Mid-Autumn Festival Awks

The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival was being held across the road from our church at the Trusts Stadium today, and so after church we had a shorted choir rehearsal so that we could go across to check it out...or so I thought...

The minister's wife who is also in the choir showed everyone these cool little pens with a piece of paper you can pull out and it talks about God and Jesus. I initially thought...phew OK it's in Chinese. I'll be off the hook since I don't understand what's on the pen. That's when they showed the other side to reveal the English side!

I've never gone and done outreach before, as I never feel like I'm ready or would be able to say the right things, so I thought I might just give this time a pass as well.

When I got across to the stadium though, I found all the church people there and in the end they persuaded me to give it a go! They taught me how to say

'Happy Mid-Autumn Festival' 

and

'Jesus loves you!'

in Chinese. I tried approaching some people and saying that to them as they walked by, but was completely ignored the first three times, as if I didn't even exist!

My first success was a little child. To be honest I just asked her if she would like a free pen!

I bumped into my old pharmacy friend Ai Ping and had a bit of a catch-up, which was pretty cool! She didn't want a pen!

Half way through, I realised I wasn't saying the right thing in Chinese to people, and then without thinking wished someone a Happy Chinese New Year!

Realising I was failing on my own, I decided to pair up with Antonia who did the talking and I handed out the pens. We were much more successful! I think people are more willing to listen to a girl than some ugly old guy like me!

When we had finally given everything out, it was time to go exploring! We went inside the stadium to check out what was going on, but it didn't seem as though much was actually happening. Everyone had gathered around the stage, but we couldn't tell what for.

We decided to go back outside and check out the food stalls. We caught up with Claire, someone we haven't seen in a while. It was so good catching up with people!

I was starting to get phone calls from the adults wanting their children back, so we had to rush to find something to eat. I offered to shout everyone squid, but it seemed as though every stall had sold out of squid! We eventually found a stall that sold it. It was a little spicy but it was OK!

Once we returned to church to reunite some of the people with their parents, we went back across the road to the festival, hoping for some discounts on food since it was almost the end of the festival. Sadly we were disappointed.

It's good to see WTV holding some Chinese festivals out west though. Usually they're held in the city or out in South Auckland. I don't think I'd ever seen as many Chinese people in one area in a long time as I did today! Hopefully there'll be more festivals to come!

(http://youtu.be/bDq9r7J7neU)