Aunt Leanna and I attended the ladies tea on Thursday morning, which kicked off the Reformation of Food and Family Conference. We stayed at the historic Menger Hotel and the tea was held in the ballroom. Aunt Leanna and I took the elevator down to the ballroom with two very cordial and gracious young ladies. We found out later that they were Duggar girls. I guess our lack of t.v. watching is clearly evident when we don't recognize famous people.
Approximately three hundred women attended the event. Aunt Leanna and I shared a table with some lovely women from the South. The woman sitting next to me was from Tennessee and we had a nice conversation about homeschooling and family discipleship. Each place setting had an antique handkerchief tied with a bow and fresh baby's breath. The handkerchiefs were ours to take home with us as a remembrance of the tea.
The tea's theme was hospitality. Bealle Phillips talked about how for believers, hospitality is a command, not an optional activity or only for those with the "gift of hospitality." Michelle Duggar encouraged us to realize that we don't have to have our homes or our lives in perfect order in order to be able to extend hospitality to others. Nor do we have to have beautiful food, decorations, etc. The focus should be on the Lord Jesus Christ and on the guests in our homes, not on ourselves or about how we think we are being perceived.
The conference itself was good. I'll be honest, some of it was just weird, but we took what we could use and left the rest for others to enjoy :) Vision Forum Ministries, specifically Doug Phillips, have ministered to Matt and me extensively over the years. While we are positive our family is on the road the Lord has ordained for us to travel, there have been times when we have felt utterly alone. The resources from Vision Forum have been a lifeline to us. Do we agree with every bit of doctrine they espouse? Absolutely not. But as Matt says, if you only want to be with those whose thinking lines up exactly with your own, pretty soon, you'll be a Church of One.
My favorite speaker at the food conference was Chef Francis Foucachon, who is also an ordained Presbyterian pastor. The vision he set forth of hospitality, feasting and Sabbath observance was phenomenal. He talked about how regular family meals taken together around the table provide peace and stability for the family. During times of stress and crisis, family meals provide a time of respite for anxious hearts. I was able to speak with Rev. Fucachon after one of his talks. I told him that he did an incredible job of articulating everything I've been ruminating over for the past twenty years. Needless to say, I bought his book.
My Uncle Keith, the farmer, enjoyed some of what Joel Salatin had to say, although he didn't agree with all of it. He agreed with Joel's thoughts on giving glory to God through farming, yet I know he disagreed with Joel on some of his ideas for implementation, mostly for reasons of practicality. Uncle Keith did very much like Noah Sanders, author of Born-Again Dirt. He was especially impressed that at age 22, Mr. Sanders has a very mature spiritual perspective of farming.
Interestingly enough, I read Food Matters by Mark Bittman on the plane on the way to San Antonio. While I don't agree with his "why," I do agree with his "how." Eating many more veggies, reducing the amount of meat one consumes, but not eliminating any one food category in its entirety made sense to me. Mr. Bittman says, by all means, have that piece of good artisan bread made with white flour with your dinner, just don't make it the mainstay of your diet. He seemed to have a very even-handed approach to food and he says even though he's changed his diet, he still eats and enjoys really good food.
I expected to get a little more of Food Matters at the conference, but from a Christian worldview. I didn't hear as much as I expected on food specifics at the conference, but I did get a good overall perspective on food. Francis Foucachon did talk about the "French Paradox" and the fact that French people do very much enjoy their food. Good quality, fresh, in courses, slowly eaten and relished, but not in huge quantities.
When we weren't at the conference, we were finding fun in San Antonio. One afternoon, Matt took me to see the Alamo. Uncle Keith and Aunt Leanna treated us to several nice meals, including one at Fogo de Chao. Matt and I had never heard of the place before, but Uncle Keith and Aunt Leanna had dined at the Fogo de Chao in Washington, D.C. and wanted us to have the experience as well. It certainly was an experience. When Matt flipped his card to the green side, about half a dozen waiters with big slabs of meat descended upon our table. Matt was in heaven.
Matt, the Macduff, also got a chance to sample the Scottish national dish, haggis, on our trip. Collin Gunn, the documentary film maker who produced IndoctriNation, presented a haggis one evening at the food conference. The haggis had been over-nighted from Scotland and donned by Gunn as the "best food in the world." Samples of haggis were handed to a few people in the front row, but we were sitting near the back (as we were late in arriving for the evening program due to our dinner at Fogo de Chao) so we missed out on the initial sampling. So after the evening's events were concluded, Uncle Keith and Matt went up front to help themselves to a taste of the haggis. They both agreed that it was pretty good, especially if you didn't think about what it contained.
The last night of our trip, we ate dinner at the historic Colonial Room Restaurant. This was my favorite meal of our stay as the restaurant wasn't noisy and crowded and we got to enjoy good food and good conversation with my aunt and uncle. Of course, we topped off our dinner with the restaurant's famous mango ice cream. There's no way Uncle Keith would ever turn down mango ice cream.
We awoke very early the next morning to catch our flight home. The airplane landed about ten minutes early, giving Matt and me just enough time to head to our house, change clothes and then get to church. We arrived about five minutes before the service started. Our kids were surprised to see us. Hugs all around. We missed our little people and they missed us.
Grandpa Bob and Grandma Dianne did a wonderful job of taking care of seven kids for four days, making our trip to Texas possible. I'm sure they were tuckered out and glad to be able to sleep in their own bed on Sunday night. Matt and I were in the same boat. There's no place like home.
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