Evendays

5 minutes from our house, 10,000 youth gathered for a New Year’s Eve party. They’d each paid $36.00 to get into the 5 dance halls where DJ’s animated the evening. Even though professionals had been hired to assure security, there was much fighting outside the halls and in the streets. A riot started in the cloak room and it took 80 policemen 90 minutes to clear out that one room.

From December 28 to January 2, 40,000 youth, ages 17 to 35, met in the Palexpo Hall in Geneva for singing, Scripture reading and prayer. Authorities said there was a minimum police presence. There was no violence, even though Serbs and Croatians, Bosnians and Kosovars sat next to each other. They all praised God through Jesus. They all prayed for peace.

Being filled with the Spirit beats being filled with spirits, doesn’t it?

14 Taizé people stayed at our place… 9 from Croatia and 5 from Catalonia (Barcelona area). The Croatians worshipped with us on Sunday. During our farewell meal on Tuesday, we sang to each other about God, Christmas and hope in Christ. They gave us gifts. We exchanged addresses and took pictures.

Overall, a very enriching experience.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Hospitality, Taizé. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.