British Community

On Sunday we went to a British Community Open House dinner. The British
Community in Asunción is made up of a mix of old school ex-pats and a
new breed of younger (less than 60) families on contracts. The
best-seller 'At The Tomb of the Inflatable Pig', gave a colourful
caricature of some of the more eccentric ex-pats. Many of them were
there on Sunday.

We used not to go to these events, but with more families around these
days we feel a bit more comfortable. In fact, the invitation mentioned
there would be a bouncy castle, and because of that we went. With a six
year old and three year old, child entertainment is a priority at these
things.

I met a larger than life guy called Pete. He'd retired 6 months ago to
Paraguay with his Paraguayan wife. He said he was totally non
religious, but I invited him along to our small group anyway. I told
him it was fine to be non religious in the small group setting, in fact
you can ask any question you like no matter how stupid or aggressive.
He seemed taken aback by this.

I think a key thing for courses such as Alpha and Christianity Explored
is the non-threatening open atmosphere. When people are given freedom
to be themselves in a non-threatening group they open up and begin
genuine spiritual searching.

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