"This is not America....this is not America.....this is not America." This is the phrase that I continually repeated to myself during my Mother's Day luncheon on Saturday.
My heart's desire is to be used of my Lord. To truly have a servants heart you have to lose yourself.
I enjoyed so much being with my dear ladies. Serving them their plates, refilling their drinks, sitting on the veranda exchanging stories and thoughts, laughing together elbow deep in dish water....I love being a missionary's wife.
I should have got the first clue things would be different, when the ladies and I compared ideas for a menu. I was thinking dainty little sandwiches and a large dessert table. They were thinking goat...chicken....and ALL the trimmings. When they get together to eat...they want to EAT!
(After a lot of hard work baking desserts and jerk chicken
and scrubbing the house from top to bottom
we are eagerly awaiting the guests.)
We had a total of 26 ladies and their children show up. Some were our ladies and some were their invited guests. Prince had planned on taking the boys and doing an activity with them so we could have some "lady time". But, things rarely go as planned and some brought small boys so they ended up just playing football in the yard. Which worked just fine.
The ladies out did themselves on the meal. We had curried goat {!!!}, jerk chicken {cooked by Pastor}, rice and peas, cabbage and vegetables, some kind of fish and coconut milk dish, and bread. It was so good.
I had made a variety of desserts. There was pumpkin cake, banana bread, strawberry cake, frosted brownies. and tiny heart-shaped sugar cookies. I had also made my family's Christmas punch recipe. My strawberry cake was a layered cake with strawberry jam in the center layer. I iced it with white frosting and made red roses on a vine. Decorating the cake was a challenge. By this time it was a smoldering 98 deg in the kitchen....no joke! The poor cake looked kinda....droopy?...if that's possible for a cake. Well I'd like to see one of those fancy chefs work in these conditions!
We played several games. The ladies love playing games and we laughed at each other's silly antics. One thing I did that they partcularly enjoyed was all standing in a circle. I handed one a wrapped gift and read this poem.
Take this gift- now don't be shy!
Give it to the guest with blue eyes (I did blue shirt)
Yes, you are the lucky one
But the fun is far from done!
Look around with eyes discreet
And give it to the one with smallest feet
Your feet are tiny and very small
Now hand it to the one most tall!
Please take your time and don't be harried
Give it to the one who's most recently married
You must be proud of your new life
Now give it to the one who's the longest wife (longest married)
Of this gift you must bereft
Give it to the person on your left
The largest earrings will win it now
If you are wearing them, step up and bow
The one with the most buttons of any kind
Will get passed the gift right now, this time
Now don't be upset and please don't fight
But give it to the person third on your right
We should stop now, don't you agree?
The gift is yours to keep with glee!
Give it to the guest with blue eyes (I did blue shirt)
Yes, you are the lucky one
But the fun is far from done!
Look around with eyes discreet
And give it to the one with smallest feet
Your feet are tiny and very small
Now hand it to the one most tall!
Please take your time and don't be harried
Give it to the one who's most recently married
You must be proud of your new life
Now give it to the one who's the longest wife (longest married)
Of this gift you must bereft
Give it to the person on your left
The largest earrings will win it now
If you are wearing them, step up and bow
The one with the most buttons of any kind
Will get passed the gift right now, this time
Now don't be upset and please don't fight
But give it to the person third on your right
We should stop now, don't you agree?
The gift is yours to keep with glee!
Another game that caused a lot of laughs was the Who Am I??? game. There were questions you wrote down about yourself. I would read the answers and they had to guess which lady that was. We laughed so hard and learned a lot about each other. One thing I was surprised to learn was what some ate for supper. Some of the answers were sardines, a melon, fruit, a bun, cereal, a papaya, a mango. Makes you feel spoiled, huh?
Pastor asked a lady from Riverside Independent Baptist Church, in Martha Brea, to come speak to the ladies. Mrs. Spense did a wonderful job talking about showing Brotherly Love.
It was an exhausting day. But so worth it and fulfilling. The ladies were so amazing though, before they left they cleaned up the house and it looked better when they left then when they arrived! So thoughtful and sweet.
3 comments:
Sounds like so much fun! I'll have to remember this idea for later on.
I've had goat since coming to Kenya too. It tasted really good!
What a great and very special day for the ladies. You and your oldest look so much alike that I did a double take of the first photo top see if that was you or her on a chair.
I have to keep the poem game. Sounds like great fun. I also like the Who am I game. I must remeber this.
We ate goat in the Philippines too. There is was a real specialty. I have always been glad for a hubby who lets me slip my food onto his plate. :-)
I love your game and will add that one to my "must do in the future" list... which only exists in my head since I'm not organized enough to actually make a list. :)
We play games like this with our people on a very regular basis, so we are always on the lookout for something new and fresh. Thanks for sharing!
BTW, we eat goat here too! I was a little frightened of it at first, but love it now. I still don't buy it and make it at home, but I love to order it when we are out and about...
*Hugs* today, my missionary bloggin' friend!
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