Shortest Calling Ever…

No, I’m not talking about being called to be the Nursery leader, I’m talking about my first calling here in Tianjin. :)

Last month I was called to be the ward activities chairman, only to find that my calling was cancelled entirely at the worldwide leadership meeting for our church just two weeks later! Nobody in our branch knew, as we don’t get the recordings of the broadcasts for a couple of weeks…but my Dad called and told me. I was happy to receive the calling, but also fine to have it taken away, as part of our job at work is to have parties every other week…literally. The Lord knows better than I do! But boy did I have fun teasing the President of our Branch the next Sunday!

To fulfill my two week duties, I threw the Thanksgiving Party with the wonderful help of the rest of the branch. We had about 50 people in attendance, a traditional assortment of T-Day food, some great Korean food by our Korean members, a short play about Squanto put on by my teachers and I, seasonally fresh centerpieces and a little bit of holiday singing to end the night. It was fun to feel at home and celebrate our Western traditions at Thanksgiving!

Here’s a few pictures of our church building (we actually have church in a house the church rents).

We had to be creative and sit people in different levels throughout our “chapel” in the living room (as seen above) and other rooms/levels in the house.

There also aren’t any tablecloths in China and it’s not like you can just stop by your local craft store or Costco and decorate for these kinds of things here…so I relied on some cardstock in fall colors to act as placemats and made some centerpieces after a quick trip to my favorite cheap flower mart.

I think it turned out great, and even though I know I’ll never have that calling again…I wouldn’t mind an excuse like that to throw another party!

xoxo,

MJ