Dialect Christmas Party 2024
The Dialect Leadership Team (DLT) expressed concern in early Jan 2024 about the low turnout of new attendees at the previous year’s Dialect Christmas Party in Dec 2023. In Jun 2024, the DLT decided to invite the same singers to lead the Dialect Christmas Party on 19th Dec 2024, but with several enhancements:
- An Altar Call would be included after the message, paying attention to the response so as to follow up with any interested individuals.
- Publicity for this event would go out in November to the English, Chinese and Dialect members. To reach out to a bigger audience, Seline was assigned the responsibility of making announcements at the English service.
During the DLT Retreat at Talulah Hill Farm Resort the month before Christmas, the topic of the Christmas Party was discussed in detail and a plan was devised for the Manna Bridge teams to distribute flyers to the community, with invitation cards given to the elderly to invite their friends. By God’s grace, the efforts yielded positive results, with over 30 new attendees joining us in this year’s Dialect Christmas Party.
Many of the elderly enjoyed singing along to the classic Hokkien and Cantonese songs and lip-syncing with fond memories, I presume, of the old TV and movies where these songs came from. I feel that we should proactively engage the people who came, by grouping them at tables with at least one DLT or JCC member to chat and pray for them, like we do during the alternate Thursday Dialect CG. Without intentional effort to connect with them, the newcomers who came alone may enjoy the music and food before leaving without forming deeper relationships within the JCC dialect community.
This year’s catering was from a new supplier and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Comments included praise for the “wok hei” (smoky flavour) of the beehoon, describing it as “restaurant standard” and acknowledging the generous portion sizes.
Creating a warm and welcoming environment is crucial as we share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Though the immediate response to the Altar Call was not significant, the seeds have been planted and we will await the Lord’s timing to reap the harvest.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)
Watch this event on YouTube: https://youtu.be/K8McjLa-M-M
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