Last week-end was one of those jampacked ones!
On Friday night, we celebrated Josh's 5th birthday at home. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSH!!!) Each of the Manigsaca ladies prepared her own recipes. I, of course, prepared the now famous Lumpia (ehem, ehem) and my own version of Sago't Gulaman (thanks Beth for your recipe!). The inflatables were up only for at least an hour because then it was time for games and facepainting. (I should call it arm painting because everyone wanted it on their arms instead of their faces!) The birthday celebrant was not in the mood (he didn't join the games) and before we knew it, it was already getting dark.
The kids went to play, play, play inside while the adults looked at Jupiter through the telescope for a while. Later inside, the adults played "guess my drawing" and got a lot of Mexicans, 1 American, an ice and even a "tsinelas". That was fun! The drawings eventually run out, so we settled for Pictionary. It was almost midnight when we bid adieu to our last guests.
The "official" pictures of Josh's birthday are not out yet, but will post later when I get a link to them from his parents. (They're busy with closing on their house and preparing to move!) Meanwhile, here are some photos from Karen's camera (Thanks Karen!).
Saturday night was when our subgroup at church were meeting at home. This was the subgroup that was assigned to discuss Chapter 6 (Movement) of the Simple Church's book. I baked the ultra-black and ultra-soft bananas in the ref as banana bread (as muffins). (Our pastor's wife, D'Lynda, said the blacker the bananas, the better flavor they would give out. So, everyone in the house must have given out a sigh of relief that they no longer have to see them in the ref!). I cooked another batch of the lumpia which were made together with Josh's birthday. (Good thing you can just freeze them and cook them in batches when you need to.). And I cooked my own version of pancit.
After the meal, we had a great discussion on how our church out to strategically and sequentially arrange our programs so as to intentionally move members through the spiritual maturity continuum. Hmmm... that sounds high-falluting...
Let me try it simpler: People's lives must not remain stagnant or stalled. People must not stay the same, unchanged or unmoved. The believer's life need to be transformed more and more, becoming more like Christ. It is the church's responsibility to design its process and programs to facilitate this growth, this movement.
We had great discussions and we think we are ready with our outline and example for our 25-minute presentation next Sunday.
Of course, Sunday Morning was reserved for church. And this weekend was our turn to set up the C.O.W. signs. And this was the weekend (in 6-7 weeks) that I was teaching the toddler's Sunday School. I missed the Wycliffe missionaries' presentation about their bible "translation" work in Thailand's Sonu tribe. Actually, it is more than translation. It is creating a written "alphabet" for the Sonu language so that they can use it to translate the written Word.
On Sunday afternoon, we "went to the city" to attend Hannah's 5th birthday. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HANNAH!!!) (The invite was actually for noon, but of course, we went there after church.) The kids were already playing games when we got there. They were having lots of fun with the Pin the Clown's Nose, Trip to Jerusalem, Pass the Ball. And the adults had fun cheering them on, too! More food again! I stuck to the pork inihaw since I have had no pork in my diet for the past few weeks. (Remember Daddy is cooking healthy fish-based vegetable meals!) Yummy, yummy, specially with the vinegar and sili! Ayayay!!! (And to think that we ate after church before going over at Hannah's!.
Here are the pictures of Hannah's birthday. See someone you know? :)
Then on Sunday evening, the church had "The Big Party". (Again, it started on Sunday afternoon but of course we signed up for the evening shift (7-9pm) to avoid the heat. Apparently though, there were still plenty of people who came in starting at 4pm!)
It was an event in lieu of the Vacation Bible School which the subdivision and the school did not approve the use of their grounds. There were inflatables - dry and the ones with water were a big hit because of the heat. There were crafts - beads and bears. There was music and dancing crazy dances. And did I mention there was food??? Yes... delicious barbeque chicken galore! And my, my... I discovered the big dill pickles. They were delish! Just the thought of it makes my mouth taste vinegary...Good thing, I got to bring home one bottle!
The Big Party was very fun, but the more important part was that we were able to meet a lot of people in the community who are unchurched. Lots of opportunities there! Meanwhile, I have no pictures of The Big Party but if someone at church sends out a link, I'll try to post it here.
That's it! That was our crazy weekend! Phew!!! Tiring but fun, fun, fun!!!
Tell me about your busy weekend as well! You are most welcome to the comments section!
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