The Open House celebration at CLCP last Thursday was a great success. After weeks of hard work planning the event (on Ted’s part), sending out invitations, and hoping for a good turnout, I can say it paid off in a lovely way – many people came, and they didn’t seem to want to leave!

I don’t know why I have a tendency to sit in the background and worry about things. Two months ago, Ted and Pete decided to throw this Open House party, at the suggestion of a CLCP donor. Neither of them had experience in planning an event like this, but they put their heads together – along with  the Ayuda clinic coordinator Pam, who does have extensive experience in this – and sweat through the details involved in making any four-hour “open house” event a success.

As for me –  I prayed for them.  I refilled coffee dispensers and set out dessert displays during the event. I made nametags. And that’s about it!  Oh yes … and I worried!  I didn’t know how to make this event a success. How do you plan a program for a rotating crowd, not knowing when the peak traffic times will be?  I didn’t know how best to dive in and be a part of the planning committee, so I watched some of the planning unfold.

When I arrived two hours before the kick-off to help with set-up, I saw that Ted and Pete had already arranged the tables and chairs, and skillfully displayed artwork from Ayuda’s youth art program around the room. It looked great. But not as great as when 40-50 people filled the room at the peak of the party! J

So many people came: volunteer clinic attorneys and their spouses, law school friends of Ted’s, pastors, teenage volunteers from HPCA, and other key community members. We had a diverse food spread for a hundred people – Thai, Mexican, and Puerto Rican; Susan Post gave a tour of the newly opened Esperanza Health Center next door; and half a dozen ministry partners shared their excitement and vision for the legal clinic’s work. You can hear what the speakers had to share, here.

So I didn't really need to worry - just trust. Ted and the team did such great, hard work to pull this off. Thank God for a great event! And for an opportunity to share and celebrate with so many the work  CLCP is doing. 

The theme for the year at CLCP. Ted helped design this
concept, and a graphic designer from church prepared it.

A great crowd of folks.

Yummy spread with Ayuda artwork in the background.

Ted sharing his story of why he works at CLCP.

Dinners, the Finale

Well now I can wrap up this saga by sharing a third encounter we had, one which also happened to be centered around food, but with a much different outcome than what happened in part 1.

As you read there, our first attempts to invite some neighbors into our home did not quite pan out as expected... they simply didn't pan out! A few days after our lovely dinner with the legal clinic folks, Ted and I decided to try again, but with a much simpler approach.

Tostones, the sweet version.

I had made some yummy loaves of pumpkin bread the night before and saved one for some neighbors of ours, a Puerto Rican family with whom we had exchanged many "hellos" and "how are yous" in the past. Knocking on their front door, with pumpkin bread in hand, we were greeted by the mother with warmth and invited into their home.  Over the next half hour we sat and talked with the mother and father, heard stories of his father's farm in Puerto Rico, saw some great pictures, and then... were invited into the kitchen for an impromptu cooking lesson!  Tostones were on the menu - one of my and Ted's favorite tropical snacks :)  Being Puerto Rican, they had tons of plantains on hand, and the mother just kept smashing them and frying them up, sending us home with a heap of them! (And this after eating several while standing in their kitchen.)  Plus, they also sent us with some delicious vegetable soup that the father had just made.  It was so much fun to be invited into their home, to sit and talk, and to be invited back again.  "Our home is your home!" said the father before we left.  What nice people, what a sweet gift.

There ends our three-part "dinners" saga from the month of November! ha.  What saga will there be next?  :)