BY VEENA RAO

The Briarcliff Baptist Church in Atlanta hosted an international dinner for the community on October 10th. Around 300 people attended the dinner that celebrated the cultural diversity of the community with food, traditional clothes and social mingling. 

The tables at the spacious dining hall at the church were laid with a variety of dishes from around the world. Each family brought in a dish, and that made for at least 100 different aromatic dishes! There was also a section that displayed artifacts from around the world, and an audio-visual presentation that shed light on different cultures.

The Briarcliff Baptist Church has members from countries as diverse as India, Nepal, Russia, Nicaragua, Germany, Guatemala, Serbia, China, Bulgaria, Brazil etc. But it is not just the parishioners that attend the much-awaited annual international dinner. Many among the 300 guests that attended the dinner were neither parishioners nor Christians. They were there to socialize and get to know each other better. “My husband Rajeev and I came here all the way from New Jersey,” said a shimmering, ghagra choli clad Anita Tripathi. “I just love the people here, and we had to absolutely make it tonight.” The other guests seemed to share her enthusiasm. 

This was the fourth international dinner in as many years at the church. The dinner was organized by the Don’t Mention Age group (DMA) at the church. Pearl Lucas, Suzy Keys and Frances West of the DMA group were instrumental in putting the event together. Their hard work certainly paid rich dividends, if the attendance and the joie de vivre among the gathering was any indication!