sweet and sour

In this case, though, sweet totally trumps sour.

Sunday night fellowship was sweet. The room was pretty full (several were there because we showed a movie to youth right beforehand - that seems to bump up attendance). People were singing their hearts out. The message was powerful. Communion was special as several of our friends heard the communion story for the first time and other new believers partook for the first or second time. Afterwards, we headed downstairs for coffee and cake. About 30 or so of us joined the sticker-on-kids-magazine machine as the final preparations for OCC shoeboxes was made. It was kind of mayhem but also a hoot to watch little kids, youth, and older gents work with vigor to get this project done.

Then, as the Albanian music on my laptop got louder, some people started to dance. Pretty soon, the whole place had the energy of a wedding and all generations from a 3-year-old to a 60-year-old were holding hands and circle dancing. It was so much fun - and didn't end for about an hour and a half. I thought it would just last a few songs and people would head out, but they (we) kept right on dancing. Some did the beautiful scarf dances, one dude did the cup-on-head dance, and lots of people kept yelling "Upa!" which has to be one of my favorite noises. This is, to me, one of the coolest expressions of church unity and "fellowship" as we're in a big circle with all generations and delighting in movement and music. And it was totally spontaneous.

The sour, however, was that my phone was stolen in the corridor (likely by a kid on the street). Ugh - it's just so stinkin' inconvenient as I had many, many numbers in the thing and nowhere else. I really didn't want it to dampen peoples' enthusiasm and giddiness - especially as mine wasn't. The sweetness of the evening was the taste in my mouth as I went to bed.