We also had a lot of publicity work to do to help get the word out to students on campus that we might not know personally. On Monday of Thanksgiving week we went onto two of the biggest campuses in Montpellier to do a blanket invite and publicity campaign using...sugar cookies! Amanda and Caro headed up our publicity team, and planned the whole "cookie campaign." We spent the weekend making dough, rolling it out, sprinkling, baking, bagging, and tagging them with beautiful fliers made by an artistic French student friend Simon. We set up a table on campus, and stopped students as they passed to offer them cookies and invite them and their friends to the dinner Thursday night. It was a huge step of faith for many of us to walk up to French students we don't know and try to engage them in conversation, and there were many rejections and people who ignored us. In spite of this, God was so faithful! He gave us a lot of joy and enthusiasm, and we were able to bless a lot of students (we made about 450 cookies!) and also generate more publicity for Agape. We also were blessed by running into some students we knew and having great conversations with them!
After spending Tuesday and Wednesday cutting up baguettes (about 24 in total) into tiny cubes and baking our 5 pumpkin pies, we arrived at the big day! Kate, Joelle, and I (the decorating team) arrived to the church where we were hosting the event mid-morning, and started decorating and setting up the room.
Before we knew it, it was 2:30 and time to head home for a quick "lunch" and a few minutes of rest before heading back to the church loaded down with pies (our other roommates brought the stuffing closer to dinner time). God provided in amazing ways with the tables we needed, and the happy volunteers necessary to help pull it all together. It turned our really beautiful!
All of sudden, it was beginning! Students began arriving, picking seats, and settling in. Before dinner, Robyn got up in front of the group and shared the story of Thanksgiving - the faith of the Pilgrims, and their thankfulness to God and to the Native Americans that provided the food they needed to survive in this new land. It was really well done, and so exciting to share something so culturally American with our French friends.
We also had two French Agape students get up and share their testimonies of what they were thankful for. Simeon, a first-year university student, shared his journey of how he came to faith in Christ, and how thankful he is to God for saving him and for giving him new direction in his life. Joelle, our fellow intern and dear friend, got up next, and shared how thankful she is to God for the challenges she has faced in the last year (including losing her mother this spring), and how she has felt Him in her life in such a closer and more intimate way as a result. You could hear a pin drop in the room while they were talking! It was so beautiful to see how genuine they were, and to have them both present the message of the Gospel so clearly to a room of 90 or so students (at least 60 of whom were non-Christians).
Next came the food! The students were genuinely excited to try these classic American Thanksgiving dishes (except the pumpkin pie...that got more of a mixed reception!) It was so great to be able to serve them and to share with them! After dinner, we did the "traditional" (it has appeared at all of our Thanksgivings here in Montpellier) turkey hand craft. Students really seemed to get into it! It was a ton of fun to watch them getting creative in designing and constructing their turkeys, but it was even more fun and meaningful to see them truly reflecting on what they were thankful for.
Tracing and cutting out our hand turkeys!
Adam with his beautiful turkey! (Adam came straight from work in order to help us out as a greeter - he is such a blessing and a dear friend! Keep praying that God's truth takes root in his heart!)
All in all, Thanksgiving was a wonderful night! All the preparations went smoothly, and God's hand was definitely on it. In addition, we were able to welcome and feed about 90 students, who were blessed by the food and the stories shared by Simeon, Joelle, and Robyn! Thanks to all you were praying with us - we have so much to be thankful for!
