A potluck luncheon and MSIA social gathering — now there’s an idea.  Here in the Sacramento California area, our local MSIA ministers are scattered over a large area.  Nearly all of us are about an hour’s drive from each other.  Before the Covid-19 epidemic we would take turns hosting the MSIA ministers meetings at our homes and most ministers would make the hour drive for the meetings.  This worked well.  People would bring something to eat and we would all enjoy a social gathering afterwards of our tight little group of usually about 8 to 10 ministers.

As we all know, when Covid-19 manifested itself we all had to became familiar with using Zoom for our meetings.  A little confusing at first but we seemed to get the hang of it by necessity.  We continued using Zoom even after Covid-19 because hey, we don’t have to drive an hour each way and use up half a day for the meetings.  But a lot of us started to miss the intimacy in the social aspect of the meetings and yearned for a chance to come together physically.

Years ago, before Covid-19, my wife Kay and I hosted a potluck social gathering of ministers and their families at our house out in the country in the lower foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.  We have 10 acres out here and it was a big positive hit for everyone at the time – a chance to get away from the city and enjoy the serenity of the country.

 Lee and Kay Clausen's property near Sacramento, CA.

So, this last May, Kay and I decided to host another social event again for ministers and their families in an attempt to re-connect with each other and meet family members, many for the first time.  Since Kay and I host weekly MSIA seminars in our home, we decided to make the event a 2-hour potluck luncheon with an MSIA video seminar afterwards.  Now just to be clear, this was not intended to be a ministers meeting but just a social gathering and to meet other MSIAers who are not ministers and also to meet family. There’s nothing like the incentive of having company come to your house to spruce it up a bit so we were motivated to do just that and then some.  We worked hard to make our house as welcoming as possible.  After all, seventeen people had responded that they were coming.

 Kay Clausen out on the deck.

We provided the cooked beef and chicken and everyone else contributed with a dish of their own, some were salads, some were desserts, etc.  

Lee Clausen preparing the feast.

But wait a minute.  Two days before the event, one couple had to cancel.  OK, now there are 15 who are coming.  But wait another minute, on the day of the event, two more couples had to cancel.  Oops, now we’re down to 11.  A little disappointing I had to admit, when we had our deck all set up for the original 17 but you know what?  It turned out fantastic.  We all had a great time meeting each other again physically, many for the first time, and we had tons of food.

 

Lee and Kay (at left) with local friends at the gathering.

Oh, did I tell you that it rained in the morning with the threat of more to come for that day?  Yikes, all of our outdoor setup may be for naught.  But by the starting time of noon, most of the clouds had passed and the sun was giving a gallant effort to appear.  Ooh yeah.  Temperatures rose and it looked like some of us might sit outside after all.  Which is exactly what happened.  Some of us enjoyed the outdoors with our meal while others felt better inside.  Everyone seemed to have a really good time.  It’s all perfect, right?