The night arrived for our first girl party and we were all excited! My three roommates and I had invited several friends over for fun games and girl time. When I opened our door to greet the first guests, the girls stumbled in and could hardly speak. They seemed speechless from excitement at coming to a foreigner’s apartment! Then I realized it was more likely because of the six flights of stairs they had just climbed!
My friends arrived last, with a surprise guest – one of their guy friends! He is eager to practice his English in hopes of going to America someday, and wanted to tag along to the party. He immediately realized that he had crashed an all-girls party, and it took several minutes to convince him to step away from the door and join us!
He lost his shyness during a wild game of Chopsticks, our revised Asian version of the card game Spoons. Every round, the person who lost had to sing a song or tell a joke. I began to wonder if he was losing on purpose to get the chance to perform repeatedly in front of a dozen beautiful girls! The girls loved it, but I was thankful when he had to leave the party early.
That’s when the conversations went deeper. All across the room, we naturally split into smaller circles to talk. I could hear bits of different conversations floating across the room, and it seemed like each group of girls was talking about relationships. They were discussing boyfriends (or lack of boyfriends), and whether they were hopeful or worried about the future. I could hear each one of my roommates speaking about the hope and peace we have because we trust God with our futures, including this area of relationships.
Since we moved into our apartment we have been asking God to make our apartment a safe and peaceful place where girls could come and feel safe to open up their hearts. I could see that happening already on their first visit! There was such a feeling of peace and I could see the way they hung on our words about trusting God and having hope for the future. I could see that many seeds were planted in hearts that night. I know our apartment will be a safe haven for many girls who will soon come to trust in God.