We had such a lovely weekend with the Faulkners! On Saturday Doug, Sharon, Alexi, Allen, Eryn, Addison and we 3 met up at Widmer for a brewery tour. It was okay for me, maybe it would have been better without Katya distracting me but I am glad we did it. We had lunch at the Gausthouse (the Widmer restaurant Craig works at) afterwards which was great for me because for some reason it is easier to eat out than at home. We went home for a few hours before it was time to start getting ready for the benefit dinner.
Craig was not able to get his shift covered but his manager said he would let him leave around 6pm if it was not super busy. I had the challenge of getting Katya ready for bed and myself put together before our sitter showed up. I started 2 hours ahead and managed pretty well despite a very unexpected poop incident (it squeezed out the side of her diaper and made quite a gross mess). I bathed Katya which I was not expecting to do but still got ready on time. My neighbor Jen surprised me by showing instead of her husband; she had gotten off early from work that day. It was great because Katya warms right up to her, which means less crying and stress for the sitter. She is a pediatric nurse and definitely knows how to interact with babies.
I drove by Craig's work on my way to the function hoping he would be outside, meaning he could come, but he was not. I got to the Double Tree hotel about 20 minutes before any of the others but I filled the time by reading some info they had set up about the organization. Then they let us into the banquet room so I could sit down at our assigned table. I was only there about 5 minutes before Craig showed up! Yeah! His boss let him go about 6:15 and he got there in plenty of time. The rest of the Faulkner's (except Alexi who babysat Addison that night) showed up shortly after Craig. After some short welcoming talks they served dinner. The salad was delicious and since there were 4 empty chairs at our table Craig, Eryn and I each had an extra salad. The chicken entree, as Allen had warned, was not very good. I could only eat a couple of bits but filled up on the 2 dinner salads, 2 huge roles and a really good, rich desert.
I really enjoyed learning about ITEM, Steve Van Horn's organization. ITEM stands for International Training & Equipping Ministries and he started it about ten years ago after seeing alarming trends in the Christian preaching in Africa. What he saw is that while Christianity is growing super fast in Africa, the knowledge and leadership of the ministers is very minimal. Instead of using the bible to preach by, as we US Christians do, cultural stories, myths and beliefs predominate the themes in African Christianity. They also do a lot of "prosperity preaching" which is basically if you follow Christ you will be healthy, wealthy and everything will do right. ITEM has seminars to teach African ministers about the bible and how to preach the bible. Steve has hosted these seminars in many countries in Africa and the call is there for him to do more. One of his major goals is to train the ministers to eventually be able to do the seminars themselves. Translating the bible and other teaching material to the local languages is another huge challenge/goal that he has been tackling. They had several short films in which the preachers who attended the seminars talked about their experiences and why learning this stuff is so important.
On Sunday after Mass we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for brunch. The only downside to the afternoon is that we only got a few hours with Doug and Sharon before they had to hit the road back to Duvall. We had a nice meal and I felt pretty good thanks to the donut after Mass and Grandma's delicious brunch. We got to take home grapes, corn and tomatoes from Grandpa's garden and have been enjoying the bounty. Katya LOVES the grapes which are small, juicy and a little sour. They are perfect for her because they are small and their skin is tender and easy for her to puncture.
Thanks to Doug and Sharon for coming down and seeing us and thanks again to Allen and Eryn for inviting us and buying our dinner at the benefit. We had a great time!
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