was going to be a therapist. After school she worked in nursing homes and “ with truant kids which she “really enjoyed.” She changed to real estate because “I thought I would make big money in real estate. I sold a house at the end of my first week, that’s it I’m going to be a millionaire! And then, interest rates went to 14.5%” After a few years her husband a programmer suggested going into computers. She got a job programming but quickly realized “I like people.” Finding her niche with her “creative side” and understanding “business processes and how automating some of those processes could benefit the workers as well as the company. That was a creative way of doing the business thing for me.”
Her mom’s dementia motivated her to go back into social work and Senior Care. “I thought there’s more meaning for me in my past so I got out of hubs, switches and processing,” (that’s coding talk) “to figure out how I could help my parents. I eventually started my own senior and home care businesses and did that for quite a long while. It helped me develop and learn the business side of of something I was passionate about”
“I thought when I grew up you don’t do art anymore you grow up and do business and so I did business for a long time and tried to make it as creative and fun as I could make it.” During these years she “picked up the camera we bought for our son for his birthday and kept borrowing it till he finally said I’d probably use my camera if I had it with me instead of you. So I bought my own little camera with interchangeable lenses to begin with and just photographed things that were beautiful to me. “that’s still something that I’m drawn to is to finding beauty in ordinary places”
The Journey to Legacy Artist
She eventually sold her business, was helping her husband market his business and getting gigs taking pictures of kids at a school and doing head shots getting lots of referrals for the later. “I enjoyed photographing people but still didn’t know what I was doing so I decided to enter photography School. I went to school for two years to study just portraiture and so that’s my main line of what I do now. I especially love photographing families because of the interaction of the people in the family. That is interesting to me not just standing in front of the cameras and smile. We do those and when we get that out of the way I continue building rapport with people, helping them to feel comfortable in front of the camera, feel comfortable interacting with each other… Then I can capture those treasured special moment for them… just being themselves.” I have seen some of these pictures and she really has a way of capturing the essence of her subjects. Those social working skills are still useful.
I have the privilege of walking with Donna weekly and know that she loves, nature, lines, texture and light. These also play a part in her art and business both with architectural, product photography and fine art pieces. Her love for lines and light comes into play when she’s photographing a building for marketing pieces or products for websites and catalogs. The pictures she takes just for herself while walking or traveling, finding interesting textures, lighting and beauty in ordinary places, later become fine art pieces for homes and businesses. Some of her pieces have won awards by her peers. Getting other photographers to say your work is award worthy is quite the accomplishment.
An interesting service that she has is for putting fine art in someones home or business she goes ”to their space and consult with them. Seeing what kind of feel they want… what kind of message do they want for that space. Then I have thousands of photos to start picking samples that I think would work for their space. I then edit them in a way that would be specific for that space, including colors and all kinds of other things to fine-tune and customize them.”
Donna is located in the Fullerton, CA are and has worked from Redlands to the Coast and from Azusa to Laguna Nigel. She is now comfortable being and artist with all her creative abilities who can also make an income. Her process and business skills maker her a professional photographer who is reliable and does what she says she will go.
She’s passionate about people getting their images in print creating a legacy that can be passed down to generations. Not forgotten online photos or stuck in places that you can’t access anymor
In asking Donna if there was anything else she though people should know she said. “I think the most important thing is to know why I do what I do. My passion is to be an encouragement, and to be the light that is inside me so people know that there’s something different about being with a Christian. I want to be… a positive force in the space and with the people that are around me, help them grow, and help them see themselves in a positive way. In photographing my ultimate goal is to create a portrait where the true person is what you see.” This plus the last story she told me shows the value she creates with her people and creative skills.
“I had a client that was very shy, very rigid, and very stiff, in front of the camera. I asked her what gives her Joy? It was praise music and dance, as I put music on she became as whole other person, which was her true person… When she saw those images she started tearing up and she said I always thought my mom was so beautiful and I was not beautiful. These images make me look like my mom. She was able to see she was beautiful for the first time. Those images are very special to her because she sees herself now as she is not how she saw herself.”
Author Note
It was a blessing for me to meet Donna Edman when she started the Placentia Chapter in October of 2014. She quickly became a friend and later mentor. It is a privilege to walk with her weekly and write
Valerie Pugsley,
CBP Regional Director, Orange County CA
Chapter of the Month – Glendora CA
Originally birthed from the Upland Chapter, Glendora celebrated its 7th Birthday this year. Under various leadership teams, it has flourished and blossomed. Under its current leadership, “Pacesetters” has been known to organize and host several events
– such as the Birthday Party for Glendora in January, 2020. Sixty-seven people attended that celebration of accomplishment, and included recognizing foundational contributions of its many past leadership team members! Even the Mayor of Glendora herself rendered commendations to this chapter.
The mood of Pacesetters is full of family and fun. It’s not formal, but it does focus on distributing business, with its eye squarely on doing that within the structure of CBP and its faith.
The kinds of people who come to CBP Glendora are a good, hardworking sort. Almost all are parents – some with children out of the house, and some with all the children in the house. They are important, genuine people whom are loved very much.
David Pugsley, President
Bread of Life, Lakewood, CA Chapter
Thanksgivings Devotional
In going through my Women’s Devotional Bible, I discovered this devotional reading and thought it appropriate to share in honor of Thanksgivings. I hope you find it as inspiring and thought-provoking as I did.
Thanksgiving for All Things
Author: Carol L. Baldwin
“Lord, how can I thank you when I am single and want to be married?”
“Dear God, how can I ever be happy in this dead-end job?”
“God, how can I thank you for broken plumbing in our bathroom when we don’t have the money to make repairs?”
How can we have thankful, contented hearts when the circumstances in our lives are not what we had planned and when they lie outside our control or our power to change?
Let’s look at our alternatives. If we are not thankful, we become bitter and angry with God: he is not providing what we “rightfully” deserve. If we are not content, we become rebellious and complaining: after all, he gives our friends everything they pray for – why does he refuse us?
Underlying these complaints and questions lie two errors in our thinking: that God is not trustworthy and that he does not desire our good. When we compare these conclusions with Scripture, we discover how wrong we are! God’s Word instructs us that God is sovereignly in control, providing for and working out all the circumstances in the lives of those who love him and whom he has called (Romans 8:28; 1 Corinthians 10:13a; Philippians 4:6-7). He is intimately involved with us; he works out his purposes through the events in our lives so that we may be conformed to the image of his Son.
We have further reason to praise him. The same God who formed the world in six days knows every hair on our heads. The same God who chose a people for himself before we were born sent his Son to die on the cross to redeem us from our sins.
God’s love for his people is not determined by the circumstances in our lives. His love is steadfast. Our marital status, career or finances might fluctuate or totally break apart. In spite of that, however, we can and must give him thanks for his love toward us. We must serve him with unhesitating hearts.
Source: NIV Women’s Devotional Bible with Daily Devotions from Godly Women
Devotional found in Book I Thessalonians, page 1325
Gayle Garcia, Secretary & Editor
Pacesetters, Glendora, CA Chapter
All Chapter Holiday Mixer
This December Christian Business Partners is hosting its first All Chapter Holiday Mixer on Zoom. We’ve had holiday mixers in the past, but never one where all our chapter could meet together. This will be a great occasion to begin to establish new business relationships and to nurture the ones that we already have. Everyone is invited including non-members. In fact we would really enjoy having many new faces. There is no cost, but registration is required. The mixer is scheduled for Friday, December 4, 2020 at 8:00 am PST and 11:00 am EST. Use the following link to let us know you will be attending. The mixer Zoom link will be emailed one week before the meeting and the day before. Holiday Mixer Registration
New Members
Please welcome to Christian Business Partners the following new members.
* Amber BennettBerkshire Hathaway Home Services (Washington PA)
* Dave ErnstNew Freedom Purchasing LLC (Castle Shannon PA)
* Ana Esqueda’s Juice Plus & Tower Garden (Glendora CA)
* Terence JohnsonTerence Johnson Media (Upland CA)
* Jason SimmonsCTR Payroll Services (Gibsonia PA)
* Summey SummeyHealthy Living for Life (Spring Hill TN)
“Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.” Colossians 3:16-17
For newsletter comments and ideas use this link. CBP Contact