I started writing this on Saturday night and fall asleep halfway through. My apologies!
---
And we ate food.
About half of the people showed up that he invited so for a large portion of the day we had a lot of people to meet and greet- all through a decent language barrier.
I've found, through the many different cultures I've experienced, that soccer is the international language. So I saw a kid with a soccer ball and started a game!
As more people showed up to the party, we all dispersed into our natural "roles."
Tracy was a manager of a restaurant in a past life so she got the ladies motivated and prepared in the kitchen. Tracy, we found, is also the most talented communicator across the language barrier. She's going to post about her tactics later.
After everyone had been mingling for awhile, Tomek rounded people up to thank Derek and Gabriella, our team, and to have the opportunity to share some personal stories (code word for testimonies).
Since us Americans were kind of the attraction, Tomek asked me to share first. I shared a recent life story that I was able to compare to the Gospel. I'll tell you more in depth about what I shared in a later post since it requires a cultural back drop.
Then Tomek's son Kristian shared as well as Derek and Tomek. It was encouraging to see all 30+ adults totally attentive for all 30+ minutes of our stories.
(Above is Tomek and Kristian)
(Above is Tomek and Derek)
After our story time, Derek's brother organized a big battmitton tournament. All ages were able to get involved and have a fun time together. He put us in teams of 3, so we gathered our "best chance at winning." We won 2 games out of 9... But they were two glorious games! ;)
The night grew tired and so did the guests. A slow exit started and we took that as the cue to start cleaning up. All in all it was a fabulous day!
Oh and we celebrated a 50th birthday, too :)