May Peace Festival in Cedar Park lets children explore other cultures




Members of First UMC, Cedar Park, celebrate
their 5th annual Peace Festival with booths, food and music.

The 5th Annual Peace Festival at First UMC, Cedar Park, was May 5th from 1 to 4 p.m.
The festival celebrated differences between countries. Booths represented several different countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chile, Germany, Botswana, Poland, South Korea, Mexico and Iraq.
“There was something of interest at the Peace Festival for every-one,” explained Pastor Pam Shef-field. “Our church strives to be an actively inclusive voice in this community.”
When families arrived, they went to the “Embassy,” where children were given passports. Children were then whisked away on the Peace Train to visit each country’s booth.
Families learned what it was like to live in that country, including things like demographics, climate, traditions and music.
There were piñatas at the Mexico booth to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, drum making at the Congo booth, letter writing to our soldiers in Iraq, German chocolate cake and gummy bears at the German booth, and much more.
Each booth had bread from that country for families to try, and children had the opportunity to bake their own loaf of bread. Bread was an important part of the festival.
“Peace is like the bread,” said one baker. “The same recipe is used around the world with local
spice to make it their own!!”
Families participated in creating a flag wall mural. One-hundred-eleven flags from different nations were made with markers, crayons and a lot of construction paper. The flags were then put together to make a large
wall mural in the sanctuary.
Maps and globes were available for people to match the flags to where the countries were. The flag wall mural will be on display in First UMC’s sanctuary at 600 W. Park St. for the next few weeks.
If you are interested in finding out more information about the church, call (512) 335-9540, or visit www.cpfumc.org.