I TOLD my Hubby and children that I we could have a simple open house. Just for a few hours. No main meal times, i.e. only mid morn or mid afternoon.
But no, before I could blink, we ended up with a fullscale dinner - barbeque with an initially unknown number of guests attending! Right up till the day, the hour, we didn't know how many to expect.
Worse, to my horror, it had been put into Facebook! I had visions of multitudes invading my home! I had read enough horror stories about that! Needless to say, I told my family that I was concerned (read upset)
But that same day, as we sat in the Sunday Service, I was reminded of how every opportunity should be used to reach out. I repented and told my family that I had the wrong attitude and that we would be more open and all-embracing! Then we rolled up our sleeves and got down to preparations. Lots of it!
But no, before I could blink, we ended up with a fullscale dinner - barbeque with an initially unknown number of guests attending! Right up till the day, the hour, we didn't know how many to expect.
Worse, to my horror, it had been put into Facebook! I had visions of multitudes invading my home! I had read enough horror stories about that! Needless to say, I told my family that I was concerned (read upset)
But that same day, as we sat in the Sunday Service, I was reminded of how every opportunity should be used to reach out. I repented and told my family that I had the wrong attitude and that we would be more open and all-embracing! Then we rolled up our sleeves and got down to preparations. Lots of it!
The barbeque pitIn the end one hundred youths came.
That's twenty-five youths for each one of my children (foster son included).
I know how many because I had to give out that many ang-pows!
They were ex-classmates, local church friends, down-the-road friends, different church friends, and even a couple who were new friends.
They came, they sang, they chatted, they laughed (softly and huge guffaws), they danced (to a game), they ate, they drank (no hard stuff) , they enjoyed the fireworks (of the neighbours), they made a lot of noise and mess.
But we had a great time.
We are also amazed that the food was enough, with surplus! Hubby prayed that the food will multiply when we saw that we had double the expected number for dinner! (My household help deserves a medal! And I had a good workout walking and clearing and tidying up during and after)
The last ones didn't leave till after midnight. That is, if you don't include the ones who stayed over. That was about half a dozen, half of whom didn't get to sleep till close to dawn...
Many new relationships made, many old ones strengthened. Now we need to continue to reach out... and possibly, we need to appease our neighbours too!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment