Last night we had dinner with an Indian Pastor friend of ours. He is single and loves to cook. I don't even know the names of the food he cooked for us, but I will try and describe it. He said he holds back on the spices for his American friends! One bowl had cut up cubes of chicken with nutmeg and some onions and a sauce that was light brown. Very good. Then there was rice- some kind of Indian rice- it was white, kind of long grain, with raisins, broken sticks of cinnamon, cardamon, whole nutmeg, and some other fruit (I can't remember right now). And there was some chopped up tomatoes with some spices on that and a few other dishes. He said he found an Indian grocery story over in Delaware where he shops. He is Asian Indian, not American Indian.
He told us of all the different missions that his church is involved in. One place he mentioned was Sea Brook. There is a drug rehab there, a nursing home, some low income housing too. Apparently there is a few apartment buildings where some African Americans live there. We told him the history of Sea Brook which he wasn't aware of. During World War II it was an enclosed area where the Japanese were made to live. An internment camp. I don't know how long they were made to live there, but for most of the war I believe. Not a good thing. Now there is a small Japanese community there in the area too.
Well- Before we went to dinner at the home of Sadama, we had a busy morning at church. It was children's day. We had the children's choir sing 6 different songs (3 at one time and 3 later.) They are always so cute singing their songs with all the hand motions. Our youngest is too big for that now, but I used to love it when he was in the choir. Then we had three 3rd and 4th grade girls recite the books of the Old Testament! Not an easy task. Then the 1st and 2nd graders (my class) did a skit about the good Samaritan. Only this one was an adaptation of the Bible version. Same characters though. The two robbers beat up a man from Jerusalem who was on a journey. He didn't have any money, but he did have a big bag of gummy worms. So the two robbers went back and forth talking about what to do with these gummy worms.
One of them said "We can't pay the Inn keeper in Jerusalem with gummy worms!" It was really funny and the kids really got into it! Then there was the priest who came by and said "Some people will sleep anywhere!"
And the Levite who made excuses why he couldn't help the poor man. He had many important meetings to go to at church and he was already late. Next the Samaritan came and said he would put Bactine on the man's wounds and was going to call 911 for help. Samaritan's normally would have nothing to do with Jews. This man was being a good neighbor.
Different, but the kids loved it! I enjoy those kids so much! ~~ My husband gave a junior sermon about helping people and being a good Samaritan, then we gave out Sunday School certificates and small gifts to the kids. We have about 35 kids in our Sunday School from Pre K to the Teen class, about 10 or more adults in the adult class.
So when we arrived home we turned off the air conditioner, (that our daughter always turns on the minute we walk out the door), and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
I found a gem of a book at a yard sale the other week. Let me start by saying that I love old books. This one was first printed in 1823. It is called "Child of Love" by Margaret Grant. That is the name of the main character in the book too, so I wonder if this is an auto biography? That would be interesting to find out!
It is a story of a teenage unwed mother. Her husband to be gets killed on his way to tell his father he wants to marry the girl. Her father ends up throwing her out when he finds out she is pregnant, so she starts to walk 20 miles to the home of her deceased love's family where she is not received well. (She does get a ride for most of the trip. She doesn't have to walk the 20 miles herself.) So it goes from there. It is very interesting and goes on to tell of the life of her daughter and the hard life they lead in New England, single mom and daughter.
The plight of the unwed was pretty bad then. Everyone blamed her for the premarital affair. They don't even say anything about the boy. It seems to be the girl's responsibility. The author goes on to point out that a girl can be as strong and as good as a boy in most things. I guess she was an early woman's libber!
Well - I must go back to my Monday chores. I just wanted to check in on the blog. One thing I forgot to mention when talking about dinner with our Indian friend was that he was telling us about the excellent public transportation in India. He told us of riding on the train which had no windows. He told us about going past the fields of coffee and smelling the coffee flowers. They smelled so aromatic and delicious! He said they have the same aroma as the coffee bean! Wow! I never knew that! That must be so neat to smell those blossoms! I would love to drive past a coffee field and experience that!
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Yum. I do like Indian food for an occasional treat.
ReplyDeleteThe children's service sounds very touching. I think it is good to update stories once in a while to make the messages meaningful, but it also important to give kids that sense of historical perspective as well. A bit discouraging, though, that the same message needs so much repeating.