A night in Kansas City, Mo., became “A Night in the Middle East” for “Blume” participants who gathered for the national missions event.
A Blume participant writes her name in Arabic letters.In addition to lively general sessions, hands-on ministry opportunities, and interactive missions games during the week, more than 3,000 teenage girls and leaders were treated to an outside cultural experience on the lawn of the Kansas City Convention Center.
According to Blume event planners, “A Night in the Middle East” was designed to give girls a fun learning experience they would remember well after Blume week ended.
“A Night in the Middle East has been a cross-cultural experience in which we’ve tried to engage girls in learning something about another culture through sight, touch, taste and sound, culminating with the movie ‘A Night With the King,’ ” said event coordinator Carol Causey.
With sheer fabric panels blowing overhead and instrumental music in the air, the convention center esplanade was transformed into a Middle Eastern market where girls could taste baklava and hummus among other authentic foods. They then moved along the corridor to activities such as creating sand art in a bottle, writing their names in the Persian alphabet, and receiving a sugar scrub beauty treatment. A “Star of David” prayer activity instructed girls to pray for the many people in the Middle East and the world who’ve yet to learn of Jesus and his plan for their lives.
The Middle East was just one region of focus during Blume as girls had the opportunity to learn more about the customs of various Arab countries, meet women who live in those countries, and learn how they can help spread the word of God to women and girls in that land.
Program coordinator Kym Mitchell explained that the movie that night was an important part of Blume because it connected girls in a unique way to the overall message of the missions event.
” ‘A Night With the King’ shows a young woman exploring and looking for God’s purpose in her life and finding it in the most unexpected place,” Mitchell said. “You never know when God is going to speak to these girls. – He can work miracles in their lives just like he worked miracles in Esther’s life.”