Blooming in the Desert is an Orthodox Podcast & Blog out of Las Vegas, Nevada, under the blessings of his Grace Bishop Benjamin, Bishop of San Francisco and the West, and Fr. John Dresko of St. Paul’s Orthodox Church.
Blooming in the Desert is a new and unique Podcast & Blog, that does not just explore the Orthodox Church, Her Faith, and a journey to be closer to God through love and prayer, but creates an open atmosphere of conversation and discussion for Orthodox Christians and general inquirers. We hope you that you enjoy our website and please come back and visit and comment.
Click the link labeled Podcasts to hear our very first podcast or right here – Episode 1 – August 27th, 2009 – Welcome to Blooming in the Desert
Also while you are at it, please feel free to donate to us. Half of your donations go to improving the Blooming in the Desert program and website and the other half of all donations go to the Orthodox Church in America and St. Paul’s Orthodox Church in Las Vegas.
Thank you and God Bless.
Stephen Osburn Jr, was born of a Greek Orthodox mother and Roman Catholic father. He was born in Biloxi, Mississipi and lived in England for the first 5 years of his life. When he was 5, his family moved to Las Vegas and he grew up in the Vegas Valley. Stephen was, as he coins it, typical “Pascha Orthodox,” only attending church on Pascha or on a rare occasion. In 2001, his mother found an article in the Las Vegas Review Journal of Fr. Eric Tosi, former priest of St. Paul’s Orthodox Church, would be blessing the water at Lake Mead for Theophany. They attended the service, met Fr. Eric and began attending St. Paul’s. Stephen immediately got involved in church life and community, by becoming a Bass in the Choir and getting involved in many of the youth activities, like attending the All American Council and Church Camp at Camp Lee. Stephen also would end up teaching violin lessons to Fr. Eric and his son, Alexander.
Shortly after Stephen graduated from high school, he became involved in the Renaissance Faires and Las Vegas Age of Chivalry, including becoming a co-founder to a group called Kingdom of Coreathea. In October 2008, he quit the group and joined the Society of Anachronism and the Barony of Starkhafn. Through his experiences with both groups, Stephen was and is able to experience a life that is very hostile to the Gospel and strives to bring a presence of the Word of God to those who are seeking it.
In 2009, Stephen graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Composition. He also owns his own computer repair and web design company called Taffer Computers, LLC
Stephen plans to further his education by attending St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in the Fall of 2010 to pursue a masters degree in Divinity and one day become a priest.
Stephen, through Blooming in the Desert, hopes to bring a distinctive and exciting new look into Orthodox issues, theologies and questions that people sometimes feel they cannot ask. It is through the grace of God that this website will educate and encourage those to pray and get closer to God.
Andrew Onufryk grew up as a Protestant, going to church with his grandmother. When she passed away, he decided to search for another church, but none “touched” him. Through family history, he found out his Ukrainian heritage was Russian Orthodox. He decided to attend a Liturgy at Holy Virgin Holy Cathedral in Los Angeles, California.
Andrew immediately fell in love with the service. After speaking with the priest he became a catechumen and was baptized in October 1997.
Through soul searching and progress and a move to the Monastery of St. John in Point Reyes Station, California, Andrew entered monasticism. He reached the level of Rassaphore but felt God was calling him to leave and in 2004, with the blessings of, the now, Metropolitan Jonah and Bishop Tikhon, he became a layman again. He currently presides in Las Vegas, NV.
Andrew decided to get involved in the podcast because he wanted to challenge his mind and search for his own life in Christ. When he was at the monastery, he would have open dialogue on various subjects of the Orthodox Church. These conversations led to a greater understanding of himself and place in God.
It is Andrew’s hope, with love and prayer, that this will happen through this website and its’ blogs and podcasts.
Sophocles Frangakis was born of Greek Orthodox parents and is a First Generation American. Sophocles was baptized in into the Holy Orthodox Church as is customary among the “cradle” Orthodox.
However as Sophocles advanced towards his teen years, Church life became more remote and by his late teens he had ceased attending all together.
In his early twenties he became an Evangelical Christian after having been “born again”. He was married shortly after this all the while pursuing a life in Christ with all his ability at that time. His marriage ended in divorce; which experience, painful as it was at that time, led him deeper into a life of darkness and estrangement from all things which constitute the happiness of a man living in God, for he had turned his back on God.
Sophocles hit a bottom at 30 years old and through his loved ones sought help. This led eventually to a new turning point in his life in which he went to a Pascha service one evening about 5 years ago and knew he was at last truly home.
Sophocles, at present, is a restaurant owner called Kyklos in a mall in Henderson, NV, with his two brothers. He struggles to live the Christian life in a world seemingly becoming more and more hostile to the Gospel and struggles to always remember it is only through the grace and mercy of God that he may even attempt to be found in Christ. He seeks, through this blog & podcast, to more fully develop thoughts and questions which are pregnant within him but which need dialogue and questioning to more fully form and expound on.
His Grace Bishop Benjamin was born Vincent Peterson in Pasadena, California, on June 1, 1954, and was baptized and chrismated at Holy Virgin Mary Cathedral, Los Angeles, California, on April 27, 1972. In 1978 he was awarded a Master of Divinity degree and Certificate in Liturgical Music from Saint Vladimir Seminary.
A prolific musician, he served as choirmaster at parishes in Detroit, Michigan, and Los Angeles and as chairman of the Orthodox Church in America’s Department of Liturgical Music. He was ordained to the Holy Diaconate on November 15, 1987 by Bishop Tikhon at his home parish, which he served for 10 years as deacon and youth and education director. The following year he was tonsured a riasophore monk by Bishop Tikhon and further tonsured to the lesser schema by His Eminence, Archbishop [now Metropolitan] Herman at Saint Tikhon Monastery, South Canaan, Pennsylvania. In 1991 he was elevated to the rank of archdeacon.
On July 19, 1997, he was ordained to the Holy Priesthood by Bishop Tikhon. In 1999, Igumen Benjamin was transferred to the Diocese of Alaska. In addition to other responsibilities, he served as dean of Saint Innocent Cathedral and later as administrative dean of Saint Herman Seminary, Kodiak, Alaska. He was elevated to the rank of archimandrite in 2002. In January 2004 he was reassigned to Holy Virgin Mary Cathedral, Los Angeles, and appointed Chancellor of the Diocese of the West.
Upon his consecration to the episcopacy, Bishop Benjamin began to serve as Auxiliary to His Grace, Bishop Tikhon of San Francisco, and served as Diocesan Chancellor.
At the January 31, 2007, Special Diocesan Assembly, His Grace was unanimously nominated as a candidate for The Office of Diocesan Hierarch. The nomination occurred during this special convocation at St. Paul the Apostle Orthodox Church in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the direction of The Most Blessed HERMAN, Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of all America and Canada, Locum tenems, Diocese of the West.
The Holy Synod of Bishops, in their 2007 spring session, elected His Grace Bishop BENJAMIN to be the reigning hierarch of The Diocese of the West. He was installed as ruling bishop on October 2, 2007.
Fr. John was born in Rochester, New York, to John and Helen Dresko. He was baptized there at Holy Protection Orthodox Church and grew up in the faith at St. John the Baptist Church in Rochester, where his parents were founding members. He grew up serving at the altar of St. John’s, singing in the choir and being active in church school and the youth programs.
He graduated from Monroe High School and entered the “Pre-theological” program at St. Vladimir’s Seminary and Iona College in 1974. Fr. John graduated from Iona College in December 1977 with a B.A. in History. While finishing his bachelor’s work, he met Elizabeth Fedak, another student at St. Vladimir’s, concentrating in Liturgical Music. They married on September 4, 1977 at her home parish of St. Michael the Archangel in St. Louis, Missouri. He continued in the graduate program at St. Vladimir’s, earning his M.Div.(cum laude) in 1980. While still at St. Vladimir’s, he was ordained to the Holy Diaconate on December 10, 1978 by His Beatitude, Metropolitan Theodosius. His Grace, Bishop Boris (Geeza), ordained him to the Holy Priesthood on June 24, 1979. During his senior year, he served as chaplain to the Orthodox cadets at the United States Military Academy in West Point. He also served as a hospital chaplain in the Greater New York area. Other education includes Air University (Maxwell AFB, Alabama), the Meyer Institute for Christian Stewardship, and The Center on Philanthropy, Indiana University.
Upon graduation from seminary, Fr. John was assigned as the first pastor of St. Mark Church in Rochester, Michigan. Subsequent assignments followed: St. Nicholas Church in Mentor, Ohio, the United States Air Force (Chaplain, Lackland AFB, Texas), and Holy Trinity Church in New Britain, Connecticut. Father left active parish life for a while and was appointed as Director of Development for the Orthodox Church in America. Upon release from the Metropolitan’s Chapel of St. Sergius, he accepted assignment to St. Paul’s in Las Vegas, beginning his pastorate on July 1, 2008.