The Fantastic Farewell
The Fantastic Farewell- by Gwendolyn Hunter
Throughout the workshops we led over the course of this week, we invited the kids we had been working with to a traditional American Barbecue style picnic. At the end of the week, it was our opportunity to lean deeper into the relationships we had cultivated and to conclude the spectacular week we had spent together. On Friday morning, we finished preparing and packing our potato salad, coleslaw, baked beans, veggie salad, and of course components to make burgers and dogs! Members of the team worked to assemble the food, taking care to slice the bread from the pekara that closest resembled burger and hot dog buns. Two of our guys braved the hot brick oven to provide us with the patties and dogs, grilled to perfection!
Some of these were similar to familiar foods they prepare in Bosnia, and some were being introduced for the first time. As the kids excitedly ate their carefully crafted hamburgers, they repeated in disbelief, “I can’t believe we’re eating AMERICAN food!” Just when they thought they had finished eating the exotic meal of their dreams, Jesse presented them with freshly hatchet-whittled S’more sticks. The most exciting part of it all, I was told, was that they did not think Hersheys chocolate actually existed, but that they’d always wanted to try it. S’mores = a HIT!
After the meal was enjoyed and packed away, it was full on Summer barbecue time. All to the soundtrack of the 80s greatest hits, we played lawn games like ladder ball and cornhole, and taught new competitive table games. I’m not telling on our Lead and Worship pastor, but when competition got heavy, two people in particular may have wrestled and shoved each other over a plastic cup.
The highlight for me came at the end of a glorious day, after the kids were returned home ready for a late afternoon snooze. The Bosnia team members and the East Hills team gathered with some of our local brothers and sisters in Christ in the cool shade of familiar feeling Evergreen trees. Jesse was brought a guitar and the circle broke out into spontaneous worship. Someone would throw out the melody of a song and if it was familiar to everyone, it rang out from the mountain in two tongues. Three or four songs in, members of the circle reached for anything they could use as instruments to join in - teacups, spoons, clapping hands, even a cornhole board for a drum. Such a true picture of the universal tongue of praise shared by brothers and sisters of the Kingdom. All this was witnessed by one invited friend at the picnic who is not himself a believer. He later expressed to our host that sitting on the inside of the circle, he experienced the feeling of total peace. Hallelujah!
I am bursting with gratitude for the opportunity to spend time showing what Spirit-filled community looks like, and what the love of Christ feels like to these young people and neighbors. Join us in prayer that something activates in theirs hearts upon experiencing Him, and that will grow an undeniable desire to pursue Him!
