It's all in the details!

~~~~~ UPDATE... I forgot to mention (details, details, I know... :0) that the theme of the night was "The Bride of Christ" which is why we had many elements of a wedding reception~~~~~



On the Thursday before we left Thailand, we hosted a banquet with 129 women from the safe houses! The purpose of this night was to pamper them, and show them their worth in Christ. This was my favorite part of the trip. I thought I would give you an overview of the details that went into this evening. Then, I'll come back and post on a more personal level about the night.




This picture makes me laugh! We prepared about 150 gift bags assembly line style. We each had a different item to load in the bags!



The hotel created this beautiful entryway into the banquet room! This and the next backdrop cost under $200 for both! I wonder what it'd be here in the States?



This was created to be a portrait backdrop. Each of the girls had a picture taken by the professional photographer (yeah Krista!) on our team. For security reasons, I cannot post pictures of the girls. Actually, none of us even took pictures during the banquet except the photographer. I took these before the girls arrived and after they left.





Here's Beth getting the tables ready. We became friends on the trip and she is now a bloggy friend too! Beth is a beautiful person and I'm thankful for her.



The table centerpieces. Look at how they tied the leaves- so fun!




I loved the bows on these chairs




Each of the girls were given a corsage to wear. You can also see a little wedding dress box- it is filled with rose shaped suckers and wedding bubbles!



These were the programs at the tables







Isn't this amazing? If you click on this picture, you can see my roomie standing by the stage. Above her head is our version of a pinata! We filled big gift bags with tons of goodies; tied them in tulle, and let the girls experience a pinata for the first time! You should've heard them scream!








Only the bottom layer of this cake was actually real!



Each of the girls went home with a bag full of fun stuff!



Can you tell we had a great time???



The toilet paper is from a game we played. Each table had to create a wedding gown out of toilet paper on a member of their table! Our table won for design. Woo Hoo!We were told we had an unfair advantage as our table was full of the jewelry designers! The girls loved this game!



When it was all done, we met to debrief and eat pizza as we were pretty hungry. The food at the banquet was high class, but hard for us Americans to swallow (pun intended :) ). Chinese food is exquisite there, so that is what Becky McDonald (the Pres. of W.A.R.) chose to have served. She wanted nothing but the best for the girls!Our meal included a whole pig. You start with the top layer and peel off the skin and eat it. Then they take it away- but it comes back in a different form and you eat the insides. We also had jellyfish, and shark fin soup. I didn't want the food to be an issue, so I just joined in and drank a lot of Coke as I ate!! :)



I hope this wasn't too much detail for you all!