After a very entertaining Christmas Eve function organized by PMCF - Pune Mizo Christian Fellowship, at Lt Col Isaac's house, I spent Christmas day at our PMCF Church service.
But before continuing, I just want to thank all our PMCF leaders and members for the overwhelming response I got for my previous post. It is support like that, that encourages us to keep writing.
And there's just one more thing I want to add. On Christmas day, as I was walking around the Church compound taking pictures of different people for my blog update, one of my friends, a young and budding cutie asked me, "U Kim, why don't you just post all these photos on Instagram or Facebook?" Urrmmm... never ask a blogger that! It was as if I was suddenly struck by lightning and everything exploded around me. :D :P
There's nothing wrong in uploading your photos to IG and FB. But blogging gives people a platform where you can describe things more in detail, and the best part is, it has a good archive system with efficient search engine optimization (just search "PMCF Christmas" on Google and see what comes up as the first search result :D ). Apart from that, reading through my old blog posts always makes me nostalgic.
Like for example, if I want to re-live how I spent Christmas in the year 2014, all I have to do is click the post Chp 542. Mumbai Christmas and I can see what I did on that day at the Christmas function organized by BMCF (Bombay Mizo Christian Fellowship). If I want to see how I spent Christmas in 2007 at the DMI (Delhi Mizo Inkhawm) function, I just click Chp 159. Delhi Christmas. Or I can even go as back as year 2004 - Chp 7. Bangalore Christmas and see how I spent that day at the Christmas function organized by BMCF (Bangalore Mizo Christian Fellowship). An emotive walk down memory lane.
Having said that, one day, many years from now if we're still alive by the Grace of God, we can look back at this blog post and re-live the memories of PMCF Christmas as we see the photos and descriptions here. And that, my dear friends, is why I keep blogging, even though it is a dying fad.
So coming back to this post now. PMCF Christmas, 2018. Location: Hindustani Covenant Church, 3 PM. Initially, the service was supposed to start at 2 PM, but due to another service, we were pushed to the 3 O'clock slot, which was actually more convenient for many of us, since I know how many of you wake up late :)
Jokes aside, it was a wonderful service. Since the PMPC (Pune Mizo Presbyterian Church) was established last month, a lot of people were expected to attend the PMPC service instead. I wasn't even expecting our PMCF Church to be filled, but instead, many people actually didn't fit inside the Church!!!
8 children, 155 men and 185 women attended! And that was just the number of people sitting inside the Church during the official head count. Many others arrived midway during the service (and some even towards the end *looks at Sanga*)
This statistic was also the largest margin between women and men attendees in PMCF's history, according to PMCF Secretary Lalduhawma Chhakchhuak. Women now clearly outnumber the men! On a lighter side, I think the separation of the PMPC service from the PMCF is turning out to be a blessing in disguise for single bachelors like me :D
Hruaitu: Vabeirahnei Johly
Pastor: Rev. PC Lalropuia.
For the Christmas sermon, Rev. PC Lalropuia gave a very fine message about the birth of Christ and His teachings. He also mentioned about how technology should be used for the betterment of our spiritual life and not make us spiritually lazier, citing examples such as how people stopped going to Churches because they can now easily sit in the comfort of their sweet bedroom watching Tele-Evangelicals on TV instead.
During the service, John Lalramthara Ralte treated our ears to his beautiful rendition of "Nunna a hawng ta". It was beautifully sung, though to be honest, I was cringing a bit in fear that he might not be able to hit the high notes. But he did! What an awesome performance indeed.
The total amount of Church collection that day was a whopping ₹ 26,094/-
After the Church service, we all headed outside in an orderly fashion, where we assembled together for a group photo.
Since there were almost 400 of us eventually, it was a gigantic task organizing the setting. I took a few pics while people were busy arranging and re-arranging :D
Me and Sanga.
At the background is Rev. PC Lalropuia, who delivered the Christmas sermon. And right behind me is another pastor, Rev J Lalpiantluanga. I couldn't have felt more holy at that moment :)
Once we were all set, Hriata Morello did the honors of taking our pic. Do click on any of the images on this post to open it in a new tab. Most of the images are around 1280 pixel width, except for the group pic below which I have set at 3000 pixels width so that you can zoom in and look at all the people clearly.
Open the above image and look around. Can you find Pu Chinmoy? The first one to find him will get a treat from me :)
In the group pic above, sitting in the front are our PMCF and PMWA leaders. L-R: Lalduhawma Chhakchhuak (PMCF Secretary), John Lalramthara (PMCF Executive member), Khiangnunfima Khiangte (PMWA Secretary), Henry Chhingkhuma (PMWA Assistant Secretary) and Vabeirahnei Johly (PMCF Assistant Secretary).
Once we were done with the official group photo, we dispersed.
Me and my fam went around the Church complex and inside the Church taking group photos.
Sanga will be missed greatly by Pune Mizos, now that he is planning to go home permanently. :(
As I walked around, I saw all the ladies flocking around Fima and posing for a photo with him. He was such a lucky man.
He then looked at me and felt sorry for me, so he shook my hand to wish me a Merry Christmas. The moment his hand touched mine, some of his charms rubbed off on me and immediately the ladies wanted to take a photo with me too!
My Amosa Prayer Cell-mate Zosangi and I earlier talked about taking a Christmas photo together and I spotted her sitting with her friends Maengi and Pari.
With some of Fima's charm still on me, I took a photo with them too.
It was great meeting the two sisters Maveni and Puiteii with their friends as well.
As you can see in the above photo behind us, there is a big army truck. Our dinner had just arrived. It was finally time to eat.
But before I continue any further, I'm gonna say "Stop! It's Hammer time." because I am now going to talk about the unsung heroes of our Christmas event, the people behind the scenes who are responsible for making it a grand success and yet never get any credit - the Fatu volunteers!
Remember I said many people were glad the Church service was pushed to 3 PM because a lot of people wake up late? Well, these Fatu volunteers had to wake up much earlier because they had to reach the market at 10 in the morning! Fatu leader Mahlua along with other volunteers Lawmi, Lalai, John, Pu Rela and Tv Rela reached Shree Shiva Chhatrapati Market Yard at 10 AM.
Here they are, Mahlua, Pu Rela and Lalai buying vegetables and meat for the day's feast.
All together, they bought 60 kg of rice (calculating for 250 people), 30 kg Chicken and lots and lots of different vegetables. 60 kg of Pork was already bought in advanced and it was being smoked at Lt Col. Isaac's house.
After that, they all headed to Isaac's house where they started cooking by around 11 AM.
Here are a few photos of them busy preparing the food for the Christmas feast.
They not only had to make a lot of different dishes from the vegetables, pork and chicken they bought, they also had to make special dishes, like fish. They bought 1 kg Fish for those who can't eat red meat, along with 30 boiled eggs and 3 kg fried potatoes for the kids. That is a lot of work indeed. RSPi also contributed Bekang um and Tumbu pickle, making the tasks of the Fatu members a bit lighter.
Other Fatu volunteers included Zauzela, Biaksanga, C.Lai, Pawpaw, Ruby, Nancy, Rosesty and a few others. They weren't just working hard but they had to miss the Christmas Church service altogether because of their commitment. As the saying goes, not all heroes wear capes.
The food was supposed to be ready by 5 PM, but when they heard that more than 350 people had attended the Church service when their estimate was just 250, they again had to make many extra dishes in a hurry, including a whole new 20 kg of rice.
Finally, after some panic cooking, they safely reached the Church at 7 PM. Many people were already hungry, but they all knew the circumstances and understood.
Before people started lining up, I went and quickly took photos of our scrumptious dinner!
The delicious dinner menu consisted of smoked pork, then another smoked pork dish with mustard leaves, chicken fry, vawklu bawl, boiled fish, dal, bai made from brinjal, capsicum, mulla and cabbage, bekang um and tumbu pickle from RSPi, tomato salad with coriander, onion without salt, grinded Mizo chillies, along with boiled eggs and fried potatoes for the children, yummmm!
My mouth still waters when I just look at the above photos again even now :)
While I was busy taking photos of the food, Nuteii was busy taking a photo of me taking photos of the food :P
Fatu members getting the food counter ready.
Christina and Tuli were summoned at the last minute to be Fatu volunteers.
So I ended up sitting down very manly while carrying Tuli's purse :D
Soon, the food was ready. Children and old folks were called to the counter first. Meanwhile, Ethan and Fingfinga were fighting over a chair while Jonathan nonchalantly walked past them, not caring about their fight :D
The children and elders lined up to eat. I managed to take a good photo of Madiki taking a photo of her daughters eating.
Our senior members - Professor Ravi Kant with his wife Pi Rami and Pi Madini.
Once all the children and elders had taken their food, the rest of our community were told to line up for the food. Chow time!
Christina and Tuli were busy fatu'ing. Tuli was like, "Ka ril a ṭammmm, sa ho hi ka tem chak eeeee" and Christina was like, "Chance kan neih veleh kan tem dawn nia!" Unfortunately, they got that chance once everybody ate :D
Here are photos of people standing in queue. Like I mentioned before, click on all pics to enlarge and open in a new tab. Feel free to tag your friends if you see their photos here...
Me running through the queue from that side to this side and back and forth to take photos of the queue, accidentally captured on Sanga's cam.
Genevieve and Jacqueline, always asking for the extra special photo :P
The same pic, this time taken from Sanga's cam. Big difference between his pro camera and my mobile phone camera :D
Pi Baby, Pi Carol and Pi Teresa enjoying dinner.
Devoted "significant others" - Isaac, Nitin, Noel, Chinmoy, Basanta and Thara eagerly waiting for their turn to eat. Except for Thara. He's not a significant other. He's not even a significant. :D :D
More queues.
Finally, the end of the line was appearing. It was soon going to be our turn. As usual, I spotted the usual suspects coming in last - Nuteii, Puneet, Chinmoy, Noel, Thara and Basanta.
Serving food in action...
I thought I'll just add this bit here as well. The cost of the dinner was ₹ 700 for those who are working and ₹ 300 for students. We all paid before the dinner. But there were also a number of people who were not a part of PMCF who also stood in line for the food. Now, it was not nice telling them this was a paid private event and turn them away, and so the PMCF leaders allowed them all to eat too. The only problem though, there was very little they could eat, and most of them took just the rice, dal and salad. :D
But yeah, it was nice seeing them all happily eating our food even if most of them didn't take our Mizo delicacies.
As the queue got smaller, those of us waiting to eat last started getting ready. Here's the Fatu leader and our Amosa Prayer Cell Secretary Mahlua getting ready to eat...
Fima, Duhawma, Nunui, Miriami (of the Gosie's WhatsApp story update Miriami fame), James and Liantea.
Finally, we too stood in line. The existing Fatu staff like Christina and Tuli were relieved by members who had already eaten, and so we all stood in line together to eat. My plate :)
Also, the last few people ate on disposable plates because all the PMCF steel plates were over, and since there was not a place to wash plates at the Church compound, we used the dispo plates.
Henry, Pu Chawnghminga (PMCF Chairman) and Amosa Prayer Cell Lalroparmawii enjoying dinner.
Fima, Duhawma, Debbie and Samuel Dintea were also among the last to eat.
And of course Isaac and Madiki, without whom we would never had such a grand dinner.
A few after-dinner pics beneath the not so very romantic yellow lights :D
What could Pu Chawnghminga be saying? Caption this :D
Sisters...
Back row: Tema, Fakawma, OPa, Liantea.
Front row: Zorema, Duati, Bridgette, Lal Mama, Ruati.
So eventually, we were able to raise 106 blankets from our Christmas contributions! PMCF members then went to different slum areas to distribute these blankets.
Well done indeed, PMCF. What a wonderful turnout and what an awesome and memorable dinner. Praise the Lord and wishing all of you once again a very (belated) Merry Christmas. Special thanks to all the PMCF leaders and the Fatu volunteers, including all the other people who I may have missed out, because I don't know many people yet. May God keep blessing the PMCF. Halleluia Amen.
Ps. If I got any names wrong or missed out on names, please let me know and I will edit.
