1st Alpha meeting

After literally months of planning, we finally had our first Alpha meeting last night, and it was really encouraging!

We really weren't sure who (if anyone!) would come; we weren't sure if we were over- or underplanning; I wasn't sure how the language barrier would affect the evening. But I think we were all pleasantly surprised at how smoothly everything went. For those of you not familiar with Alpha, it's designed to be a course in the basics of Christianity which also involves building relationships. You meet with the same small group of people for ten weeks, eat dinner each week, worship together, listen to a lecture about a point of the Christian faith, and then discuss it. People are encouraged to be honest about their beliefs, even if they differ greatly from Christianity, and this really helps combat the common misconception
that Christians are merciless and cold. It's what drew me to the Alpha program, actually -- the Christian faith is presented very clearly according to Scripture, yet there is no pressure or judgment. It gives seekers the chance to talk through spiritual issues without feeling defensive.
I was pretty nervous when the couple who sat down at my table spoke no English! But I understood the wife pretty well, and in spite of my horrible grammar, she understood me too. She even complimented me on my singing during worship! Fortunately, we were soon joined by a woman who spoke English remarkably well and was kind enough to translate! We ended up shuffling the groups a bit so Kacie and I had all the English speakers, with quite the range of visitors -- from a 16 year old boy who wonders whether God exists at all and just wants to practice his English, to a much older man who said he came mainly to get away from the new puppies smelling up his house. :) The language barrier was a bit of an issue, but as one of the men said, some of those questions would be hard to answer in Hungarian! At the end of the evening, they were very complimentary, and some even mentioned bringing others next week. So you can be praying for us in the coming weeks: pray that we can transcend language difficulty, that we can develop real relationships, that we can discuss well. I'll be posting updates! Next week's topic: why did Jesus die?