An El Dorado Hills, California family overcame their own emotional turmoil to turn a canceled wedding into a special event for approximately 100 less fortunate people. David Duane said his 27-year-old daughter, Quinn, announced Oct. 12 that the groom had called off the wedding, five days before the event.

The reception venue, the Citizen Hotel in downtown Sacramento, had been booked months in advance. Duane said he and his wife knew they could not expect a refund at such a late date. "We said, 'Hey, do we just not do anything, or do we go down and do something?'"

His wife, Kari, came up with the idea of hosting people who were homeless or in need at what was intended to have been the wedding dinner. She contacted Next Move and program director LaTisha Daniels. The organization's mission is to provide shelter and other services to help people transition out of homelessness. Daniels took charge, inviting individuals and families, and providing bus passes so they could get to the dinner, David Duane said.

Duane and his wife were on hand at 5 P.M. to welcome people to the buffet dinner that would otherwise have been served to wedding guests. "It was a fabulous night, a great evening," Duane said. He talked to a number of the guests and listened to stories of the difficulties they have faced. Wedding costs, including the honeymoon, he said, totaled more than $30,000. "As a family," Duane said, "we took away something good from this."

Possible Preaching Angles: Many that God invited to the wedding banquet of his Son have declined. It is now our mission to joyfully extend the invitation to the poor and needy so that heaven will be full and its riches will be fully enjoyed.