Happy Thanksgiving-eve from Asia! I hope you’re getting excited to carve the turkey and pass the cranberry sauce. They don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here, but my American friends and I will be partaking in tomorrow’s feast nonetheless. Thanksgiving is very special to me, so missing this holiday with my family will be rough. However, I’m super grateful that I still get the chance to share it with friends.
This weekend we had a party with all of our friends who we haven’t shared with yet. It was so awesome. We invited them to our apartment where we had hot apple cider, hot chocolate, popcorn and apple crisps. We set aside some time for my friend to share his story with them and tell them the Good News. We broke into small groups and everyone had a chance to talk and ask questions. I’m encouraged by my friend Ari, who was asking me a lot of big questions about God. After sharing with him more, he said, “This is true love.” I’m meeting with him soon to follow up, I think he’s gonna join the family soon!
We also played some fun games, too. We made caramel apples and asked 4 volunteers to come up and eat them. We informed them that one of the apples was actually an onion, then, after they bit into them, the spectators had to decide which of the volunteers was unlucky enough to eat the onion.
Our friends really aren’t used to this kind of organized silliness. We get to explain to them that God loves it when we have fun together, after all, a third of the kingdom is joy! College students spend so much time studying and they’re under tremendous pressure from their family and culture, they aren’t used to being told to play games and have fun. Everyone had a blast.