Meaningful Weekend

This past weekend was packed with some meaningful and emotionally powerful events. 

On Friday we attended the BENefit for the Ben Towne Foundation.  Our good friend Kristen's nephew passed away almost 3 years ago after bravely battling Neuroblastoma cancer for over a year.  He was just 3 years old.  In his memory, his parents and family established the Ben Towne Foundation to help support pediatric cancer research so other parents don't have to go through what they did.  We went to the launch of the Foundation last year and this year we learned how much has already been accomplished from the Foundation's efforts.  The Foundation helps to support the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at Seattle Children's Research Institute.  The Center is trying to change how pediatric cancer is treated.  Ben's parents spoke along with some of the researchers who are leading the way with this innovative research.  It was a very moving and special evening.  We encourage you to visit the website to learn more.  While you're there, be sure to watch the special edition of The Soup that was created just for the BENefit.


Then on Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to the Seattle AIDS Walk on Capitol Hill in Seattle.  We joined a team with fellow church members and walked with our good friends, Heidi and Jesse.  It was a fun neighborhood walk and a beautiful day.  They had an AIDS Memorial Tent where they displayed parts of the AIDS Quilt which was cool to see.  They also had an eye opening timeline of how AIDS has progressed in the last 3 decades. 


Finally, on Sunday morning our church launched 2 new campuses.  The main campus is in Bothell and this past weekend they started campuses in Sammamish and Seattle.  We are helping to launch the Sammamish campus by serving as usher captains.  Church is being held at Skyline High School which is an awesome facility.  The kids that go there are lucky!  We had a strong turnout for the very first Sunday and we're excited to see how many new people on the Eastside develop a relationship with Christ and find a new church home.  The Seattle campus is taking place on UW's campus in Kane Hall.  If any of you are looking for a dynamic, non-judgmental church that really "walks its talk" then we encourage you to check out one of the campuses.  

Whew!  Weekends are busy in the fall, but there's lots to look forward to.  Happy Fall everyone! 

Jury Duty

I (Megs) just successfully survived jury duty!  I thought for sure I would be chosen for a case just knowing my luck, but my name thankfully was never called.  There is a small part of me that was curious about seeing the process.  But ultimately with all that's going on with work and life right now, it feels good that I only had to sit in a room with complete strangers for about 15 hours.

That room itself was interesting to observe though.  I served duty at the King County Superior Court and the juror assembly room was HUGE!  On my first day there were probably a couple hundred people in there.  I think it's an interesting phenomenon to put a completely random, diverse group of people in a room for 8 hours.  Most people around me were reading newspapers or books, working on their computers, playing on their phones or taking a nap.  The usual things you would expect.  There were others who struck up a conversation with the stranger sitting next to them and (I'm not kidding) talked the whole rest of the time!  So some people even made friends from jury duty.  You get the occasional rude person who talks loudly on their cell phone as if everyone can't hear them.  And then one guy sitting next to me didn't have anything with him so he just sat there!  I couldn't believe he didn't bring ANYTHING to do.  I would have gone crazy.

And then over time you start to notice this collective spirit come over the group.  A kind of "We're all in this together" attitude.  You can see it on the faces around you without them saying a word.  When they look at you it's like they're saying "I know this sucks, but we can do this.  We can make it through!"

I gotta say I was impressed with the staff who worked there. I thought it would feel like the DMV where you know the employees detest their jobs and you have to go through a bunch of bureaucracy.  It was just the opposite here.  The staff was very friendly, empathetic, informative, and seemed like they actually enjoyed their job.  That made the process a lot easier to endure. 

So unfortunately no dramatic stories to pass along to you about a lawsuit or robbery case.  Maybe next time....but let's hope that's not anytime soon!