On the 7th of Ｆebruary arrived at 11.30am at Harvest, the Ghent’s most recent plant to prepare for our ‘English’ event. The purpose behind this event was to bring non-church goers, and people in the local area to Harvest so they can get to know the church and its members/leaders and hear the Gospel from a short talk slotted in after the meal. The event was also geared to providing a space that is family friendly (something that the area lacks) allowing the community to come together and enjoy each others company without worrying about what they will do with their children.
Jonathan and I began by tackling a large crate of potatoes (grown by the Ghents) to be peeled for our main ‘English’ dish, Shepherds Pie. Others grated carrots and cabbage for the accompanying coleslaw and Emma animated our England presentation on PowerPoint. Next I was put in charge of making a lemon drizzle cake which was one of the three desserts being prepared such as apple crumble and scones with cream and jam. After finishing one cake I was asked to make another because we were expecting lots of people, but ‘Oh No’ we had run out of butter (unlike at home there is no corner shop to run to) however true to form Ruth came up with a solution in seconds substituting oil for butter in the second cake. A student from a nearby university came to help me make the icing, and we worked together as team using mostly mime to show the cooking steps.
At around 3.40 we were suddenly alerted that the afternoon was now starting at 4pm instead of 4.30pm. The room had not been decorated so we all flew around the room, setting tables on the floor, tablecloths on the tables, writing a big colourful welcome sign and putting up red, white, and blue (the colours that make up the British Flag) ribbons across the window. We finished just in time.
As the children arrived we played a game of football with a giant inflatable ball in the play room followed by a game of stuck in the mud involving a chaser catching people who become still if tagged until someone else frees them by running underneath their arms.
Next was the English picture game. Half of a picture of typical English things such as fish and chips, David Beckham and strawberries were handed out to everyone (including adults) requiring everyone to walk around trying to find their matching half of their picture with someone else. We also played musical statues which is when I got extremely embarrassed as all us English people had to demonstrate the game by dancing on our own in front of the guests to music until it stopped where we had to freeze in our positions and not move. Once play commenced we walked around judging the frozen statues. I was impressed by their COMPLETE stillness even when funny faces were pulled at them. To round off the games we set up a PowerPoint presentation quiz about England, unfortunately technology failed us and the answers pictures to the questions did not show up on our screen so we had to improvise and take it in turns to present interesting facts about England to the guests.
Dinner was then dished out and seemed to be enjoyed as plenty went up for seconds. I found it a strange experience eating my Shepherds Pie with chopsticks but was chuffed when the lady opposite me complemented me on my chopstick eating ability! As I chatted with those around me they said they found it hard to visualize a typical English dish e.g. for America they can visualize a hamburger, for Italy they can visualize pasta. I explained that actually in England we tend to eat dishes borrowed from all over the world.
After dinner a talk was given by Jonathan which he began by going through the past Kings and Queens of England and the length of their reigns. He then spoke of the greatest King of the world that is God who has the longest reign of them all. As I looked around the packed room I wished that all these families were saved and actually part of the church. The turnout showed the potential of Harvest to receive a large church family.
Everyone seemed to have enjoyed the evening. I think having these party type ‘events’ is a great way to get those who may be unsure about coming to church on their own but more willing if there is a larger volume of people. Plus it demonstrated to outsiders that church can be a place to have fun and share pleasant company with other people. I was surprised that there were only two males who attended the evening and wondered if the mums and their children who came ever do pleasure activities together as a whole family?
I hope that those who came to the evening will think about the gospel delivered by Jonathan and want to come again to this loving church where they can learn more about God in a family friendly environment.
-Anna.
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