Mission: Malaysia

The first party was a smashing success! As many of you know, after previously being on an LST team with Jesse Troxler, I have proclaimed a burn ban for any parties I am involved with. Never again will any LST team I'm a part of burn things at their parties, nor will they be spending any of the party budget on pyrotechnics. So we had a tea party! It was very low-key, gave everyone time to fellowship, and did not require us to set any trash cans on fire (ask Jesse sometime.)

I was very impressed with my team's creative efforts for this party. Loraine ran a British tea station, complete with cucumber sandwiches and shortbread, and she taught the readers about British afternoon tea time. Eric ran an African rooibos tea station, in which he gave us a very impressive history lesson on African tea (thank you, Google.) I ran a Southern sweet tea station in which I taught the readers to talk with a Southern twang and let them try some butter cookies (since chicken fried steak wasn't available.) And of course, Brad/TehChOcOlate ran a Chinese tea station, in which the readers got to sit on the floor around a Chinese-style table and listen to Brad expound upon all the many health benefits of drinking Chinese tea. One of church members here let us borrow some of her beautiful teaware and I am just thankful we didn't break any of it.=)

The goal of the parties is to allow the church members to mingle with the readers and to show the readers that Christians can have fun. I would definitely say those goals were accomplished tonight! We will be giving parties every week and hopefully as the readers become more comfortable with us, more of them will want to come to the parties.

I also wanted to say how thankful I am for my team today, as I have been feeling sick and they have had to do more than their fair share of party preparation. I knew that even when I was sick and needed to rest that the party planning was in good hands. Brad prepared the teas and planned the talks, Loraine really went the extra mile with food preparation and party set-up, and Eric ended up making several trips to the store at the last minute to buy items. It is a privilege to serve alongside these guys. (And I am feeling much better tonight!)

I'm certain that Eric will put up some of his extensive photography soon!

posted by crittermer @ 9:45 PM