Alph Alpha (hours 5-8)

Set up for Alpha Course this week went a lot faster because we now know the drill. We set up tables and chairs, made sure there were glasses, water vases, forks, knives, dessert spoons, and pamphlets on every table. I cut limes and lemons to put in the water, and cut up the pieces of cheescake for dessert. It was a little tricky because we had to cut each pie into five individual slices, and as we all knoe- that is not even lines.

This week we served a Guiness stew with mushrooms and beef, new potatoes, and carrots. I had an interesting encounter with a lady there. She is homeless and apparently has been coming to the Alpha course for years and she is little off her rocker. We are told to only measure out a ceratin amount of food for each plate until everyone has had some and then if there is enough let over they can have seconds. Well, this lady came back for more two times and I gave her a little more and she laughed and told me it was not enough. When we told her we could not give her more yet, she just took her own fork and got some. We didn't really know what to do, because we didn't want to be rude. Apparently though, the people at St. Aldates have no trouble telling her no (we learned this afterward).

This week was a lot of fun. When I was on my way over to the church I had to remind myself that I was doing this for the Lord and not just for service hours. When I was there serving the food I was reminding myself to be Christ to these people and serve them out of a servant's heart. I was reminding myself that most of the people I was serving do not know Christ and I wanted them to encounter him through me- even just by the way I say "you're welcome" or ask how they are doing.

After we served dinner we cleared away the plates and brought out dessert for everyone. We then began to wash dishes. We waited in the back for a long time and this was a good time to be in community with the people who are members of St. Aldates. We talked to a few different people and talked more about the differences in our cultures and exchanged stories of our experiences in the opposite culture.

Once, the speaker began to speak we took our food out to listen to him and eat. It was very interesting. He is a professor of Physics at Oxford University. I think it is so neat and refreshing when someone that inteligent is so passionately in love with the Lord. He explained that God is inexplainable. He was talking about how it is godo to question, but we need to come to the understanding that we do not have the capacity to understand everything about God and how he works.

Once the speaker was done he told the tables to turn to each other and discuss points of agreement, dissagreement, or questions they had. While the tables were discussing, we cleared away more of the food and everything that was on the tables. Before, we cleared the tables we gave them time to talk without disrupting them. At this point, we talked more to the locals and got to know them better. They are so much fun.

Once we were done cleaing, we stood around for a while and met a few more people. They were some worshjip leaders who are right around our age. We talked to them for quite a while and they asked us to try and talk with their accents and they did impressions of Americans to us. We swapped jokes and emails and are keeping in contact with them.

Overall last Tuesday night was so much fun and it was awesome to meet new people and see God at work in that atmosphere!