Join the Christmas Party
Our last event this semester was our annual Christmas Banquet. We hoped to incorporate the many things we had learned over the semester in our planning of this event. We planned to have a gingerbread house competition, carols, prizes and a potluck meal. We were in the Thomas Lounge, which is right off the main floor of the Oakham House and we left the door open to encourage people to pop in and join our party.
Answered Prayer:
To tie in our vision for the year, we put up posters saying “Join the Christmas Party”, that we had copied onto lime green paper, around the campus. After a semester of postering, and feeling unsure that posters were actually effective in inviting people to our events; many of my leaders approached the idea of postering with caution. After an exec meeting that ended early, a week before the party, I sent out my leaders to poster the campus. I went with Elizabeth to poster the Library building. While we postered, we wondered if they would draw people in. The day before the party, I walked through the Library building on my way to early Morning Prayer. I saw that many of the posters Elizabeth and I had put up had been postered over. I was sad (and angry as they had been postered over by unauthorized groups); and spent time in prayer asking God for our posters to be effective, despite being postered over.
Cut to: Our Christmas party, a student walks in, Vera*gets food and joins our table. In the course of conversation with her, I ask her how she’d found out about the party. She said she had seen the posters in the library building, and then made plans to attend; after the posters were covered she went in search of another one to get the pertinent details. She said she was excited as it was her first Christmas party of the year and was drawn in by our bright green posters. She left our party getting contact information for myself, Lauren and Elizabeth and giving us hers with a keen desire to keep in touch next semester. She is also of South-Asian descent, and when she gave me her contact information, it led us into a conversation where, thanks to my time at SALI I was able to identify and speak with knowledge and affirmation about her ethnic origin (she is from the same region as one of my SALI mentees). Earlier this semester, I had prayed for more South Asian students; including Vera, we now have 2 that are connected to our fellowship; another answered prayer, praise the Lord!
There was much laughter and merriment at our party, as everyone enjoyed the gingerbread house competition and the carol-off. By the end of the night, I counted and saw that over 30 people had eaten a meal with us (and many others had stopped by for a quick bite), and we had received contact information from 7 new people, eager to keep in touch next semester!
I look forward to seeing what God will do with our fellowship next semester!
*name changed
The Arch 