Connect group

I had my connect group over for a meal yesterday. We joined with another group and had a casual evening together. Initially, the other leaders (my housemate Stephen and another friend Kathy) and I were planning to prepare a meal for the group but then I had a thought and ran with it. It turned out wonderfully and we had a great evening together.

We started out the evening with some chips and dip, chocolate, and punch for everyone as they arrived and chatted with each other but soon got on to the main course...




A good friend of mine, James, is a chef so my great idea was to have him prepare the food for us. Here he is putting on the finishing touches.







People were starting to get hungry when they smelled the food and much more so when they saw it. As you can tell, people were quite impressed. On second thought, "in awe" might be a more accurate way of putting it. The guy who isn't in awe is my housemate Stephen and he's seen James cook before. He was just proud to be able to put this on for his group.




Here's the finished product of an incredible chef. He made a great meal for 20 of us (plus one dish for himself)








The group was provided with pens and paper and encouraged to write notes of encouragement for other people in the group to take home with them. It was a great opportunity to build people up and the group took advantage of it.






We had a great evening and as reflected later, I was really hit with the thought of how great these people are and how honoured I am to be able to lead this group. On a night designed to bless them, I got at least as much blessing. Isn't it great how God works!!!