In the month of march, the church we attend had a chili competition. All small groups were encouraged to join that, and work together as a group to prepare the “best chili”. Our group was very excited for this competition, so we joined in. An important note is that my wife and I never had have chili before. So that was a completely new experience for us.

So, our small group got together and spent several hours, chopping, cooking, grilling and stirring, until we finished two batches of our recipe. That was a lot of work, but as a team, we worked very hard, doing our best to finalize the process. Was very fun to be around our friends that evening.

Finally, the day of the competition arrived, we brought our chili, we decorated our table and dressed up with aprons with all members of the group wearing black. We looked very professional! Was a very intense dinner, serving people and keeping our table organized. We also had time to try the chili from the other groups and have great conversations. We compete against other 9 groups and at the end we were the most voted for the best chili from our church. What a surprise! Even other competitors voted to us.

That day the lord showed me the value of hard work, dedication, team work and fellowship with our brothers and sisters. I could see how important is to give our best in the things we do. And also, I could see the joy and happiness on our team members and in other teams about the final result. Everyone was celebrating. I believe that is like our reward in heaven: there are no winners or losers, we are all there celebrating with each other!