Fun, Food, Fellowship

Many of you prayed for the Christmas Ladies' Tea Debbie and I hosted before Christmas. It was so much fun to plan, prepare and decorate! Debbie and I hoped to have a big turnout and planned for about 25 women. We baked, decorated, and prepared with much excitment.

The night finally arrived and only 6 women showed up. We soon realized we were going to have a small crowd and decided to make the best of it! First the ladies ate of the bounty we had prepared. Then we played several fun games.

Our theme for the night was "The Gift," so our games revolved around that theme. One game involved wrapping a woman up as a gift and we gave prizes for the most creatively and the most elegantly wrapped lady.

There were 2 teams of 3 ladies, and they really got excited about this game! It was joy to see them giggle and laugh as the wrapped their friends.

As you can see, their creative juices flowed freely and two of the ladies became lovely wrapped presents!

These two ladies were great sports and allowed their teammates to have total creative license! They giggled as much as the rest of us!

After the games, I shared a short devotional with the ladies. As it happens, all the ladies who showed up are Christian women, so I changed the devotional from being evanglistic in nature to one the challenged us as Christian women to humble ourselves as Jesus humbled himself to come to this earth as a tiny babe. It was a special time for all of us.

Although I was disappointed that there were no "new" ladies who attended, during the evening I was reminded that even Christian women need to time to be pampered, loved on, and encouraged in the Word. Although we had planned on this event being evanglistic in nature, God used instead to build up the body of believers who are working alongside of us in many different ways.

After the devotional, it was time to clean up. (This cafeteria and kitchen are in TCC and used by Taylor Christian School for lunch.) The ladies quickly jumped in to help the clean-up go quickly. All six ladies helped Debbie and me make food baskets to take to ladies who couldn't come due to sickness or other conflicts. Then they cleaned off the tables, folded tablecloths, and brought plates/baskets of food into the kitchen. What a blessing to have such help! (Debbie is the lady on the right! She was my co-host!)

And these two ladies were an extra-special blessing. Treasure Berens (L) and Carol Wonch (R) are two retired WGM missionaries who were instrumental in ministries of Taylor Christian School for many years. They stayed and washed dishes, took down tables and moved chairs! What troopers! Although we kept saying they go home and rest, these two ladies stayed until Debbie and I were ready to walk out the doors with everything cleaned up. What a joy to work with such servants of God!

Thank you for your prayers. Continue to pray for us as we look for creative ways to get to know the women of this neighborhood. We won't give up or become discouraged. Little by little, we're trusting God to open doors for seeds to be planted and for His Kingdom to expand here in this little corner of McAllen.