1. Camellia Festival International Dance concert

After four years out of Lodi, Brandon Ku will present a special Christmas concert at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Church of Latter-day Saints' Lodi Stake Center, 1510 W. Century Blvd.

Gilbert Woehl remembers what happened on Oct. 29, 1944. He was in Holland, just outside the German boundary, when Nazis captured him and his Army troop and put them in boxcars to Deusseldorff, Germany.

Known for writing Christian fiction, Acampo's Sharon Souza recently released her fourth novel. Called "Unraveled," it's about a character who grew up on a ranch in Linden and ended up teaching English to children in the eastern European nation of Moldova.

Despite the toasty weather on Sunday, many people anxious to sample vegetarian meals from countries throughout the world turned out to a Lodi church to learn about some cuisine, some of which is unusual in America.

Mandi Eisenbeis stood over her dad. It was a Thursday in May 2011 when she said her private goodbyes at a mortuary in Lodi. George "Randy" Eisenbeis had died young, felled at age 57 by a methamphetamine overdose.

Elizabeth Long, 18, was giddy with excitement standing at the entrance to the Grape Bowl on Thursday night. She had a speech to give, awards to receive, and four years of college work staring her in the face. But that wasn't her main concern.

Marlene Strand was a woman on a mission. She wanted to find the house in which her maternal grandparents lived in the late 1800s, in a small village in what is now the Ukraine.

Albina Granson, 86, of Lodi, died Sept. 26. She was born Dec. 5, 1924 in the Ukraine.

Last week, a group of foreign-born college student-workers walked out of their jobs at the Hershey Company protesting conditions and their low wages. The 14 million unemployed Americans owe thanks to those kids because their public demonstrations put the spotlight on one of the problems American workers face — visa fraud that enables corporations to employ cheap labor.

Brandon Ku recently returned from a Ukrainian mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A presentation by Jews for Jesus will be made at Sunday's services at Emanuel Lutheran Church, 1540 W. Lodi Ave. The topic will be "Jewish Roots of Pentecost." The community is welcome at the 8:15 and 11 a.m. services. Jews for Jesus is an organization that believes that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and Savior.

David Rails, who has pastored in Indiana, Michigan, Florida and Sacramento, has been named pastor at Lodi Community Church on Turner Road. The church has a congregation of about 50.

Who went: Dennis and Peggy Sims.

Pastor Ron Payne, his wife and another couple from Lodi's Cornerstone Church are expected to arrive in Haiti this morning to contribute food, clothing and other necessities to children at four orphanages.

I pride myself in being born in the USA and a patriot also.

This out-of-state group that is so concerned with prayers at our City Council meetings brings to my mind the story I just heard a couple of weeks ago from a young woman who came here from the Ukraine.

On the verge of elimination, Stephanie Brown-Trafton saved her best for last during the Olympic women's discus qualifying last Friday, unleashing the best throw of the round in her third and final attempt.

The training. The conditioning. The weightlifting. The mental preparation. The years of hard work.

Not only is Galt's Stephanie Brown-Trafton advancing to the finals of the 2008 Olympic discus competition, but her mark of 62.77 meters (205 feet, 11 inches) was an exclamation point in Friday's qualification round in Beijing.