The last few weeks have been... those kind of weeks. Where you wake up
on Monday morning and pray 'Lord let me make it to the weekend in
tact...please.'
One of the things I've been working on in the background was a surprise
40th party for my wife. She doesn't like BIG surprises, she likes to be
told to expect a surprise. So about 4 days ago I told her we'd be doing
a little something tonight.
I baked 3 cakes. But we opted to have her blow out a single candle
since she has a cold.
I made a platter of crackers and cheese (Cheese is like Ukarumpa caviar,
it is costly and people LOVE it so they swarm the cheese plate, but
there is a bit of missionary guilt there too, so they don't over
indulge, so that everyone can share the cavia....cheese)
I delegated some activities to two different groups of ladies, to make
my life easier, but also to invoke the feminine element to the party.
I hired an industrious high school student to wait tables and wash dishes.
I asked people to bring a dish to share, and made the party potluck.
Which, here, is a very acceptable thing, and the food was GREAT!.
I built a playlist for mood, starring a lot of popular songs from 'our era'.
So...
we had 45 people, from all over the world.
we sat and shared a meal together, and played an awesome mixer game.
There were posters to write words to the wise about turning 40, around
the room, and notecards to write Kendal a loving note.. we wore name
tags that said how they knew Kendal,etc
Then, I played a 3 minute video of Kendal and baby pictures up to modern
day.
Then we moved to a game where people had to race to draw, sculpt or mime
something about Kendal. The game got hilariously crazy.
People were having fun.
We sat Kendal in this throne, put a ridiculous hat on her, and brought
her cake, and posed for pictures, etc.
Then I ended the festivities by playing the guitar to her and seranading
with 'She's got a Way' by Billy Joel. Yeah it might be a bit cheesy,
but I humble myself this way to honor her in public in front of her friends.
In the end, a great time was had by all, and for 1 night, she felt on
top of the world!
It was a good night, which highlighted a good day. She finished her
village program work, and we got a good email that answered a huge
prayer request of ours.
God seemed to time everything so that Kendal could have a very good
day. Thanks to Him.
