Thanksgiving Party Report

Yesterday I blogged about getting ready to go to the Thanksgiving party organized by CCCCD and now I am writing my experience of attending the same. The well orchestrated party had a set agenda with the following items:

1. Prayer, welcome and introductions
2. Dinner
3. Informal sharing of thanksgiving memories, traditions and customs
4. Singing of Thanksgiving songs – debrief – formal close of the event.
5. Tour of the Christ church for those interested

The gathering comprised of about 60-75 students and volunteers from the church and organizers. The largest number of students representing one nation was of course the Chinese, closely followed by Pakistanis and then the rest of the flock. Quite surprisingly there were only three (3) Indians in the event.

The dinner comprised of turkey and a whole lot of other meat stuff and like I had feared there were only beans, potato and bread for the vegetarians. I would assume that I was the only veggie out there. The food was so bland without salt, pepper or anything else that I didn’t go for a second round at all. The dessert part of the meal was simply fantastic, there were all kinds of pies, cheery, pumpkin, mango, apple etc.. then there was brownies, pastries and carrot cake too. I settled for a nice cream topped carrot cake and a nice round brownie.

Meanwhile one of the volunteers, a pastor from Christ church presented the history of Thanksgiving story in a impressive manner. But every time she mentioned “Indians” referring to Native Americans I felt bad. After the event I seeked her out and explained that referring to Native Americans as “Indians” was wrong and why it was incorrect. She kinda seemed to agree and I hope she doesn’t use the term again. The singing of Thanksgiving songs followed and it was kinda soothing to hear the booming melodies.

That last part of the evening, tour of the church is something I liked very much. The Christ church plano is a vast building with two worship spaces, the chapel and the main worship area. The chapel is smaller and can house about 500 people and the main church can house 1400 people. Quite impressive indeed. The entire church is built like a cross, a feature I had noticed in several churches both in US and in India. The stained glass windows had interesting colorful murals and everything in the building was modeled after the cross.