How God Helps Me Out, part 1 (in the Kitchen)

There are some dramatic things that I could put under this heading, and one may come in the next few days, but it would just take too much energy and weight right now. For now, here is my lighter scenario.

A few month ago, I attended a seminar with my Capitol Hill prayer group about “Heavenly Hospitality.” The speaker, a very gracious, put-together and experienced hostess, in some sense spoke over our heads. In doing so, she spoke into our destinies. Most of us are young, poor, and live alone or with a handful of other young, poor DC-ites. We can’t offer the same kind of hospitality that a 50 year old couple in the suburbs can. But here are some timeless guidelines she bestowed upon our eager minds and starry dreams.

First, open your home. Taking people to a restaurant, while kind, is not the same as showing hospitality. There is a certain “magic” about visiting someone’s home, and a certain vulnerability is shared. Meeting for coffee at a cafe is nice, but a dinner or brunch at one’s home is special and rare. Moreover, your home needn’t be perfect. Let that go. No one’s home is perfectly clean and organized, and sometimes that can be intimidating.

Second, always be prepared. The speaker has a pantry full of food that she can “whip up” if she has unexpected guests that she or her husband just invite over on a whim. In fact, they stock up so that they CAN be obedient and spontaneous when the Lord moves and leads them to invite people over.

Third, don’t exclude. The speaker stressed that “heavenly hospitality” is intended to share the Gospel with non-believers. People without Christ and without the church are often the most starved for intimacy and fellowship and community. Therefore, these individuals should be the ones we put first in inviting into our homes. It is the perfect foundation for conversations about faith. Again, being in one’s home is a completely different setting than at the Starbucks or Le Bon Café down the street.

I made a commitment to myself at this seminar to build up a store of food that I could put together when I feel the need to invite people over. All too often in the past, I have wanted to invite people over, but had nothing to serve them, whether coffee, lunch or dinner. So I bought some basic ingredients: pasta, sauce, and ground beef for spaghetti, I made and froze soup, bought a large bag of frozen chicken from Costco, and gathered a few other things as well. I also received a Crockpot as a gift (thanks, Auntie Caedamon), which has been tremendously helpful.

Because I took these steps to be prepared, I feel that God has really helped me out and given me creative ideas about what to make and what ingredients I had in store.
Now, I have not been diligent in inviting people over to make the whole meal, but I have contributed items to home-gatherings and parties. Here’s the latest.

(By the way, as an aside, my roommate inherited some Top Ramen and Mashed Potato flakes from an old roommate of hers, and has been trying to get rid of them. Just keep this in mind as it plays into the miracle of the story!)

I needed to bring a dish to a large baby shower for 30 women, and I didn’t have much to work with. However, I had just inadvertently half-thawed four large frozen chicken breasts (by leaving the freezer cracked open) and I had three heads of lettuce from a Costco bag. I was going to make chicken salad, but don’t like it Caesar-style. Then I remembered the Top Ramen noodles and decided to make a Chinese Chicken salad with the top ramen, chicken, lettuce, and I would make my own dressing. All that I needed to buy for this huge salad was a small can of mandarin oranges, that was less than a dollar! So I was able to contribute to the spread with very little cost to me. God helped me be creative with what I had and not go out and buy a lot of ingredients and try to carry them all home on the Metro. I also got creative with dressing, and made my own using the juice from the mandarin oranges, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce (sweet), a bit of apricot jam to add to the sweetness. It was great! Anyway, this felt to me like God was providing for me as I was dedicated to being prepared. He made it work!

The second scenario was that I invited my friend over for lunch yesterday. As I was thinking about what to make, she responded that she would love to come, but she only eats fruit, veggies and nuts. That’s okay with me, because those are my favorite things as well. But a quick assessment of my pantry showed me that I had almost everything I needed for our beautiful meal. It was the most colorful salad I’ve ever seen. We had romaine leaves, corn and garbanzo beans, fresh cranberries, and perfectly, and I mean perfectly roasted nuts that I had toasted. Topped with lemon juice. I also cut up my sweet potato and put it on top because it was such a deep russet color. We also had red delicious apples cut up with cinnamon and lemon on top. Again, without me having to go out and purchase much at all, we had a delightful meal.

Here’s the kicker! I am planning on having a small dinner party for a bible study that meets at my house every Thursday night. One of the girls is turning 30 and I just wanted to do something nice, since it’s a big birthday and she is very much the woman who goes out of her way to celebrate other people. I decided to make a dainty, feminine meal of chicken corn chowder with green side salad and sourdough bread and a yummy dessert, and possibly white wine. So as I was looking up recipes for what I needed to make chicken corn chowder, I realized, to my amazement, (because I don’t even know where to start in making this soup) that I need to buy only about three ingredients….the creamed corn, green onion, and one potato. I have all the other ingredients, down to the mashed potato flakes that my roommate inherited months ago! I chuckled when I realized that the mashed potato flakes were in the recipe because that is such a God thing…using what we have already, and blessing me for being prepared and trying to build up my “pantry” and stepping out in faith to try to be hospitable and give what I have.