BAKERSFIELD, CA (Day 2).  We attended church this morning at Providence Reformed Church (PCA).  It meets each Sunday in an industrial park, using the office space of another church named Sovereign Grace, a sort of unaffiliated Reformed Baptist group too big to worship there on Sunday.

In that same industrial park are other church services on Sundays, and we mistakenly went to one of the others this morning at first.  It had no signs out front to identify who they were, and Providence had only two small signs that we could not see from the road.  We went where most of the cars were parked and found ourselves at Discovery Church.  Things did not look right as we entered the building.  There were movie posters covering the windows.  The booming sound of the speaker's voice did not sound like a sermon.  We were led past food and drink stands by someone who seated us up close to the front.  The speaker was a large burly man in blue jeans and a white T shirt, preaching from the book of John on the subject of facing persecution in this life.  After a short while, he sat down and the screen behind him started showing scenes from Back to the Future, where Marty McFly is fending off Biff after a high school dance.  When that scene ends, the lights come back up and the "sermon" resumes about being courageous in the face of trial (or something like that).  We got up to leave, wondering if the PCA in California had totally lost its mind.

Once outside we rechecked the address of Providence.  Someone outside said "that church" was "over that way."  We walked a while until we saw another smaller group of cars.  We went over to discover a small sign saying that this was Providence Reformed Church.  When we went in, we were warmly greeted, but found out that the worship service was at 9:45 am instead of 11:15 am.  We had arrived for Sunday School instead, but the pastor did a nice job of teaching on the subject of Christian ethics/morality and the defense of truth among those who question not only the existence of God, but also the existence of morality (ethics), beginning with the age-old argument that if there is an all-powerful and totally-good God, then bad things (evil) would not happen.  Not many in attendance, but a good class.  Sorry we missed the sermon at 9:45 am, but we were informed that we can listen to it on the web site.

The church has actually been around for decades, but had a hard history here in Bakersfield.  The present pastor is part-time, sort of semi-retired, teaching at a Christian school nearby until the church can grow larger.

Bakersfield is half Hispanic now, with many Sikh Indians moving in.  We got our last diesel fuel at a truck stop in the Mojave Desert that was run by Sikh Indians, who wore the usual turbans and beards.  They were very friendly, but spoke little English, mostly motioning with their hands and making quizzical facial expressions.  The fuel pumps had no information about price per gallon or number of gallons pumped.  Only the total cost to be paid.  Very strange place.

On the way to church we also drove past very many oil pumps in action.  There is a refinery and several large storage tanks.  Agriculture and oil are the main sources of income here.  We had trouble getting to church due to all the road construction that routed traffic contrary to what the GPS showed us.  A lot of road work, with a lot of apparent growth.  And fast aggressive drivers.

I Suggested That They Get Larger Signs to Place by the Road