Mennonite Weekly Review

LANCASTER, Pa. — All around the world, good food, entertainment and friendly people will bring a lot of smiles.

Rebekah So fills in a section of a painting designed like a Turkish mosaic as Jensen Long, a volunteer and Kingdom Team leader, watches. The paint-by-number project was finished by the end of Eastern Mennonite Missions’ Global Fair. — Photo by Tammy Evans/EMM

Just ask the visitors and volunteers at Eastern Mennonite Missions’ Global Fair.

About 1,400 fairgoers visited displays July 10 representing nations from every region of the world. The Lancaster Mennonite School gymnasium was filled with the smell of ethnic foods, the sight of colorful international attire and the stories of EMM missionaries.

Ann Fisher, from Marietta Community Chapel, attended last year. Then this year her 12-year-old daughter wanted to come back so much that she wouldn’t stay home — even though she was on crutches.

“The great part is this counts as a school day,” said Fisher, who homeschools. “It’s so educational!”

Balloons and children’s activities kept the youngest visitors entertained. Children took part in arts projects, including tie-dyeing coffee filters, getting their faces painted by EMM volunteers and making honeybees out of jar lids.

Fairgoers saw objects from around the world, tried food and drink such as hummus and chai, and learned about cultures from Albania to Peru.

Inside a Central Asia exhibit, visitors sat on patterned carpets and pillows in a model of a yurt, a portable felt- and canvas-covered dwelling used by nomads. While there, visitors sampled dried fruit and pistachios and learned how to play chuko, a game that uses three sheep bones.

Workers dished up osh, a signature meal of rice, oil, meat and spices in Central Asia. The osh was made early that morning in the traditional way, over a fire. Luke and Sherelle Charles, who lived in Central Asia for six months while leading a Youth Evangelism Service team, said they appreciated eating a plate of the memorable food again.

In the Africa region, children gathered around Jim Bailey, chair of EMM worker Beryl Forrester’s missionary support team, to learn how a typical family in Gambia eats dinner from a single large dish. The children also practiced their rhythm on a set of drums.