I had 7 Paraguayan girls over to my house Saturday to make pancakes. They seemed to have a lot of fun. I let them mix the ingredients and pour the batter on the griddle. Most had never heard of or tasted pancakes (a staple food in our house!). All the ingredients can be found here except maple flavoring for the syrup but we used vanilla instead. I am always so impressed by their initiative. You would think that 7 extra people in my kitchen would be chaotic and overwhelming but they organized themselves almost assembly line style – some prepared the batter, some cooked the pancakes, others washed the dishes and another dried.
As we sat down at the table I noticed that the girls were either not eating or they were using their hands to picking up the pancakes – being very careful not to cause the syrup to run off - while their fork sat untouched. My team mate whispered to me, “If there’s no knife then they think it is finger food.” I went inside and brought out knives. Immediately they began cutting the pancakes and using their fork.
I asked the girls to come up with a metaphor (it took me a while to explain the concept because I didn’t know how to say metaphor in Spanish!) comparing Jesus and/or our relationship with him to anything on the table. For example, the sugar and the water were once separate but once boiled it became one syrup, just as our life and Jesus’ life becomes one. We had fun talking about the sweet syrup and the sweetness of Jesus, tasting pancakes for the first time and hearing about Jesus for the first time, the white cream and the clean lives we should live.
I told them that the Bible says we should hunger and thirst for righteousness. If I went all day without eating I would be starved for food come evening. If a feast was then put before me I wouldn’t just pick at the food, eating only the crumbs. I would be eating big mouthfuls and eating everything I could. In our lives too we need not to settle for a little bit of Jesus. We need to be so hungry and thirsty for Him that we take every opportunity to learn more about him, read about him and talk with others about him.
I pray that these (now non-believing girls) will develop a hunger and thirst for things of God; that they will not just settle for a little religion but they will truly desire to taste the feast that God has set before them. Pray with me for these girls whom I have weekly contact with: Noemi, Venus, Kati, Rocio, Cynthia, Gisella (and her two sisters), Shirley, Tati, Romina, Dolly, Marta, Bernadina, Virginia, and Laura.
Making pancakes together
Introducing Paraguayans to pancakes
2 comments:
This is so neat, Amy! It sounds like you had a wonderful time. I loved your discussion idea. That's so cool. I may have to steal it for my pajama party with my 7th graders :) You inspire me. Can't wait to spend the weekend with you.
That was a great idea! Sounds like it was really effective, too! What do you do with the kids when all this is going on? Did the girls like the pancakes?
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