this past saturday, we had a neighborhood bbq. my neighbor and i organized it. i think it went really well, it rained all morning but the afternoon turned out really well. my kids even got a little lesson in prayer. together, the 3 of us, on the way to the grocery store, asked God to not let it rain and postpone our picnic. later that night i reminded them how God had answered our prayer and we praised him together.
a lot of the neighborhood came out and we met some new people and got to know others better. james and i realized how much of an opportunity we have to be witnesses for Christ right here in our little community. we are becoming good friends with our next door neighbors, mark and margie. they are in their 40's but have a 8 month old son, adam. please pray for them if you think of it. they have already come to our church bbq and were very impressed by how "young" our church was and they couldnt get over how nice everyone was. this was so different than the churches they were used to. i think they are interested as they keep asking questions, but margie was a little put off when she realized women were not allowed to speak during the meetings.
i think neighborhood bbq's are wonderful ways to get to know your neighbors and get an "in" to be able to let your neighbors know you and be a witness. even if you have lived in your neighborhood for years, throw a block party! get to know your neighbors! get interested in their lives, show them someone cares, show them why your family is different.
some things we did was, block off a section of our street so everyone could be in one place. we got a firetruck to come for the kids (and james, he got to dress up in all the gear, i got a picture of it to post later). we set out games of washers, had water balloon tosses, sack races. it was old time fun.
well this is long, so i will stop, but start planning a block party and/or bbq for next spring!reach out to the people closest to you.