#JustYouth was on Saturday and it just happened to be Canada Day, so what better theme than to force everyone to celebrate with us!! It was HOT. +37 degrees Celsius and the a/c units in our church building are absolutely pathetic! We were wondering how many people we would get but there were at least 60, and more always straggle in as the evening goes on.
We had decorations:
My Mom brought me all sorts of Canada items when she came - a massive Canada flag that we hung from the ceiling, red food colouring, Canada cupcake papers....
All of these great little flags and a maple leaf cookie cutter that I cut up a watermelon with:
Ruslan, our regular MC wasn't available so Steve and Antonio did it together, in Russian and untranslated English.
We played Canada trivia and handed out Canada prizes - a bunch of toques and mittens, headbands and calendars we brought back with us in winter. Did I mention that it was +37 degrees Celsius?? Yeah, and we handed out TOQUES AND MITTS. ha ha ha
Steve really wanted to prepare some songs....so he made a mashup of famous (and not so famous) Canadian artists and we sang and acted along with their music videos. This was the Celine Dion portion:
And here is Nickleback:
It was as embarrassing and as awkward as it looks, not to mention incredibly hot!
We played Canadian sports - basketball:
A very loose version of curling:
We also did hockey but didn't manage to pull off lacrosse.
After Oleg spoke we carried the cake table up to the front where we cut it and made everyone come up in SINGLE FILE to take a piece. That way one person didn't take 8 cupcakes and seven people didn't get any.
I try to keep on top of Canada - Ukraine relations and it makes me very excited and happy to know that Canada supports Ukraine in a lot of ways while the country is in rough shape. From the new Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement, sending Canadian troops to train Ukrianian troops to helping in tangible, on the ground ways (for example, donating a fleet of ambulances) it makes me extemely grateful to be from a country that has so much and can do so much for other countries. I don't think I was ever very patriotic until I moved away, oddly enough! But being in Ukraine makes me realize how much we have as Canadians and we thank God that we are able to be in Ukraine to share His love and salvation through Jesus Christ.
2 comments:
I also think we're more patriotic when we're out of our country. We were in Mexico years ago with the male choir, and sang O Canada at some restaurant, and boy! did that feel good! You did a great job with Canada Day!
Great work!!! pops/Kelly
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