Valentine's Party

On Saturday, my college/career group (called "20somethings") at church held its second Valentine's party for the widows and widowers that go to Bethlehem. Someone came up with the idea last year, and a few of us had the burden to do it again. We all had such a blessed time talking with saints in our church who have grown in grace much longer than we have. The mad-lib game (see Valentine's mad lib post) was enjoyable, and one team won the prize for funniest story (mostly because of they way the guy read it).
Those of us who planned the party were really praying for a few certain things, and it was neat to see God answer those requests.

• Though we wanted many of the people we invited as well as many of the 20somethings to attend, we prayed for God to bring just whom He wanted to come. We only had 7 invited guests, and about 11 people from our group, but the numbers matched well. There were enough of us to do the decorating and serving, and we did not have way more people of one group than the other.
• We needed money to buy plates, decorations and flowers to give away, and we told the 20somethings group that we would like to raise about $50. A few people chipped in money, and then someone put $50 in my door with a note designating it for the party. God answered that prayer anonymously.
• Finally, we prayed that we would form lasting relationships. When the afternoon ended, I saw a few girls exchanging phone numbers with the ladies that they had met. I also talked to our guest speaker who is involved with the seniors' ministry about opportunities for our groups to do things together in the future.

Our purposes for the party were to bless the widows and widowers by doing something for them, and also to bridge the generation gap (which is especially real in such a big church). By God's grace, He caused both of these desires to become realities.