I felt like a child at Christmas eve , the night before the picnic, which the team had planned for 9 months. I packed the van the day before. Still in the wee hours of the morning, Jesus was tellingme me to bring along something which I never thought of but turned out to be very useful.



I ran into T while picking up some sandwiches at Safeway and fed her all the things she wanted to know - a God moment. When S and I arrived at the park at noon. D was still sitting there. He'd been there since 4 am with a two hour break. Silly park, which won't allow people to register for its use ahead of time.

But his time to be there early was almost in vain. D was so nice about the picnic tables he tried to reserve, he let others groups to use them until 2 pm. But at 2 pm, they said they are not going to give them up. Anyway, our workers started arriving with tents and chairs. If they don't mind surrounded by a crowd, it is their choice.



Someone was asking how many people did we expect. D said, it could be five or it could be a thousand. I thought it was rather funny. That's how usually is when we work alongside with God. Depend on the lesson he wants to teach us.



Around 3, I was so excited to welcomed the first family. I thought now we had not worked in vain. Then people start to trickle in and filling up the chairs. I was expecially happy to see the ladies. I tried to mingle between them and discovered some have been in Canada for more than 10 years yet it was like day one. They even have children born in Canada. All of us from the team were excited to see such a good turn out.



It was too bad W decided not to rent a crowd size BBQ. We only had 2 family size ones. Cooking proved to be a bit slow for the hungry crowd. But food were good. People were patient. Children
had fun with face paint, sports and games. I had the priviledge of cutting 10 of the 12 watermelon which I brought. S was such a good help. We could hardly match the demand.

After the food, L had a game with the ladies. It was such a good idea. They rolled the ball on the ground. If it touches a gift, they can keep it. Then came the draw. They were pretty excited.
Everyone had a good time. I made up some waterballons. The children loved them and chased after me for more. I had to find a way to escape. I told them to come back next time.
May be it was't such a bad idea.

We were dead tire as we lugged the furnitures, coolers and what not up the little hill to the parking lot. But we were exhilerated, thanking and praising God for the day.
Roman 10:15 - 'How beautiful are the feet of those who brings good tidings.' We did not use any
words that day but hopefully our action says something.

It was an awkard beginning, I signed up for the duty, I felt responsible for, and I was propelled to go to the friendship centre to join the group from deep south. I talked to T the day before about my intention. He didn't exactly say 'no', so there I was. But as soon as they started, I felt embarassed because I seemed to be the odd man out though I still enjoyed listening to T.

So it was time to go out in groups of 3 or 4. A lady around my age got up and invited me to join
her group of another lady of similar age and a younger man. So we walked and talked and exchanged information on our way. They were there for a week. But their day 1 was already giving them blisters on their feet and muscle pain from hours of walking. This was their day 2, though they admitted they knew very little of anything, yet they were very cheerful , open minded and looked forward to their adventure. We walked into different stores. They striked up conversations with the store keepers respectfully and naturally, mindful of the other's interest.
There was this older man from Fiji, he was pouring out from his life history to his daily rountin to us. He could have kept us there the whole day. T was right, we don't need to go far to anywhere,
opportunity can be right next to us. I had such a good time listening to O's life story of tears, tragedies, struggle, broken marriages, redemption, success and joy. She now holds a phd in teaching and several other degrees of something else, yet she is not proud or arrogant, she is more like a child fluttering with life excitement, she treated me like I am her sister and invited me several times to go visit her where she would put me up. K was wonderful too, I could talked to her as if I have known her for 50 years. M was so kind, him and the group would not evan let me buy sandwich with my own money.


I decided not to go back for the rest of the week but we met them on the last evening of their
adventure at the Arabic family conference. They had been holding a two day program for the kids, so adults could have some freedom. The two were still swinging the skipping rope for the kids after 9 p.m. They were dog tire and still have to pack to catch the flight the next day at 6 in the morning. They were so excited about their adventure and could hardly contain themselves. I can imagine how they would spill all over their friends and relatives back home. We gave each other biggggggg hugs and vowed not to say 'goodbye'.

Oh, yeah, John and I picked a family with three young children to sit with at supper time. We were secretly informed that the buffet would not match the price. So we just sat, drink punch
and watched them eat. The youngest one in the family is three years old Johnny, he sat up straight on the adult chair eating very seriously with his fork at the most slippery spagetti I had ever seen in my life (John offered to fetch him a spoon, but his dad said it was not necessary.)
He was doing very well and cleaned up the whole plate with no help with his cap sitting on his head. Then his parent brought him another plate stagged even higher than the last one. I was shocked, thinking they were trying to kill their kid. But Johnny just keep working at it with no fuss. I looked at him, he is just an average kid, not overweight. How could he chowed down so much. Finally, he stopped after fininshing half of the plate. His one year older sister was crying at the table beyond console right from the beginning. The reason being, she just want desert and nothing else, it had to be chocolate too. She was not amuzed by the plate of chocolate squares put infront of her. They did not looked chocolaty enough. Finally she gave the darn thing a try and she liked it. I asked the older brother if he believe that she would finish the whole plate. He said 'yes'. I thought he must be wrong. Oh well, at the end, there were only couple of them left.

So now Johnny had finished his supper and wailed upon the sight of the desert, I offered to
go with him to pick up a drink across the cafeteria. He wanted to hold the cup all the way back to his table and was mad that I wouldn't let him. But he was a good boy, he sat on his chair and drank up the juice, savoring every mouthful of it. Then he wanted to go for a walk, away from the crowd. I offered to follow him, so poor mom and dad could finish their dinner. At the end, I told his dad that I feel like 'a dog with a job'. I was glad I sucessfully herd the sheep. So that explained where Johnny's spagetti went.

By the time we left the place at 10 p.m., people were still praying in the building fervently, no body seem to want to leave. May be they were stalling from reclaiming their kids :)
Jeremiah 29:13 -" You will seek me and find me if you seek me with all your heart."

It is the same, as in the day of Moses - God is in control. Four parties being thrown in together for a common good. Party #1 and 2 being the motivational force were full of ideas and suggestions. Party #3 and 4 were the sympathetic and supportive groups. I am the odd man out, just trying to catch whatever I can do.
At the beginning, when party #2 shared all their experience in the past and suggested we follow
a similar formula, my heart raised an alarm, I was hoping and praying that things can be done a
little bit different. Since every party seemed to consent to the ideas, I was in no place to say what I would like to say.
Two months into project, the leader of party #1 got a job transfer out of the province. But he still
agree to run it from a distance and he was pretty deligent at it and came back every month for
the meetings. Few more months down the road, he recognized things were not where he would like them to be and he did not see he could tie things together neatly, so he request for different leadership emerge from the groups. Meanwhile, party#2 was making some decisions without consulting the rest of the teams. When it was obvious that leadership had to come out from party#4,, the project seemed to need a face lift. We could only do what we can afford timewise, financialwise and manpowerwise. And it arrived exactly where I was praying and hoping
for. Psalm 19:21,"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."