Love in Service

The St. Valentines Day "Repas"

"Chef" Fred mixes things up...

What a pleasure it was to serve the couples of the church with the youth club on Feb. 15th for the "Repas de St. Valentine." The excellent, restaurant quality food was planned and prepared by Fred Albertini (with the help of his folks!) 

The day of the dinner the youth started to arrive around 12:30 to help cut veggies, set up tables, decorate the main room and set the tables. 

Setting up the main room was tricky - too many tables.

Despite a few complications with timing, everything was ready by 6pm, when the couples began to arrive. 
 

We tried to give each couple their own little table, but we didn't have enough little tables!

A couple of couples pose with their favors - heart-shaped frames that served to mark their place as well as a place to put their portrait that we took for each couple.

Dressed to the hilt, the married couples were escorted to their tables by our professionally clad youth who were only too happy to serve.

Entertainment during the evening included some ad-lib comedy led by some of our young people, as well as some songs to set the ambiance sung and played by Havalyn.

Overall the couples were very pleased with the evening and many hope that we will do it again next year. We shall see...

Rachel goofs off with the couple's photo session.

While Papa does dishes, and Mom takes pics, baby hangs out with Joanna. Merci Joanna!

Home from the Holidays

We've been back since the 4th from Wisconsin, although the jetlag took at least a week for us to recover, and immediately after the jetlag Havalyn came down with an almost three-week-long flu. So needless to say, we haven't exactly hit the ground running this month. 

We had a lovely time in the States on our trip that was paid for by Havalyn's parents and the kind contributions of family and friends. The greatest blessing, of course, was that Havalyn's family could finally meet Zacharie!

Now that we're back, life is back to its normal pace. Belgium is having a very mild winter this year, (we're in the mid-40's almost every day) which means that JL is working much more than he normally does in January/February. This is a huge financial blessing, since often winter can be somewhat stressful for those who work in construction. No matter how the winters go, God takes care of His loved ones, doesn't He?

We're looking forward to next week when we will be hosting with the youth club a romantic dinner for the couples in the church. It will be the youth who will prepare the food, decorate and serve the food. The goal is to provide a fun evening for the couples, and to encourage the youth to serve, starting in their local church. Please be praying that this evening is a blessing for all who are involved.