My Life journal musings for today:
Scripture: Numbers 18:1; Mark 8:2
Give the command to the Israelites adn say to them, “See that you present to me at the appointed time the food for the offerings…
“I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry they will collapse…”
Observation:
Food is an important and holy thing in God’s kingdom. From the ancient days of food offerings on the altar – to the way Jesus offered food to the crowds – and even the vision God gave Peter about food (Acts 10), food is connected to our physical AND spiritual lives. Eating is holy. Preparing food is an act of giving life. Sharing a meal is entering into the blessing of communion…God’s presence with us as we are with each other.
Application:
Russell Little has been in the kitchen for 11 days. It is set up in a large hotel room here where we stay. He has a variety of fantastic assistants each day, all of which he has convinced the locals are his 3 wives. Diane (the REAL Mrs. Little) was there the first day, and then Debbie and Dudley rotated through Russell’s kitchen. All of us take clean up duty nightly assignments and preparing sack lunches for the next day.
Russell has prepared breakfast and a feast for supper every day. He goes to the grocery daily and buy fresh food for us. His gifts for cooking and hospitality have blessed us physically and spiritually. As we return from the worksite each day, we enjoy some of the best cooking you can imagine. How awesome is that???
Sharing the evening meal, this “offering”, gives us time for conversation and telling the day’s stories around our table. We come to know one another in a different way. We cool down from the heat of the day and the pressure of long lines of people waiting to see the dentist. We rejuvenate as we feed our bodies and let our souls find relief.
Wednesday morning for our morning devotional, Robin (Dr. Wilhite, the dentist from Columbia FUMC) led us in sharing of our experiences over the past 11 days. We served each other communion. We sang and we prayed. We told stories of what God has done in us this week. We walked through the holy space of God’s presence among us and our heart were and are forever changed. Let it be.
YIELD
Remember that whatever food I take in today is an offering of someone, and whomever I share that meal with is joining me in a walk through the holy space of God’s presence with us.
Life in the Deep End 
Giving thanks for the many who have offered me love thru the gift of food …. and the blessings that have come ‘around the tables’….. Mama, Gran, G-mommy Wilson, Marjorie, all the family get togethers…..the church suppers……. feeling humbled as I remember the opportunities I am/have been given to offer food to others…. the blessings of family and friends gathered at my table.
yes… let it be!
As I suffer from a broken tooth, I am reminded to pray for Dr. Robin Wilhite and all her patients there, for their relief from pain, for knowledge about better health habits that lead to life, for healing in many ways, for freedom from the oppression of pain so there is energy to progress. You know, this past autumn my Living Word Sunday School Class started filling shoe boxes for Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse. Do our kiddos in La Toma have toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap, hair brushes, school supplies, etc.? What I’m thinking is that maybe we should do for our own first, like the Israelites did, like the early church did. Maybe people who cannot go to Guatemala could fill shoe boxes for our La Toma kids…but then transportation is an issue. Something to think about. Christine