Arab Fest: Huge Success!

Here is the write-up from the Arab Fest organizers about how it all went down:

15th Arab International Festival

A HUGE SUCCESS

The record breaking 15th Annual Dearborn Arab International festival, June 18-20, drew over 350,000 people from around the country and parts of Canada. The expanded festival that stretched over 1.5 miles on Warren Avenue continues to be the largest street festival in the nation.

In an effort to promote the festival, American Arab Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Fay Beydoun, decided it was time to highlight Middle-Eastern cuisine live on the metro-Detroit airwaves. Lebanese delights were featured on Fox-2 Detroit's weekend news with hosts Deana Centifonti and Jay Towers. Beydoun was a guest on their live cooking segment as she explained to hundreds of thousands of viewers how to make hummous. Accompanying Beydoun was Greenland Super Store Executive Chef Bilal Masri who tantalized viewers with authentic cuisine. The food included breakfast meat and cheese pies, chicken and lamb schawarma sandwiches, fruit smoothies, vegetarian grape leaves, stuffed squash, potato and lamb stew over rice, and other delicious items.

Another new event was the first annual hot dog eating contest sponsored by Leo's Coney Island. There were eight contestants who were given four minutes to down as many hot dogs as possible. The top three winners received cash prizes from Leo's. (You can see me to the far left in the photo below. I am wearing the shades. I was deemed "the lead person" on organizing the event. It was so fun and I learned a lot about promoting a hot dog joint that day:)

There was also an expanded carnival, children's interactive tent, adult main stage, artisans tent, international food booths, Arab merchandise, henna and psychic readings. As the organizer of the event, the Chamber would like to extend its gratitude to its presenting partner Ford Motor Company and in cooperation with the City of Dearborn and the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) for their financial and logistical support. Also, a heartfelt thank you to the over 150 Impact International volunteers from the deep south who come in the name of promoting cross-cultural understanding. They have embraced the beauty of the community just as we appreciate all their volunteer efforts and southern hospitality.

It was a great trip and I will be posting more soon! Thanks for all your thoughts and support.

desperately wanting

i am up late.

can't sleep just yet i guess.


there is a song that we used to sing in Girl Scouts. it was sung in rounds and go something like this:

make new friends, but keep the old
one is silver and the other's gold


for some reason this song has actually come up a lot in my mind in the last several years. these years have been full of old friends, new ones, and some that fall somewhere in between. i also think of the popular forward that gets sent around every once and in while that talks of the friends we have that come through our lives for reasons, seasons, and i forget what else. i feel like my pastor back in NA when he says that pastoring an international church is like watching a parade go by...waving goodbye to those who have been and waving hello to those to come.


as i lie awake after watching another three-episode installment of Dawson's Creek Season One (please keep snide remarks and comments to yourself) and was reminded of the time in my life when i watched this series as it was being released, i can't help but think of the people, the friends from that time in my life. a majority of them i know at least where they are in life thanks to myspace, facebook, and phone calls, but still we will never have that community we once shared. many of those parts of my life from early high school have died off and are buried.


since coming back from NA i have been processing a lot just how different the States are in comparison to well...the rest of the world. i went to a counselor this week to talk through some of the feelings and adjustments i have been going through these past several months. he quite assuredly let me know that i may never fully be assimilated back into the American way of life. never. really?


tonight, as the song referenced above was dancing through my head, i thought of the life i had in NA. how different it was. then i went onto thinking about the gold friends i have. you know, the ones that i have had from before i left for my two year adventure. where are they? many are doing what any person has done while a friend of theirs has been physically absent for the last 22 months or so...they have lived their lives. gotten married, have had children, have a new job, have moved, and of course: found new friends, new communities, new fellowships.


in an effort to try and be a "normal" 20-something in the southern US i decided i wanted to do something "normal" for this saturday night. it has been interesting trying to spearhead this outing since the one person out of the group that hasn't done something like this in quite sometime on many ways is the one trying to organize and plan (well, i guess that part of me hasn't change so much) this "normal" affair. i think we may end up with dinner out and a film from this weekend's local film festival. sounds normally good, right?


but you know what i am desperately wanting? community. fellowship.

how many more new friends that are silver-like and how many old friends that are gold-like will i have to have to have this community? does the community always keep changing?


i remember my first time at a church service back here in the good ole US of A. i had landed back here on a Saturday afternoon and went the following Sunday evening. i wasn't sure what to expect as i had never visited the church. it was funny later to me as i had this expectation in my mind that i might get some phone numbers or email addresses while i was there that night. see, at my international church in NA, if someone new came to our church, we would be very intentional in introducing ourselves and immediately try to get their phone number to try and set up a coffee date or tour of some part of the city for that week. i think i was thinking that might happen at my first time back in the US church. it didn't. and that is okay. i did fill out a card where i could list my contact info. and i was contacted later that week about various opps within the church, but it just wasn't the same. and i don't think it ever will be.


i guess i am coming to grips with that. trying to figure out how to deal with life in the transitional stages of life...specifically this one i am experiencing moment by moment. i have friends, but.

even though my Arabic was not that great, i feel like i was able to connect pretty deeply with some of my NA friends. and the connection, the fellowship, i had with other expats while there was just so unique. we all had a few important things in common: Christ and being an expat/international. for some reason this brought many of us together on many different occasions. so many walls were never put up because our lives were so different. it didn't matter where we had come from or how great we spoke our second or third language. we were in it together. it wasn't a big, dramatic deal. just toast with cafe' creme, movies, house visits or walks around the city.
i saw a picture on a book today of one of the ladies that lives in NA now and it just made me miss so much. isn't it ironic that the very things that i, at times, had such a hard time adjusting to in NA are the very things i miss the most?

but one thing that i hope could be found anywhere on the globe: community/fellowship/life with life/gold is what i am desperately wanting these days.

lenses

for as long as i can remember i have had problems with my ears. since i have inner ear issues, i have seen many doctors throughout my life trying to assess and deal with the different problems that have come up. i remember the first time i had tubes put in my ears...it was a surgical procedure. the last time i had tubes put in i was able to remain awake and had the procedure quickly done right there in the doctor's office. technology is amazing and i have seen it progress so much already in my lifetime. since i have always had ear problems, i have always wanted to have something more normal wrong with me...like needing glasses.
i used to poke the sun-glass shades out of my sunglasses just so i could have frames to wear as my "glasses". later, i saved up money to buy fake pairs of glasses...i have had an array of glasses over the years. my sister still rags on my for the Sally Jessy Raphael pair i loved to wear around the house. for some reason i thought having glasses would be way more normal than having to explain to people at the swimming pool why i had to wear ear plugs and a swimmer's cap. my sight is actually really incredible...guess i can thank my not-so-great ears for that. i got good eyes.

the other morning as i was sitting with the Lord, i realized that my recent struggles intensify when my lens is zoomed in way too tight. it is like the lens is right up on my face...nothing else. all i care about is my problems, my worries, my...my...my. God was reminding me that i have to zoom out. i have to focus not on just my face or my latest fear or struggle, but be willing to let others in the picture. let others' lives be a part of mine. allow myself the privilege to use my experiences to help others has they go through theirs. and vice versa.
at the retirement party i went to last week i noticed a young lady taking lots of photos. i have seen some of her work before and was excited she was able to couple her talent with her day-job. later, she asked if i could take a photo of her work team. i gladly took the challenge of capturing the perfect shot of all five of them...making sure all eyes were open, smiles were on point, and backs were straight and tall. she warned me that the lens was really best for portraits, so maybe try and take a shot to see how it would really turn out. when i take photos i try to make them as un-needy of cropping as possible, but this portrait lens was tricky. it gave me a different shot than what i was seeing on my side of the lens. the gal said that the lens is best used for up close and personal shots and not so great for group shots (like the one i was trying to take for her and her team). this whole scenario came back into mind during my time alone with the Lord that morning. what if i took the portrait lens of my camera and was willing to attach the wide-angle, landscape lens? what would i see? what would that capture? possibly some heart-ache, possibly some trials, possibly some victories, possibly laughs, and so on and so forth. but most likely allowing the lens to capture the depth and width of life would allow me to experience loads of what God really cares about...love. not in the mis-construed sense that the world is all wrapped up in these days, but good, pure, holy L-O-V-E.

this article below is a helpful piece that reminds me of what i am really here for.
http://www.mygazines.com/issue/9197/68

not to [me], but to your Name be the glory.