Cooking

   One of the things I have been doing is helping with the cooking at our house. Well, I hope I have been helping. I have definitely been learning. I thrive on quality time with people, which is hard when I can hardly talk to them. Cooking with the girls who live here has become an opportunity to be with these girls, to learn from them and to laugh with them.

   The longer I am here, the more dear these girls become to me. I have specific prayers and hopes for both of them. Spending time with them in the kitchen grants me the opportunity to begin seeing them individually. It acquaints me with their tastes and preferences. I learn who prefers plantains to rice, who prefers fried chicken, who likes Bob Marley, and what the Haitian president sounded like when he was a music star. It also gives me the chance to learn and practice my Kreyol with those whose ears are full of grace and patience.

    It probably will not surprise you all to hear that I have been reading and praying about intercultural relationships, especially between people with very different levels of material wealth and power. All relationships take time, grace, forgiveness, laughter. These kinds of relationships seem to need them more than others. When I cook with these girls, I hope and pray that this is what is happening. I hope that as we spend time together, as we laugh, and especially as they teach me, we can edge towards some of the healing that this country needs, that perhaps my poverty and theirs can decrease.

    Friends, will you join me in praying for the girls here, for their individual needs and struggles and for them to grow in love for the Lord. Will you also join me in praying for my relationships with them, that grace, humor and forgiveness would be the foundations of these relationships, that I would listen to them and that through us God would be glorified. Thank you.