picnic in the rain

The All Nations Christian Center annual picnic was yesterday. And of course, it rained. Not only did it rain, but it rained ALL DAY. It rained hard and it was cold. With that said, I'd like to tell you that we still had the picnic and we still had a lot of fun, even with being soaked, frozen and having no place to sit down. We met at a lake on the outskirts of the city. it took about 2 hours to reach there, when you consider the walk to the metro, time in the metro, the bus, and then car that shuttled us from where we got out of the bus to the where the picnic was being held by the lake. When we arrived at the site, everyone was huddled under two small open tents on the beach. After talking to the man who was operating a local shop/bar across the street, (who apparently had pity on us) we moved the tents across the street and combined them with several outdoor tents used for the shop/bar which were completely empty, seeing as it was 11am on a Sunday and it was pouring rain. so we huddled under the tents and wrapped in blankets and tried our best not to have to stand in the puddles. and we had a time of worship. we sang and played music and heard a short message from pastor Kukuli, which he began by saying, "This is the first time I have ever preached in the rain under a tent advertising beer." See picture below. Funny.

There was food, soccer in the rain, and yes, there was even swimming - well, if you can call it swimming...i have never seen so many people that don't know how to swim so excited about being in the water. Sam and I (Sam from the water, and I from the shoreline) did our best to teach Fola and Chuks how to swim. They were so excited...it was like teaching two 8-year-old boys how to swim. We could barely get out a few sentences before they were off trying to do what we said! it was hilarious. Quote of someone watching from the beach, "Are they swimming or drowning?" You can judge for yourself...because of course, I took photos and video.

Some photos that capture our day:

And inevitably...as soon as we got home, it stopped raining. Go figure.