Sunday Snippet: The Cooking Club…

What do you do when you attend a church with a wide age range of folk: Older folk, quite a few young families and heaps of students from all over Africa? The students are mostly transient, only in town for a year or two, and they are from a wide and varied background. The question is how do the more permanent members make the “passing through for a time” members feel more welcome? Well our church has started a cooking club. And we think it’s brilliant!!!

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This is how it works: The students go round to a couple of homes. They get told which ingredients they need to bring to share. And in each home they are taught different recipes. We had a couple of students over this past weekend and taught them how to make pizza from scratch… We used our bread machine recipe, except they were the bread machine.

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They got to prepare the toppings and scrounge for herbs in the garden:

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They needed absolutely no help with applying toppings!!!

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And they did a great job:

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We love it because:

  1. We can welcome students into our homes on what for them are long boring weekends away from home. Holidays are never good for folk stuck in student dorms.
  2. It is a visit with a purpose so we don’t have to scrounge around for conversation. There is nothing like looking at each other saying “ummm, So how was your childhood?” to end any sort of interaction!!! I am always amazed at how much you get to share and chat about when you are working.
  3. We can share a life-lesson and they can learn one, everyone needs to know how to make pizza.
  4. Our kids get to hone their hospitality skills and that is always a good idea! Practice, practice and more practice!!! Not to mention it is an easy way for our kids (and me) to meet folk in the congregation as individuals and to recognize names and faces in the sea of people on a Sunday morning.
  5. When I was a student I visited with a Christian Family, they had an open home policy, and it was a great way to see how things work and to see a living example of how christian family life works. We are far from the perfect example but it is a place to start.
  6. We can meat people from faraway places, which is the closest we can get to traveling right now.
  7. It was such fun!!! And nearly no work, there wasn’t heaps of preparation – they were doing the cooking after all. And did I mention: It was such fun!!! We will definitely be doing this again!!!

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And as they were leaving one of the students mentioned that they hadn’t been to the beach before… So I think we will add a beach walk to our “cooking club agenda”!!!

That’s us. Have a Great Week…

This Post was hammered out as part of The Thirty Minute Mom’s Challenge at Steady Mom.

P.S. If you did something fun with your kids or made a great link list then pop over and link it up to our Fabulous Friday Fun, not to mention have a look at the great links there!!!

12 Replies to “Sunday Snippet: The Cooking Club…”

  1. That’s awesome all round but the hospitality bit really got me, I need to practise more of that. It looks much less frightening than I anticipate. Thanks for sharing this.

  2. Hi O, Hospitality is one of those things that the more you do the easier it is!!! I like having a pretty open house but I am hopeless and preplanned and preprepared events… things like a dinner party send me close to death, but coming over for supper – well I could have folk over every night without batting an eye!!! I guess when every meal is a meal for ten then adding a couple to the mix doesn’t make much difference!!! And it is so well worth the fun!!! Hope you have a good week!!!

  3. nice. when I lived in Seattle a family at my church would invite 10 or so people to dinner every sunday, along with their 5 kids, it was great. we all brought food, had a wonderful time, and it was one of the truly happy marriages I’ve seen in my life. I really miss that.

  4. Wow! Your post brought back many happy memories of my parents hosting international students as a child!

    & You’re right-I had all those benefits!

  5. Hi N, I used to think my house had to be perfect and everything had to be absolutely spotless to have folk round – but eight kids are very grounding!!! And I have discovered that really having a come as we are attitude has opened our home to so many wonderful people… And everyone pitching in is part of the fun!!! Hope you have a good week!!!

  6. Hi K, It’s taken a bit of time but I have learnt that it is more fun to just have folk over whenever than spending time preparing for a great once a year bash. Homes are meant to be lived in and since we have one we are going to share ours!!! Glad to meet someone who has grown up with “the benefits” and lived to tell the tale!!! Have a good week!!!

  7. Really fantastic idea!!! I remember having students live with us when I was a kid and it was so rewarding. Thanks for helping us look outside the box for ways we can share God’s love, joy and friendship.

  8. Hi KM, Thank-you!!! We love having students over. I always think we are doing them a favor and getting them out of their residence and turns out we gain so very much from meeting them!!!

  9. What a great idea! we were just discussing last night in our cell group how to have more fellowship – like, more than sunday morning service and weds evening, those are always kind of “on an agenda” and yet we crave each other’s company & encouragement and want to make time & space for it.
    here’s a question on the hospitality with children – i’ve finally gotten over the need for perfection (took me a while) and the fancy food (our guests eat what we eat and it’s all good!) but i’m am at a loss how to teach my little kiddos how to not FREEZE UP whenever ppl talk to them. they are 2(boy) and 3(girl), both great talkers, very expressive, and their dad and I are super social folks, so we are always chatting ppl up (even when they don’t want us too lol) and having ppl in our home.. but my little two just hide and freeze and won’t make eye contact and won’t answer questions and won’t say hello. Hm. So I’ve tried little “role-playing” games where we practice meeting people and shaking hands, etc. They love the games but it changes NOTHING when we actually get to the real thing. So I guess my (LONG) question is – is this just kind of normal, will they grow out of it, how do you train in this area or do you at all?
    thanks for your super blog. I am finally catching up after a couple of very busy weeks in my world. 🙂 blessingS!

  10. Hi A, Nice to have you stop by. I really should write a post on se7en steps to hospitality… it was on one of my very first lists of potential posts!!! Meanwhile: Give your kiddo’s time. Mine are so used to being swamped by people all day long and everyday and the little ones can still take a while to warm up to strangers. Just remember that there is a reason they aren’t super responsive, their “guts” is telling them to take it slow. Let them!!! I think it is very important to let small children keep those gut feelings of wether a person is a yay or a nay… I never tell my kids they have to hug someone good bye or kiss a grannies cheek, but I do expect basic courtesy: greeting and please or thank-you. Hope that helps!!!

  11. What a FABULOUS idea! You are so creative!

    And you’re right – the chit-chat happens best when you put people to work. I do this when people come over for supper too LOL

    on the other post, I’ve always been so scared of working with phyllo pastry but you make it look so easy…

  12. Hay L, Trust me on this: Phyllo pastry (thanks for showing me the spelling!!!) is so very easy and looks so impressive… I keep a box in the freezer – always – because if you have anything that can go into a pie, then it looks so impressive in a phyllo pastry base!!! Hope you guys have a fun weekend!!! Just remember to invite over a couple of friends to do some painting “work” for you – perfect painting of course!!!

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