(Praying together before we enjoyed a meal of shrimp tempura, sushi, teriyaki chicken, soba noodles, squid, roasted corn... There were 18 adults and 17 children at our 2nd gathering (San Ramon). A BIG Small Group Gathering! =D)
They've all been different: Impromptu praise at the end with two guys picking up guitars, planned praise (iPod & speakers!) at the beginning, no praise; no children, lots of children (17 kids!!!), few children; had singles, no singles; ohp on a wall, ohp on a sheet, on a widescreen tv; lunch, early dinner, late dinner...
They've all been similar: It was fun & exciting to tell our story, the listeners were all very gracious, they asked questions and wanted to know more which was a real encouragement to us, they prayed over & for us, very uplifting, we had a wonderful time, and we got to know people better. I think we could even very safely and honestly say that they're our friends now, not just acquaintances from church or elsewhere.
(Juhee joining in the presentation as we start our 2nd SGG, a potluck style gathering with home-made hamburgers, hot dogs, and salad.)
They're constantly changing and evolving: We added trivia questions and prizes (Japanese sweets) to our presentations to add a bit more fun and so our friends can try Japanese sweets, and also so that they can get to know us better too 'cause the questions at the beginning were personal ones about us. We have also been updating our support levels so that they're always current.
(Some of the items that we carry around with us to every SGG - our financial support packs, extra brochures, some Japanese items like hand-made origami paper, our mystery item =D, chopsticks, etc.)
One friend who attended the 1st one and then was kind of at our 3rd one (he was babysitting =)) commented how it was unfair that we didn't have the trivia & prizes at the first one and then was surprised at how much change there had been in our support levels during the one week that separated our 1st and 3rd. PTL! =)
We're also learning too... At the 1st SGG, I made sure we took our camera but then I forgot I had it until we were nearly done so I just left it, but like the host mentioned afterward, we definitely should've taken a few pics! So we made sure we had pics from the 2nd and 3rd SGGs.
Hopefully they'll just get better and better. We love sharing our story - God's been so good to us, there's always more that we want to tell and never enough time! =)
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