On September 16, Higashi Saitama church hosted the JBA youth BBQ.
The original plan for this day was to have a BBQ and outdoors activities in Hanyu Sky Park in Saitama but because of unfavorable weather it was decided to change the location.
Everyone arrived at Higashi Saitama church around 10 am. After fees for the event were collected, some began the preparations of the BBQ and lighting fires outside under a tent while everyone else played a name game inside.
After the game a prayer was said to bless the food and the event, then everyone headed outside to the BBQ tent. By this time the rain had stopped so there was no worry of getting wet while eating. It was a bit of a free-for-all around the pits meaning you went around and picked out what you wanted when you could as soon a it cooked. Each pit was cooking something different at different times from pork meat (yaki niku style) to veggies, yakitori and sausages. Someone even prepared marshmallows that we could roast over the coals.
After eating lunch, everyone got into cars to move locations to a nearby community center that they were able to rent out a room to have recreational games in. Everyone was split off into 4 groups and we played group games. The way the group leader was chosen was quite interesting. The MC asked the groups to all point to someone that fit the description on the count of three and that person had to stand up. There were multiple rounds such as, who is most likely to love going to watch movies, who would work well with kids, who looks good in a hat and so on. Finally, the MC said the person you just picked for the last question is your leader. The team games played were "fan the balloon" relay, a human train relay and which team had the most members that could get the candy off the string with their mouth game. There was a lot of laughter and good team spirit among all the teams.
Once the games were finished, chairs were set up in rows and Bro. Nobu gave a short message.
Everyone split back up into the groups to have snacks and discuss what has been going on in our lives. We were each to say something that we would like prayed for and then the person to our left would pray for that. Everyone took turns saying a prayer in the circle.
Before cleaning up the room, everyone gathered up to take a group photo. Despite the weather, everything turned out great and everyone had a great fellowship and became closer with each other. Looking forward to the next gathering.
PS. sorry for posting this a month later.
Stay blessed.
-Meliah