Limbo, Spear-throwing & Bridge building

Friday night about 18 people crammed into my small apartment for a "Ladies Night Out Luau." The ladies who attended represented a very diverse group. Pastor's wives and other ladies from the Macedonian service, a couple of Dutch gals from the International service, as well as four other ladies. This party was meant to be a place where we could all come together and have some fun and fellowship with the ladies from church, as well as to continue building bridges with neighbors and friends. It went really well.

As each lady arrived she was greeted with a flower lei and an "Aloha" greeting. There was Hawaiian music in the background, a limbo line that had us laughing to hysterics, spear-throwing (aka "darts"), and a type of bowling (tossing an object between two pineapples). The funniest thing for all, though, was the trying of the salty-sweet (pungently strong) Ling Hi Mui (salty sweet dried plumbs). They just couldn’t believe it was a favored Hawaiian snack (Macedonians generally don’t mix salts and sweets, so this “snack” was quite the taste-bud kicker!)

The planning for this began while I was on tour in Hawaii this past January, thinking it would be a lot of fun to share a bit of Hawaiian culture with my Macedonian friends. Individuals from the churches on Oahu really helped a lot with ideas as well as gift-baskets full of goodies to share as well as gifts for the ladies. They also gave me ideas of what kinds of food to have as well: Kalua pork, haupia, etc. The most important thing, though, is the prayer that many have prayed for those who'd be coming.

Here’s the result: Besides the building of fellowship between the ladies of both the Macedonian and International services, it also was a non-threatening environment to build bridges of friendship with others. Please continue to pray for these ladies and for the opportunities to build further bridges, for the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts, drawing them to Him.

For pictures from the party, go to http://spaces.msn.com/balkanupdate