On the 5th of June iFriends (International Club) and people from Bristo Baptist Church went fishing at Markle fishery at East Linton. It ended up with a fish party that we had in the church on Monday, two days after the trip. Mahboob from Kashmir, who loves fishing and does it quite regularly, and I were responsible for the event.
In the beginning it was quite hard to gather people because many of us had never fished before and didn’t know what to expect. A few weeks before the trip we got an email from Mahboob with instructions on what to do and what to take with us. All we had to do was to follow the instructions and pray for the weather. After many weeks of planning and preparation, finally we did it!!!
The weather was absolutely wonderful! Leszek, our Polish friend who goes to Bristo, said: “The weather was really sunny. Even after a couple of days my skin was still red and white around my eyes because I had had my sunglasses on! Brian was laughing at me and calling me a panda.” I myself had sunburn as well, as I didn’t use any sun protection for a while. Fortunately the majority of the people who went with us were more sensible than me.
We had 15 people all together! Most of them went fishing for the first time in their life, but we all worked as one team! Leszek said: “It was a really amazing fishing trip. I was surprised that people from different countries, religions and cultural backgrounds can have such good fun all together helping each other. For example Mahboob, who was helping everyone especially the children David and Michael, treated them like his own sons. I caught only one fish but it was enough to make me happy. I will never forget this trip.” It was amazing indeed! Even an old fisherman whom we had never met before was helping us with fishing rods and sharing his own experience and special tricks. People were chatting, sharing their food and catching fish.
When I asked Diego from Spain to share his opinion about the fishing in one sentence he replied: “Awesome!!!” He also said that the fishing day was a good experience and the weather let us enjoy the nature. And I agree with him! Awesome is the right description of the fishing day we had!!!
Unfortunately not everyone caught a fish that day. One of them was Richard, from Scotland. In spite of that he still enjoyed the time. He said: “I’ve never been fishing before so this was a new experience for me, and I loved it a lot. It was also a great opportunity to spend time with others from the church, and also those who come to the International Club. I didn’t catch any fish, unfortunately, but in the whole group we caught more than enough fish which we shared later!”
After the fishing we all decided to have a fish party at church, at our club. As we didn’t know how many people would be coming, I was a bit worried about the food for everyone. Miraculously it was more than enough food. Almost everyone brought something. The food was absolutely delicious!!! As everyone who went fishing with us is really special and was helpful in different situations they each got a gold (plastic J) medal and a wee handmade card. It was amazing to see that these little things made people happier and a little bit more special.
After the fishing we all decided to have a fish party at church, at our club. As we didn’t know how many people would be coming, I was a bit worried about the food for everyone. Miraculously it was more than enough food. Almost everyone brought something. The food was absolutely delicious!!! As everyone who went fishing with us is really special and was helpful in different situations they each got a gold (plastic J) medal and a wee handmade card. It was amazing to see that these little things made people happier and a little bit more special.
I’m really thankful to God for giving us perfect weather and giving us free time to enjoy His creation, protecting us from accidents and helping me and Mahboob to organise the event and find the right number of people, giving us a chance to catch some fish and to cook a tasty meal on Monday, helping us to work as one person and making our friendship stronger and for many, many other things He does for us!
Tanya
