heaja and some of us were discussing today what the food was going to be for new year's eve. i said possible catering... but there was a request to do it "poh-jang-mat-cha" style. so some dduk-boh-gi, hot oh-deng, oh-jing-uh-tee-geem, etc... we can set up the outside tarp area with heaters, table and the christmas lights making it a semi-korean "cart-restaurant" that you see in the dramas...

It was an amazing evening...incredible FOOD!!! Just want to thank everyone who served. You guys/gals are awesome!!!

Charles, thanks for the reminder.

Food service will be buffet style, yes. At this juncture, I think calling out table to fetch food is better than serving individually on the first plate. We can set food into two sections with two 8' tables each (we have ordered 6 - 8' tables). With this, we can have four lines of people getting dinner and a separate drink table away from food tables.

It would be nice if we have a person slicing prime ribs, but I think we don't have the luxury to time. So, I suggest prime ribs should be pre-sliced. I suggest two persons to man each section of food tables, and one - two persons at drinks area.

One thing I would like to add to that is with that
many people expected, things can become very chaotic,
very quickly. In order to control the potential for
chaos, we really need to be very well organized. We
are really going to need some help from the singles
(why, you ask? Because although a lot of the parents
are assisting with the banquet, we all have kids that
are going to have needs and it can get hectic when
tugged on one side by a child and the other by the
stress of volunteering), so we need the singles to go
above and beyond the call of duty.

Second, we need to decide how we want to handle
serving the food. With that many people, it will take
a lot to control the amount of people who will get in
line for the food. I'm assuming that we will have it
as a buffet line but might I suggest one of 2 options:
 1) Have the initial dish served to each person
sitting so we don't have tons of people going for the
food. Sit down style. After the first round of food
is served, people can get up to help themselves for
2nds. This helps control the amount of people and the
amount of food given. 2)Have people man each item of
food that we are serving so we can control what is
served. We can call out the tables that we want to go
into line to be served, guests should be first, etc.
I think the serving of the food will be the most
hectic.

I will volunteer to be the talking waiter. Who's coming with me.

I'm amazed at the response we are getting for this Friday. We will have probably more than 200 (179 as of now plus 15 from GM ministry & about 8 from ANC family ministry). The room will be packed with people hungry for ipod nano... Actually, I'm thrilled at the same time very concerned. I saw kingdom kids theater directors(christy/kani/jenny/dhami/kids working hard(?) last night for the final practice, heaja, suzy, and other ladies were planning out for 'enough' foods, alex/elliot/daniel/paul will be setting up the sound/light all day today....heaja/jane are probably shopping for decorations right now....angie has been running around for everything.... Ahhhhhh.....it's going to be crazy!!!!
How can we maximize this opportunity for journey family? How can we be prepared mentally, physically, spiritually?

Let's remember few things :
1. WHY : Remember the reason for the season : Let's do this for nothing else except for the glory of God. ....JOURNEY towards the GLORY OF GOD
2. WHO : We'll have lots of strangers/neighbors/friends... Let's welcome them to JOURNEY FAMILY. Let's reach out with the spirit of kindness/gentleness/hospitality. Let's be sensitive to our visitors (especially Angel Tree Guests)
3. HOW : Pace yourself...call for help when you need it and let's help when we hear someone screams 'help'!!!
4. WHAT : Let's have FUN & finish well once again for the glory of God. I guess this will be a great chance to love our 'neighbors'

Journeying together,

Only 15 tables were order, that means we can comfortably seat 120 people or snuggly for 150 people. If there are 180 attending, then we need at least 3 more table. Angie, please call ANC for 5 more tables just in case.

100 chairs from ANC is good, because we have about 100 chairs in the chapel that we can use.

during the dinner, we have few guest appearances. calvin's cousin is an amazing violinist and she's do a song. also, we have GM ministry who will perform sign language worship (body worship). by the way, angie, we need to add additional 15 people from GM ministry.

i went to calvin's school party and i thought two things were application for our event. they had a family craft material on each table for families to work on it together for fun. also, we sang some christmas carols together and i thought it was neat. perhaps, we can mix it up with karaoke music.

anc called asking if we really needed the folding chairs. they don't have 150 available - only 100 can be supplied. i need to give them an answer about whether or not we need all those chairs considering we have our own.

so far... we have 180 in attendence recorded.

are we going to really be able to fit all these people? we might need to do a little readjusting/moving out of furniture.

For the decoration team, we will have 15 round folding tables and 6-8' rectangular folding tables delivered by 4pm on Friday. Volunteers are needed to set up the room, please!!!

Edited by author 12-16-2005 01:11 PM
Program Ideas. What do you think?

7:00 pm greeters ready
7:30 pm doors open (Hors d’Oeuvres Reception)
7:50 pm Program starts & Dinner Starts
    - 2 praise songs
    - Welcoming and Dinner Prayer
    - 2-3 raffle during the dinner
8:20 pm Christmas program starts
8:50 pm Raffle Gifts and Game
9:10 pm Christmas Songs
9:25 pm Final Raffle, gifts to children & Prayer
9:40 pm Happy birthday and Prayer

This is a short list of what was discussed this past Sunday, December 11, 2005:
Christmas Party
December 23, 2005 @ 7:30PM

Decorations – Jane
Food – Heaja & Susie
MC of the Night – John Tae
Greeters – need 4
Music – Sean Kim; Journey Band
Meat cutters – need 2
• Need some ladies to assist Costco shopping (Friday Morning)
• Need runners through out Friday afternoon

Santa – Elliot
Elf - …
3 Wise men – Sean, James, …

Event Schedule
Thursday:
 Morning – flower mart; decoration (Jane & Heaja)
 Night – setup lights (Alex and Elliot)
Friday:
 Morning – Costco run (Heaja, Susie & company)
 12-6pm – preparation of food and decorations
 7:30pm – guests arrive; meet & greet
 8:00pm – dinner
 8:30pm – kids program
 9:30-10pm – Christmas songs

Menu:
Appetizers
Prime rib
Ham
Mashed Potatoes
Dinner Rolls
Salad
+ Side dishes
Birthday Cake (for Jesus)

Decorations:
Tablecloth
Centerpiece

Miscellaneous:
Raffle – 1 complimentary; $1 each there after
Photo area/opportunity
Santa gives gifts to children
End with Wise men bring birthday cake

yup, I found out about that on Friday morning. They are having educational dept. x-mas program.
well...it would’ve been nice if we joined them but too much has progressed already and from previous experiences, it might be too hectic to join them (usually all of their program has been in korean).

however, we are inviting few people from anc and I have heard today that few anc members are coming to journey banquet on 23rd. We’ll have better idea how many will show up since they need to purchase tickets ($5 individuals/$10 family members) by dec. 20th.

Ideally, we want all or as many journey members (including visitors/hoppers/fringe people) to show up that night. I don’t know exactly how many non-journey members will show up...but just looking at our own family, calvin/caleb’s grandparent, aunts, cousins, friends might show up knowing that calvin/caleb are performing(?)

how about other parents? Do you think your family members might want to see your children perform in their first Christmas musical?

I’m also planning to invite some of my friends who are not currently attending church. Hopefully, we’ll have a good turn out.