An Afternoon at the Beach and a Bittersweet Celebration with Friends

Hello everyone! Truly grateful in this platform where I could freely express my emotions other than using a pen and a paper.

As you can read from the title, I am actually feeling bittersweet today. Well, not just me, but it is a common feeling I am sharing with all of my friends, with everyone who are present during that moment.

We actually had a joyful morning as we spent it again in our volunteer work of sharing the good news to people. Right after, we went to our worship hall for a brief cleaning activity.

It was already planned days ago that in the afternoon, we will have a short bonding by the sea at the place near our home. So, starting at noon, we started preparing foods. Mom cooked pancit and boiled sweet potato, while some of my friends brought and cooked other food like chiffon cake and some crispy cassava chip called "kuping", which is served with latik or caramelized coconut cream.

It is not just an ordinary bonding though, because this afternoon we also planned a double celebration surprise for some of our friends. This is to congratulate them for the privileges that some of them had and going to have soon in the future.

Two of our friends have finished their one week education, where they gained deeper understanding on God's word and how to become more effective in teaching by showing love and kindness to all kinds of people. They were surprised and grateful for the gifts they received.

On the other hand, two of or friends, which is a couple so dear to me are also privileged for another educational training but lasting for two months and after their schooling, they will be reassigned to help people in another place. That means, they will be leaving us. And that is when the ambiance started to change into crying moments as we sang a farewell song for them and watched a slideshow presentation of our memories together. Each one of us, said a message for them and them to us. We cried even more.

It may be a sad thing the they are leaving us soon but we are way more happy of their privilege. For us, it is not goodbye but seeing each other next time.

And that is the reason we all felt bittersweet today but joy outweighs any emotion that we are having right now.

Despite all the drama, we took time to enjoy the nature and the sea. Some of my friends were already enjoying swimming despite the big waves. It was nearly eve and and it is getting colder so we decided to go to the house.

Since everyone is feeling full because of the food we ate, we decided to exercise. So we had zumba at night. We served hot drinks while everyone is still dancing. We shared lots of laughter this time forgetting all the tears we witnessed earlier.

It was a fun night after all. I am truly happy to be able to make wonderful and fun moments like this with my precious friends.

Photos are mine and edited with Canva.