A brown sugar glazed ham sat in its glory on our table accompanied by steaming roasted potatoes and stir-fried broccoli. I sat proudly waiting for our guests to dig in and enjoy! Rosa, a grad student and a professor from Mongolia sat across the table with her 3-year-old son. They live right up the street from us and Rosa is due to have her baby around the same time as me. As we dished out the food, her son reached first for the broccoli. He excitedly shoveled a floret into his hungry little mouth. I looked at him confident that he would love this recipe of mine. He looked back at me, and then at his mother, and then quickly pulled the half-chewed broccoli out of his mouth, handed it to his mother and said very clearly in Chinese, “This is especially disgusting.” Not the reaction expected. I looked at the mother and Toby and both of them confirmed that the broccoli was indeed disgusting.
I later realized that instead of a traditional cornstarch paste, I had mistakenly added a baking soda paste to the stir-fry, giving it a strange tangy, spicy, bitter…gross aftertaste, fit only for the trashcan.
Fortunately, Rosa and her son were gracious guests and they forgave me, and the evening went on.
I have thought about that evening over the past few weeks and I have also thought about how important food is to our ministry. It seems like every event we host revolves around a meal. A Turkish student of mine once shared that for the Turks, once you have shared a meal with someone, you are steadfast friends. I hope that is how our students and families feel after they have shared a meal with us.
Cup Overflowing 