Desmond Tutu in Tacoma

Living in the Pacific Northwest is great. Sometimes I get tired of the gray and the rain, but most days I'm really glad I live here. There are so many opportunities to do things that other areas of the country just don't have.

Months ago I heard that Archbishop Desmond Tutu was coming to our area, and that he is retiring and this would be one of his last appearances. I asked Chuck if he was interested, and at first I thought of taking Sean. We talked it over and decided the kids would be bored, but we'd like to go.

I've admired Desmond Tutu for a long time. You can read more about him here.

I got tickets late in the game, so the only seats left were in the rafters. I had an email telling about parking, and at the event parking was $20, so we decided to get as close as we could, but not pay $20. We paid $15 and parked in the Brown and Haley parking lot--home of the Mountain Bar. (Another post for another time.)

We didn't have to walk very far, and it was a nice evening for a walk anyway.
It wasn't exactly what I expected, but it was great. There was a lot of entertainment. You can see pics here posted by Weekly Volcano. Outside was almost as interesting as inside :-) I do love a good bunch of diverse causes all in one place...

Unfortunately I opted to leave my camera, thinking I wouldn't be able to zoom in close enough for a good photo of anything from our rafter seats. I wish I had brought it along.

After a lot of great entertainment, Craig Kielburger inspired us all with his story of how he started Free the Children. You can read all about that here, and you can read about Craig's story here. It is truly amazing how one person, a little kid, can get passionate about something and with the help of his friends bring about a wonderful change in the world.

Eleven of his friends joined him, and there is a personal thing for Chuck about the number 11. We both looked at each other and smiled. But then it hit me that with Craig that made 12, and I thought of the 12 desciples.

Kielburger said he asked Archbishop Desmond Tutu what he should call him, and he answered that his friends call him The Arch. The Arch was amazing. As he spoke about how God enlists the help of his human partners to bring about change in a hurting world, I once again thought of that 12-year-old Craig and his 11 friends.

There are examples of remarkable children, teens, adults all around us. Kielburger said he told The Arch he stopped reading the newspaper because of the depressing headlines. The Arch told him he sees it as God's To Do List delivered to his door each morning.

I sat with Chuck over breakfast this morning and as we turned the pages of the Tacoma News Tribune and I sighed, Chuck said, "Remember, it's God's To Do List."

And He can't do it without us.  I hope you will click on those links and get inspired to partner with God and make a change where you live.