4 W's February 21
The temperatures are on the rise and the winter seems pretty decided to let go. This Tuesday we met for 4 W’s in a bit unusual circumstances – as Sweet Surrender was booked up, we were promoted two floors up.
For welcome… well, actually, there were two “welcomes”. Kent, who joined us that evening to share the Word, showed us this clever little game where one has to cross out sticks arranged in rows. There are two players who play on turns: during your turn, you can cross out only one stick. You can’t let your opponent cross out the last stick in a row, otherwise he gets to cross out the whole raw, getting all the points. There is one good reason for which everybody should practice before the next week: Kent pledged himself to buy a ‘”kebab” to any person who would beat him!
Jocelyn (from Taiwan) debuted as our “welcome specialist”. She distributed sheets of paper and asked us to write vertically our names on them. To each letter of our name, we were supposed to find a word that describes us in some way. Sometimes having a long name can be really upsetting, especially if you don’t carry a Thesaurus on you…For the worship part, Theresa asked us to do the same thing, but instead of looking for words to describe our own character, we were to find some that would describe God’s.
Kent led the word part. As he put it, he wanted to “give us some of his cooking so that we could taste it and see whether we would like him come back to have him cook some more”. That was an ambitious dish that he had prepared for that evening… an overview of the whole Bible story! On sheets of paper with the books of the Old Testament (subdivided into three groups: historical, prophetical and didactic), we were to discern the key themes for each and every one of them, and distinguish the thread that links one book to the other. Certainly not an easy task, but it helps to look at the Bible from a wider perspective.
The last part, witness, was Tim’s debut. He spoke about his latest discoveries inspired by 1 Corinthian 9:19-22, where Paul says: “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. (…) I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”
After the meeting at Sweet Surrender, we went to the railway station to share some food and hot tea with the homeless.
Tim arranged everything to get us access to the room! Go TIM!!! At first David, Tim, Milena and Theresa were wondering if we should have a change in “game” plans, since we did need a few more people than 4. Suddenly more people showed up and there were enough people to make it a game night of Bunco with a few “ghost people” added in to make it an even 12!
It was easy to get into the game and yell at the dice to roll the needed numbers. In fact we were getting so intense that when someone came in to ask if it would be possible to watch TV, no one responded to him, but kept on rolling the dice!!!
“Ok, here’s what we’re going to do. First, we should stand round in a circle – has everybody found their place? Good. Now, you reach out your hands to grab somebody else’s hand, but make sure that you hold two hands of two different people… Done? Good. Our objective for now is to undo this knot”, explains Tim the rules of our welcome activity. The biggest difficulty? At any moment, you’re not allowed to release your grip on the hands you’re shaking. On the other hand, it’s the best way to welcome people whose names have slipped your mind and to greet them again with a hearty handshake! Tonight we’re in the Sweet Surrender’s office and since a lot of us have showed up for 4W’s, it seems that there’s not much space left in the room… But who cares? We’re having fun, even though we’re squeezed and tied up in a new Gordian knot in the cramped office. After some effort, we find our way back to the initial circle.
After the short discussion on Matthew, Theresa asked us to turn a couple of pages in our Bibles to find Matthew’s last verses, in which Jesus gives us his Great Commission: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20) This time, we are to particularly focus on two key words, namely “go” and “all”. Jesus doesn’t want us to stay in churches and hang out only with Christians. We are to be his representatives in the world, a task implying that we spend time with those who haven’t heard yet of His Good News.
Jocelyn (from Taiwan) debuted as our “welcome specialist”. She distributed sheets of paper and asked us to write vertically our names on them. To each letter of our name, we were supposed to find a word that describes us in some way. Sometimes having a long name can be really upsetting, especially if you don’t carry a Thesaurus on you…
