Carol & I really appreciate this great idea of hospitality dinners that you have organized. We are strong believers in the 'church as a family', and this is one of our favorite things to do, just like 'progressive dinners' and 'dinners for six' in the old days.
Our first dinner was with Chris & Tina Goetz and Nicole & Tyler Friesen. We love our church young adults and these 4 were no exception. We've known and loved Chris and his family since he was a 10 year old in our Christian Service Brigade. Getting to know the others was a delight. We hadn't realized that Tina actually married Nicole and Tyler. Hearing about their living experiment of 4 related families in a 4-plex was an adventure. And they all had interesting school/job/hopes-&-dreams stories, including Tina working at the new national office.Our games of 'Catchphrase' in front of the fire went to a winner-take-all tiebreaker which the girls 'let' us win.
Our second dinner was with Rachel Yu (Taiwanese) and Angela Lee (Korean) from Friday ESL class. I confess being a little nervous when Lily told me our guests would be two ladies, and with English as a second language. To help the evening out, we additionally invited a new Persian family from church, whom we recently met. They are Massoud & Jasmine and their 13 year old son, Arteen and 9 year old daughter Tonya. ( I met this family at ping pong in the church one Sunday afternoon, and after praying with Jasmine in church one Sunday morning she invited us over to dinner, and we found all 4 of them wonderfully extroverted and entertaining, and already feel like they are our friends.) It turned out to be a good idea, as Massoud, like Angela's family, is very well-travelled and they had lots to talk about. As well, Angela brought her husband, Andy, and her 11 year old son David, both of whom spoke English well. Andy (school master at a private school in Soeul) & Angela worked hard for 10 years, then took one year off to travel the world, and are now taking a second year off here while David learns English. Rachel & Angela were so cute and serious about trying out their newly-acquired English. Later in the evening the men and kids went out to the garage to play ping pong (Massoud & Andy are both very good) while the ladies chatted. Rachel's husband is back in Taiwan, and her 16 year old son was at school that night. Rachel, who hadn't been before, met us in church the following Sunday.
Sorry. Forgot to take pictures.
God bless!
Dave Buzza Sr.
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Norm & Davina Hedblom, came to dinner with my son Christopher (new from Montreal) and I on Monday, December 3rd. We had a wonderful time getting to know them both. Davina and I had met before over the sewing of the Baptisimal Gowns for Northside. So it was particularly great to meet her husband.
My son, was happy to meet them, as he has been trying to meet people in the church - her really enjoyed them and will look for them again at church. Even though they attend Lansdown campus. (We are at the Poco campus).
They had presented me with lovely candles in holders and a beautiul tea towel, that Davina had embroierded my name and a bouquet of flowers - beautiful!
Sincerely,
Colleen Perreault
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We had a wonderful dinner on Dec 22. John and Nora O’Donnell and Ray and Miranda K. all came for dinner and a nice long visit. It was a fabulous experience and we can’t wait to do it again.
We also went to dinner to the Friesen’s and we had a wonderful time. The Friesians are gracious hosts.
Happy New year to you too,
Erin Moore
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We had a great visit with Greg and Erin and Madison at the beginning of December. We discovered that Erin and I have many common interests (her Masters degree is in Leadership and that’s what I’m registered to do next year) and Greg had some great questions and insights into church life. We will definitely look for ways to spend more time together in the future. Thanks for encouraging our church to keep stirring one another up toward love and good deeds (or however that goes!). We know that we need to do this but you made it easier. We also had a Korean lunch again with Changhun and Rebecca Suk and appreciate their commitment to bringing leadership to people at Northside. I’m not sure if their hospitality was inspired by hospitality month or not but I think the hospitality month idea will have many spinoffs as people are encouraged to stretch more to get connected with others. Having Ingrid and Terry over was something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and this seemed like a great time to do so!
Thanks again.
Rebecca Friesen
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We finally had our guest night. We had a great time with Colin and Angie Scott, Doug and Ruth Madge, Victor and Joanne Katongo, Peter and myself.
Dinner was followed by a competetive game of Catch Phrase with the guys uncharacteristically whopping the girls. We splurged on dessert, then played a great round of Apples to Apples. We all got to know each other better and look forward to greeting each other the next time we meet. We now know who the really competetive people are, but not to mention any names Doug, Colin, Peter and Victor.
I think everyone enjoyed the evening and we look forward to doing this type of night again.
Cheers,
Diane Oorebeek
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