About three weeks ago, Brad got a phone call during the day at the restaurant.  The caller on the other end asked Brad, "Do you guys do any public speaking?"  Brad told her about some of the small events that we have done in and around Denver and asked what she had in mind.  That is when Brad heard about Social Justice Week at Benedictine College and how they wanted us to be speakers.  When Brad shared the news, we decided that we just had to go and share the story of the cafe.

We just arrived back from our trip to Benedictine College in Atchison, KS.  It was an awesome (quick) weekend that we will both remember for a long time.  The students and faculty of Benedictine are amazing people.  They are dedicated to bringing about change in the world.  The spirituality and hospitality that we witnessed this weekend was touching and inspiring. 

 Our trip started on Sunday, February 17.  The plan was to fly out of DIA at 6:55 a.m.  When we left our house around 5 a.m. we knew that Kansas was experiencing some rough weather but Southwest Airlines said we were on time.  Instead of being on time our 6:55 flight was canceled due to ice and snow in KS.  We later found out the KCI airport was closed.  We decided to put ourselves on the standby list for the 11:30 flight - which was also canceled.  We finally made it out at 3:00 and arrived at KCI at 6.  Tatum McWhirter, president of Hunger Coalition at BC and the person responsible for getting us to BC, picked us up and we drove the 45 min. to Atchison. 

We found ourselves in good hands.  Tatum had a great plan for the weekend even though our plans had changed many times through out the 9 hours we sat and carried 100 cookies around the DIA airport.  Everyone tried to con us out of a few cookies.  We even tried to use the cookies as a bribe to get on an earlier flight but it was futile.  The good thing about this delay was that we had time together and time to work on our presentation.  Being so busy with both of our full time jobs didn't leave us with much time to prep this week.  God works in mysterious ways. 

Tatum had arranged for us to have dinner with an intimate group of students from BC.  They treated us to the most amazing food I have had in a long time and I didn't have to do the dishes!  A lot of the pizza items on our menu this week were inspired by the meal we shared Sunday night. 

15 volunteers showed up to help "storm the dorms."  Students took samples of our cookies around to all the dorms on campus and tried to spread the word about Social Justice Week and invite students to our talk.  These students went out all around campus encouraging others to come and listen to what we had to share.  Lauren Steinkoenig was one of those people who helped storm the dorms.  It was great to see and visit briefly with her. 

We retired to the Abbey Guest House where Tatum had arranged for us to sleep.  It was a simple, quiet space for Brad and I to rest after a hectic day of travel.  We truly enjoyed the quiet time to rest and prepare for the next, exciting day. 

On Monday morning we had breakfast in the Holy Grounds Coffee House where we met Chris, Autumn and Dr. Bunch for a chat and great coffee.  This little coffee shop is such a great space for the BC community. It is fairly new (within the last couple of years) and has a motto of "student run from the grounds up."  We really enjoyed hanging out there and talking business with Dr. Bunch.

Emily Brenner then toured us around the beautiful campus.  We saw the Abbey Church and met President Minnis. We also enjoyed the challenge of traversing the campus through the ice and snow left by the previous storm that kept us in Denver for those few extra hours just the day before.  The tour of the town of Atchison followed where we saw Amelia Earhart's birthplace and much of the town. We ate lunch in the CAF and made an announcement about our talk and went to Dr. Bunch's Entrepreneur class.  Brad and I shared the time line of the restaurant and fielded a few questions.  It was a great warm up for us. 

We got to hang out with Dr. Bunch for a bit afterward where we got to make lots of connections to other ideas and organizations.  We met Lauren and her friend Meredith for coffee in a cute little space downtown.  After a quick visit, Dr. Bunch left us to visit more.  Lauren gave us a tour of her dorm room and we showed off the Abbey Guest house.  We had a few minutes to rest and relax prior to having a fabulous dinner prepared for us by Dr. Coronado. 

We began to prepare for our talk by rehearsing together in our guest room.  Brad and I were furiously writing notes.  Neither one of us have had an audience so large.  We tried to calm our fears by reminding each other that it is easy to talk about something that you love.  We knew that Tatum was picking us up at 5 so we changed our clothes and gathered our stuff.  I had the computer, Brad had the notes (or so we thought.)  It wasn't until dinner was almost over and Brad realized that he had grabbed the wrong piece of paper.  He and Dr. Coronado went to retrieve the correct notes while Tatum and I went to set up the slide show.  As the time got closer and it was taking longer and longer to get the projector up and running, my nerves began to take hold.  Once Brad returned from his note taking adventure, we were able to come up with a backup plan.  We probably should have had one before.  The good thing was we had never done the presentation WITH the PowerPoint so it didn't really shake us that much that we couldn't get the technology piece figured out.  We minutes to spare, Dr. Coronado came to the rescue and the technology guys got it figured out.  We had a PowerPoint after all!

Brad and I talked for about an hour about the cafe.  We told the story of how it came to be and why we wanted to create the cafe.  It was great to share about the miracles of the cafe and how God makes things happen here for us.  We talked about treating each person who walks through the door with dignity and respect.  We were both nervous in spots and were overcome by emotion at one point that we both teared up (when we were telling the story of Hazel Drapper - if you don't know that story you should ask us about it - you'll cry too.)  Once we got it back together, we shared with pride what SAME Cafe has become.  It was a moving experience for us.

The meet and greet that followed in the Holy Grounds coffee shop inspired us.  We talked to students, faculty, and friends of the school until almost 10 p.m.  They seemed fired up and ready to make change happen in Atchison.  Hopefully, we were able to share the story of the cafe in a way that challenged them to follow their hearts.  It was the words of someone experienced that allowed us to take the leap in Denver. 

After another great night's sleep in the Abbey Guest House, Tatum and Emily picked us up bright and early at 4:45 a.m.  This time the trip was much smoother with no delays.  We drove straight from the airport to the restaurant where we opened the cafe for another day of service.