Travel

October 18, 2011

Sometimes things just break your way.  Last weekend was a case in point.  A number of months ago, Bridget Maloney the Children's Minister at Canyon Creek Presbyterian Church in Plano contacted me and invited me to do a lanyard workshop at her church.  How could I refuse when she told me she had read Erin's blog for years, and it would be just like having a rock star stop by the church (maybe I misheard and what she really said was that it would be just like a rotten stork stopping by the church)?  Anyway, she gave me a couple of dates that would work for her, and one of them was on my sister's birthday weekend.  

I chose that one, since I don't get to spend nearly enough time with my baby sister.

The highlight of my trip was not the journey there, that included an extremely slow motion tour of the central expressway.  I thought we had left Bryan early enough to make it through the heart of Dallas before rush hour traffic morphed from vicious to unbearable, which it turns out we did.  But, I didn't have the prescience of mind to realize that a fellow traveler was going to spontaneously combust on his way through town, close down two lanes, and back traffic up for miles.

Anyway, the weekend was great and Kat and Emma are really the hostesses with the mostesses!  Even the lanyard workshop for 22 first through fifth graders was amazing.  They listened and followed instructions so well.  They encouraged each (and made sure that everyone followed the three rules!).  This is my niece Emma showing off her progress:

  
Sunday was Children's Day at the church with Bridget giving the very moving  sermon and the children (including Emma, who totally grooved the anthem) singing and filling other liturgical roles.  I proudly displayed the work the children did in the atrium before and after church as a reminder to everyone that Children Can Make a Difference in the World and many people agreed (as demonstrated by their generosity).

This is the message I received from Bridget yesterday summing up the beauty of the experience:

I have been teaching a class on Sunday nights for 4th and 5th graders and last night I was bushed by 7:30 when we were ending (I'd been at the church since 6a.m.) When I said it was time to start cleaning up one of the girls said, "Wait! We have to tell them about Erin!" Some of the kiddos had not been there Friday night, and the ones who were there told them everything you had taught them. They remembered every detail. Thank you so much for sharing your delightful daughter!

And just to prove that I'm unable to focus on a single topic all the way through an entry (even a relatively short one), I have to include this image that I really appreciated: