I had gone to Denver to participate in a new program the Samaritan Institute is creating called CCC - Clergy and Congregational Care - ways for each Samaritan Center to reach out and be a support to the clergy in our areas. To quote them, "it's like taking a drink from a fire hose". They kept us totally busy and saturated till late evening every day, but one evening I was able to go to dinner with my cousin Linda and her family at a great little Italian restaurant they love. That's Linda in the front-left corner. Then there's me and Kristen behind her. Crossing the table from Kristen is her brother Michael and then Carrie, his grandmother, and then her son Bernie. It was great to hang out with them and catch up and Linda was extremely gracious enough to play my taxi driver. I was able to see just her when I was in Denver this past May, and then at the last minute on this trip she offered to come get me from the airport. So I got to see her twice this trip with the added bonus of seeing her family.
And while I don't have any pictures of it, I got to see my Dad's oldest brother, Chuck, who lives in Denver also. We figured out that we haven't seen each other in almost five years, since my grandmothers funeral in November of 2003. It was great to hang out with him and catch up. He and I have quite a lot in common and it's fun/scary to see how I'm going to end up if God doesn't do something soon ;-)
My time in Denver was actually split between two separate conferences, both hosted by the mothership, Samaritan Institute. The first half of the week was the CCC Groups and was held at the University of Denver. It's a gorgeous campus and the serendipitous part of it is that is where I was when I was in Denver in May for the law program. I haven't been to Denver for YEARS, and suddenly this year I'm there twice within two months and both things are held at the same place.
The above picture is of the campus chapel in the early morning light. I woke up early every morning and had time to kill before the first session, so my suite-mates and I would grab some breakfast from the cafeteria and then take the decent walk over to Starbucks (of course I found one! - actually TWO). And did you catch that "suite-mates"? That's right. The first half of the trip was spent in the dorms. At first I was very offended that I was going to be housed in the dorms on campus and saw it as a value judgement on me and my performance. When I'd been in Denver with the law program, I was put up in the JW Marriott with chocolates on my pillow everynight and every meal paid for at fancy restaurants (see previous blogs). I figured it was the difference between working for a "for-profit" vs. a "not-for-profit". But not this time. Nope. It was the dorm for me...and two other of my group members who also happened to be from different parts of Texas.
It turned out to be great. The three of us clicked instantly, and thank God, because we became a bastian of conservativism amongst a very vocal group of liberals who were touting the virtues of embracing the GLBT agenda and embracing other faiths - what they dubbed Pluralism. Scary. So we'd sit up till all hours of the night hashing over how scary it was that the Samaritan Institute seemed to be moving away from the Lord and how we each planned to handle that back at our respective centers. The only problem with sharing a dorm with these two (we each had our own bedroom with beds three feet off the floor) was that they controlled the thermostat and had it set down to 61 degrees. The A/C never shut off. I had to beg and borrow extra blankets just to stay warm!
We got all excited on one of our morning walks when we noticed this little guy sitting on a lily pad right in front of the chapel. Problem was he turned out to be fake. What? You haven't heard of the tropical flourescent purple frog of the Denver highlands??
While I was busy snapping pictures of anything and everything, a gentleman on a bicycle rode by and told me that for $5 he could let me know where there was a lotus flower blooming. I told him I had $.75, which he was welcome to, if he could just point me in the right direction. He led me there anyway and sure enough, there it was...the first lotus blossom I've ever seen in real life.
These are my suite mates - Michael from Midland and Chuck from Port Arthur/Beaumont.
One of the stained glass windows in the chapel. This one tells the story of Ruth.
...and a shot of the altar. Nothing spectacular, but quaint and charming nonetheless.
Every morning we would have breakfast out on the patio (which we weren't supposed to do), but the weather was too nice not to. And every morning a bee would come and nibble on my eggs and ham - and no, neither were green. As a matter fact, you can tell that my eggs are red. And why are they red? Because they're doused in Cholula sauce! I love Cholula sauce. The bee didn't, though, but he would chew off a small mouthful of egg and fly away to wherever. I didn't know bees ate anything other than nectar.
By the last day on campus, we had discovered a local coffee shop that was actually closer than Starbucks so we took to going there. It was nice to get a little of the local charm. After three days and nights on campus, it was off to the second conference which was gratefully held at the Warwick downtown. I'd just about had my fill of freezing and sleeping on a three foot high twin bed when I was transfered to an extra large hotel room with a king size bed and, once again, chocolates on the pillow :-)
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