Food and Missions

Our family has been enjoying watching "The Big Family Cooking Showdown" together.  It's fun to see different combination of foods that are made, and also makes us just wish we could smell and taste what is being made.  We like to cook, which is good, as it is our last name, but we haven't done much cooking together as a family.  The kids, now, have more of a desire to cook.

​The other day, my wife was making "pelmini", which is a type of Russian ravioli.  Our daughter, who is 5, just jumped up and started helping my wife put the meat in the proper place - and she did a great job of it.  One of our sons, Skyler, who is 9, wanted to prepare some food.  His 3rd grade teacher sent home some sites we could go to and see Christmas traditions from around the world.  It shared customs and traditions, as well as a few recipes.  He said he wanted to try one of the recipes.  We had the ingredients for Madagascar chicken, and so we cooked it together.

The recipe was quite simple - basically garlic, ginger and salt on the chicken, and then fried.  We didn't have fresh ginger, but used ginger already ground up.  Skyler learned how to use a garlic press, and prepared the spices for the meal, as well as set the table, etc. We already had rice made, so we just warmed up leftover rice. I did most of the frying, though Skyler took note of what to do; the smell was great!  We all enjoyed the chicken, and we plan to make it again sometime soon, but use fresh ginger the next time!  Our other son, Cedric, is ready to find a recipe to cook something.  We actually cooked orange chicken from China.  It was delicious!

​I decided, though, that we should take it another step further.  We can learn some customs and traditions of that country of Madagascar, but what is the state of Christianity?  I have some books - "Operation World", which is for adults, and "Window on the World", which is full of pictures and designed for children, though not every country is represented there.  We looked up Madagascar, and discovered that about 50% of the country is considered Christian, but many combine folk religion with Christianity.  We found out some information and took some time to pray for Madagascar.  

​Now we are trying to develop several things at one time - culinary skills, the love of trying something new, doing something together, learning about another country, and learning how to pray for that country.  Who would have imagined that would have all started by one show called "The Big Family Cooking Showdown"?  Sometimes we forget that we can use one activity to have multiple purposes, all that will have a long impact.  So, I encourage you, to find some recipes, and take time to teach the next generation how to cook something, but also take time to pray for those countries, or even those parts of the States where the food is coming from.