Kernie goes to Cursillo

Anyone who said that once you reach a certain age you are no longer allowed to play with stuffed animals was just plain wrong. Several weeks ago Reese, Becca, Sophie and I made the trip to Houston to participate in Cursillo, a weekend renewal expereince held for Presbyterians. Cursillo in and of itself is an overwhelming experience to try to put into words, so I'm not sure I'm going to try at this point, other than say that it was amazing and it helped me to see and experience the most basic of Christian principles in a real and tangible way. The love of God was present in extraordinary ways, leaving pieces of us who experienced it completely transformed.

Right before we left for Houston Sophie was given a stuffed monkey from one of her professors, Ron Kernaghan. We took the monkey, affectionately dubbed Kernie, in honor of Ron, with us to Houston to take pictures of him throughout the weekend (kind of a "Kernie does Cursillo" thing.) When we got there, we realized that we were really the only ones that were from out of town and we were the youngest people there. We didn't realize Cursillo was such a multi-generational event (which was AMAZING, we were just surprised!). We didn't really know how people were going to react to the fact that we'd brought a stuffed monkey with us, so we kept Kernie hidden for the first night. On Friday Sophie had him in her purse and two of the pastors on staff (Ann and Doug) saw him, pulled him out, and declared him adorable. They insisted on allowing Kernie join them in the prayer circle as we prayed for lunch and from that moment on, the rest of the group met Kernie and fell in love with him. By the end of the weekend people were fighting over whose turn it was to hold him, eat a meal with him, or worship with him. It was wonderful to see so many grown adults enjoying playing with us and celebrating how wonderful and amazing God's love is. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Here is Kernie paying with Pastors Ann and Doug

Sarah, Becca and Sophie burning off a little energy between sessions--hey we had to sit alot!

Even Kernie got to participate in communion, but he had to wait until everyone else was finished.

Kernie enjoying the flight--we didn't want him to get bored and cranky!