Celebrations..

Post #1 – Celebrations…
These last two weeks have been quite an adventure and I cannot believe we have been here 5 weeks already.  A little over two weeks ago Gabi and I took a train to another town to help with a summer English camp. 
But before leaving, we had a lot of great experiences in our city starting with Independence Day.  We celebrated by going from party to party. On the 4th of July, we attended a party at the US Embassy. There were a lot more Americans in the country than I thought! Some were familiar faces from teams who have been here during the summer, but most people I had never met before. With US flag decor and popular music playing, it was a little piece of home. There was so much good food including mountains of watermelon and hamburgers and baked beans cooked by the Marines. So delicious! Later that day we continued the feast by attending a friend's party. While there I met so many great brothers and sisters, including a couple from the UK. They shared stories of their time here. I very much appreciated their insight to Papa's plan for people here and how they were a part of such a plan. They gave us some insights into min. here, encouraging us to be great harvesters by sowing widely and talking to Papa constantly. Since talking with them, I have realized that I should practice my storytelling skills. Not only should I be able to contextualize stories of the book, but stories of how Papa has helped me in my life.
My 4th of July was not without fireworks this year. A national holiday on the 6th left the night sky glittering after a fun day of festivities.  This was the birthday of the city and also of the president. We met with a local friend who took us around the city to take in the sights. In the multiple parks around the city were carnivals with bouncy houses and rides. Music made everything come alive and stages were set up for musicians and dancers. I saw many different ethnic dances including Russian, Uzbek, Tajik and Kazakh. Food tents lined the streets and the smell of shashleek (kabobs) filled the air. On the river was a stage set up for a ballet performance. A local dance company teamed up with an American dance company to deliver an amazing performance that was more than 3 hours long. Once the dance had ended, the fireworks began. Lights and colors lit up the sky as flame throwers came up from the river with cakes going off from the opposite bank. Then the Roman candles, fountains and small artillery shells, followed by the 6's and 8's. The sounds echoed down the canal. The shear size of the show was amazing and it seemed the entire thing was a finale. (However, it maybe needed the choreography and computer-music programming effects of Porter's Pyrotechnics ;) After the spectacular display, the streets were packed and buses were even more packed. Finally after two hours of waiting we arrived home. I thoroughly enjoyed this night of fun and culture.
This day was also big because it was the opening of our cousins' new building in town. It is said to be the largest in all of Central Asia, able to hold 5,000 people. It was amazing. The marble work was gorgeous with blues and creams and gold lettering. The campus was very crowded and we had to push our way to get in. People were packed in the building all the way out to the fountain in the courtyard. I learned not to walk in front of people when they were gesturing to the West… they get real mad. I am glad we visited on the first day because we did not have to be dressed completely appropriately and women were allowed on the lower main level during prayer time. We were there right as the call started, which was very interesting. Of course it was hard to walk around and think that so many of these people are so far from Papa. Hearing the echoes of the MC broke my heart. I talked to Papa a lot while I was walking around. Mostly we talked that the people would be blessed in their lives, that they would have the knowledge of the son and that Papa would be honored through that. This building may bring a newness of faith of my cousins and may encourage them to step out past their nominal relationships with papa. (I think that is the aim of the cousins in the west, but not necessarily of the people here.) Or, this building may only be a pretty architectural structure hidden by the strong lure of materialism and secularism. Only papa knows and so we must keep talking to him about that asking for his mercy in everything.