The past two weeks of ALPHA have been a blessing.  Last week, Kelley spoke on the Good News of the gospel and why and how we should share the great news of Jesus.  She began her talk by announcing that three lucky participants were going to receive prizes that night! Under three chairs in the room were strips of paper announcing a special prize which included a 200NT gift certificate to the Truth Church bookstore, a seat cushion and my favorite, a container of homemade cookies! Needless to say everyone was quite excited about the possibility of winning something and those three winners had something to share with their friends that night.  Likewise, Kelley talked about how the gospel of Jesus is extremely good news that we should be excited to share with others.  She used stories from her life to illustrate different ways we can share the Good News with our friends and family.  As many of us in Alpha have close family and friends who are nonbelievers, this message was especially relevant.  Many small groups shared about how they have been really experiencing the blessing of the gospel and feeling the desire to share the good news of Christ in their lives.  What an encouragement!  

This week, following yet another delicious dinner, Erich and Rhys led us in a riveting game of “ACT ATTACK!”.  Each group was given a scenario to act out and whoever was able to correctly identify the scenario first, was given a stick of HICHEW.  Being a lover of charades, this was especially fun to watch as many groups got really into their acting!

Following the game, John and Kelley presented a short skit tying in last week’s talk to this week’s theme on the church.  Julianne shared about the meaning of church and the role it should play in our lives.  She talked about the church being not a building but a group of people, driving home this point by saying “We don’t go to church, we are the church.”  Furthermore, she shared about how we all have a different role to play and how all our unique abilities contribute to the strength of the church as a whole.  Her talk inspired a lot of thoughts on the idea of church being about the people and not the institution. Moreover, many of the participants shared about how their experience at ALPHA this season has positively changed their idea of what church and fellowship is.  Praise the Lord!  He’s really been doing wonderful things through ALPHA.