A benefit auction and an appointment

I had heard about the auction, but hadn't really planned to attend since I don't know the person. All I know is that he had been deteriorating in health and will be needing surgery soon, and the funds go towards the operation and travel.

The people we were with this afternoon were going, and persuaded the girls and me to go. Elise could not because she was working for someone who wanted to attend the auction. So we went. I figured I might find an item or two that might be interesting and useful. And I figured that it would be a good idea to be there to mingle and to show my face and show my support for the community, even if I don't know the man.

We browsed around the silent auction tables before the live auction. There were quite a few interesting things, but not much at the prices I was willing to fork out, even for a benefit. I bid for a couple of small tabletop clocks and a table runner, and ended with the winning bid on a clock with rosemaling on the face. I would have liked the table runner, and it was a wonderful work of art, but just couldn't justify what it would have taken to win that item.

During the live auction, there were some items that seemed to go for far below their value, but these were things that we really don't need. Perhaps in a previous life I might have just bid for them because they were such great values (in fact, I have on many school auctions, done just that). After going through throwing out so much stuff in our move a year ago, acquiring stuff just because it's such a value has much less appeal.

The auction was great and it met my expectations, walking out with one item. But the real reason I was persuaded to go may be of far greater significance. Over a month ago now, one of the workers from Ukraine brought another person from the cannery to one of our Sabbath morning worship. I hadn't seen him since then. He saw me at the auction tonight and let me know that he would like to learn more about our church and what we believe. I have an appointment next week to spend some time with him.