Our Neighborhood Block Party

Two Sundays ago, we threw a BBQ for our neighbors. We live in a sort of compound (cul-de-sac sounds more civilized, doesn't it?) in the hills outside the city where we work. Abe is best buddies with many of the neighbor kids, all who enjoy descending upon his play room whenever we open the door. We've been asking the Lord to help us be salt and light to our neighbors, so we got the grand idea of having a free barbecue for the entire neighborhood.

This sounded completely reasonable to us career bite-off-more-than-we-can-chew'ers. Until we found out that there are 25 units in our neighborhood, each holding about 4 individuals. 100 attendees? No worries, (okay, there were a few gulps for air as flashbacks to our do-it-yourself wedding reception continued to dance in my head) we called for reinforcements. Our friends from church came to the rescue in a beautiful way. Even the pastor, after a casual Sunday morning mention, showed up and jumped into the middle of the action, romping with the kids on the "soccer field" in front of our house, and generally being helpful. Auntie "Lison", a friend from my ladies cell group gave me an expert lesson on frying noodles (six jumbo packs of rice noodles were the start) and she watched with delight as I popped corn for kettle corn on the stove. (Auntie sells fried banana chips for income... hopefully she can now add popcorn to her inventory). We learned a few things about grilling in the process ... like, make sure the chicken wings (we had 110) are thawed before grilling. (Our fridge was set on too cold of a setting, so they were a solid ball at the start). And make sure the charcoal is close to the top of the grill (a call for more charcoal solved that one). The menu: small burgers on the grill, chicken wings, popcorn, noodles, watermelon, and Amy's pineapple cake. God answered our prayer for water in our pipes (they had been dry for a couple days, but on the day of the party a neighbor brought a hose from a different source and filled our tank) and NO water in the sky. A dry field so the kids' games could go on.

It was a great time to build community (we notice more people smile at us now) and a good kickoff for a kid's club we've begun on Tuesday evenings. Most memorable was the impression our church friends' service made on our neighbors. One neighbor asked me, "who are those people who are working so hard at the grill? They're so kind!" That's the body of Christ being who it was meant to be!

The day after the BBQ, I was listening to some recordings of the Burkes on my mp3 player on my morning jog to the waterfall. This poem read by Esther made me smile for our day on the "echoing green."

The sun does arise and make happy the skies
The merry bells ring to welcome the spring
The skylark and thrush; the birds of the bush
sing louder around to the bells cheerful sound
While our sports shall be seen on the echoing green
Old John with white hair does laugh away care
sitting under the oak among the old folk
They laugh at our pray and soon they all say
Such such were the joys when we all were girls and boys
in our youth time were seen on the echoing green