Pastor Vernava confirmed me at the ripe old age of 46 at First Lutheran Church in Hanford. He had been a good friend to me and visited me in jail several times when I was doing time for DUI in 2002. He never chastised me for my problems but instead gave me a lot of inspiration. He drove a long way to visit me in a court-ordered rehab in Shafter and it absolutely made my day. In 2004, my mother, Mary, told me that Pastor was holding adult confirmation classes and reminded me that I had promised to get confirmed when I was a teenager in San Diego after she and my father had bought me a racing motorcycle (racing was a terrific venture because it kept me from getting into the kind of trouble that is so tempting to many teenagers). A promise was a promise, even if it took me 31 years to keep it. I took my first communion with my classmate Amber and it made mom so proud that she had tears in her eyes. I moved all over the Valley and Pastor would visit me wherever I lived and he was always so upbeat. I graduated from Fresno State in 2011 and eventually moved back to San Diego in 2015. Whenever I need to put down a personal reference Pastor Vernava's name is always the first one that I write down. God blessed me by bringing this wonderful man into my life and I'm sure that those who are in his congregation today feel the same. I hope to visit Fresno in the near future and Peace Lutheran will be one of my first stops.