Picnic with Iglesia de Mableton at Bent Tree

Saturday, July 25, 2015

We gathered with members of Iglesia de Mableton for a picnic at the pavilion on the lake at Bent Tree. The members of the Spanish congregation always cook up some wonderful food on the grills.

Volleyball on the beach was one of the first attractions.

The younger ones liked the beach and the water. Sandra, who is in our English class, brought along their new baby. That got the whole family here for the picnic - her husband and two other children are at the water's edge.

They got a good beach volleyball game going.

We went up to our house for some grilling supplies, and had the blessing of seeing this fawn on the way back. It bounded up the bank but then stopped for a moment to pose.

The grills were soon going full force. We certainly don't have to worry about going hungry on these outings with the Spanish congregation.

I ate several plates myself. My favorite was this combination on a tortilla prepared for me by Blanca.

The youth had an active water game with the volleyball while the younger children enjoyed playing in the shallows and in the sand.

It had turned out to be a lovely day for water play and playing on the beach.

Rafael and Carlos got together for some guitar playing and singing. Rafael and his wife Leslie are members of the Beulah church where Pastor Javier is helping to start a new Spanish ministry.

Later in the afternoon we moved down to the picnic tables closer to the beach for continued fellowship.

Oscar and Blanca Escobar enjoy their hammock down by the lake. Hammocks are very popular in Mexico and Central America, and according to Charles, all over South America.

It was a good place to celebrate a cumplianos. Pastor Javier gets a photo of the celebration.

It was a good time to have relaxed conversations.

I really enjoyed sitting around the table with Brenda and with Juan, Francisco and Carlos. A good bit of the conversation was Carlos telling about his home country, El Salvador. But he spoke so much of Guatemala, that I asked about the time he had spent there. It was the first time I had understood that there is no border security between these countries, and he had freely moved back and forth between El Salvador and Guatemala when he had lived there. The whole conversation was relaxed and slow enough that I could understand most of it, and they didn't mind if I asked questions about the points I didn't get. That was great fun - I could use a lot of such conversations.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the day, so we were pleased. We certainly had enought to eat! We all headed back toward Atlanta about 6pm.