The Smell of Hospitality
For me, it’s onions frying. When I smell the sweet odor of onions frying in oil with tomatoes and curry, I know a meal is about to be shared. A good meal. One that includes cabbage or beans, pork or chicken, rice or posho. And to me, it’s the smell of hospitality. A meal shared between friends and maybe even strangers. I have eaten this meal in a mud hut. Outside on a bench. With a fork. In a church building. With bare hands. At the Source Café. Around my table in Jinja. At my teammates’ homes. With Tom in Africa, with Tom in America.
It’s a common everyday meal in Uganda, but it will always arouse extraordinary emotions within me when I breathe in the memories that surround these ingredients.
Tonight, hands of black and white peel and chop and sauté to create a delicious feast that feeds our stomachs and souls.
For Tom and Rogers, it’s the taste of home. A remembering of their everyday. A way to satisfy cravings in the same way I would long for my mother’s roast beef, potatoes, and green beans when I lived in Uganda.
But for me, this meal is spiritual. Its aroma and taste awaken in me deep longings to be someone who welcomes people. Someone who feeds people, who provides for others.
Because in Africa, I was fed. By Ugandans, by God. My stomach was full of the generosity and provisions of Ugandan families who served me food valuable to their livelihood. And my cup overflowed with the love of God that graciously taught me how to live through receiving others. This meant sharing resources, giving abundantly and inviting others to enter. To sit at my table. Rest on my couch. Sleep in my bed. This isn’t an easy lifestyle. It’s interruptable. It’s public. And it challenges values of personal space and privacy.
Thankfully, we joyfully struggled on this journey of hospitality with teammates – supporting one another, filling in for each other when we grew tired, and rejoicing in the fruit of our labor.
What does hospitality look like in America? How do you receive and provide for people in a culture where tasks and activities dominate, and few slow down to be welcomed?
These questions rest deep on my heart as I seek to understand how to welcome people in the way that Jesus did.
On Fridays, my posts will focus on hospitality. I will be offering physical, emotional and spiritual ideas for creating an environment of grace in your home. We have the power to shape our spaces. To intentionally infuse them with a life giving spirit that blesses those who enter. I will be sharing recipes, cleaning tips, ideas on honest communication – all things that help us create our homes to be a place where God’s grace abounds. A place where we are able to welcome others to share life with us.
Let us learn together how to be givers and receivers of hospitality. How to create living spaces.
Tonight, our family gathers around the table to eat a meal that draws unlikely people together as family. We celebrate our experience in Uganda, the relationships that bind us forever, and the fellowship that occurs when you say yes to the things God places before you.
Ugandan Cabbage (makes 4-6 side servings)
Ingredients:
1 head of cabbage, sliced very thin
1 large tomato or 2 small tomatoes, sliced in medium pieces
1 purple onion, sliced thin
Oil, Salt, Curry
Directions:
Cover the bottom of a medium sized pot with vegetable oil (approximately 1/8 Cup). Heat on medium high.
Add onions and saute until starting to get a bit brown. About 5 minutes.
Add chopped cabbage. Place tomatoes on top of cabbage, sprinkle with salt (1-2 tsp) and curry (2 TBS).
Cover and reduce heat to medium. After it has cook with lid on for a few minutes check to make sure the cabbage isn’t sticking or burning. Eventually the cabbage’s own water will begin to steam it. But sometimes I have to add just a bit of water to moisten the bottom of the pot. After the cabbage has cooked for 5 minutes, stir the ingredients, allowing the tomatoes and curry to get mixed it. Eventually the tomatoes will soften to create a delicious sauce with the oil and curry and onions.
Serve with rice. This is a great side dish with pork or beef or chicken.
