It was our first day of ministry in Palenque. We went with Pastor Nestor and his wife, Selena, to do a house visit. We got there and our hosts welcomed us into their home with open arms. Selena explained who we were and why we were there before turning the evening over to us. I brought my guitar along, and although we are collectively the 6 worst singers on God’s green Earth, we did sing a few songs for them. Then Dre gave a short, 2 minute message to them in Spanish, so I really have no idea what she said….it probably had something to do with Jesus being the saviour of the world. Just a thought. The evening went great and after visiting with them for a bit we began to pack up our things to leave. And then my worst fear came true…..
They wanted to feed us.
We had talked about this moment a little as a team, but I wasn’t prepared for it. The two fastest ways to get sick overseas are the water and the food. Dre was just now getting over being sick from something she had taken in a few days earlier. So many things were racing through my mind as they began to hand out the plates of food. I looked at Dan and saw the same concerned look on his face that I could feel on mine. As the plate was handed to me and I removed the napkin covering, there it was….
An ant in my food.
It was on top of the cracker when the napkin came off, but it quickly scurried in amongst the noodles. Great. I don’t want to eat this to begin with, and now I know there is an ant in here somewhere. And who knows what got in here that I didn’t see. It could have been take-out from the best restaurant in the world, but at that point my mind had already decided that this was going to taste horrible and make me sick. How could anything healthy come from a house with holes in the walls and chickens living inside? (Seriously, the chickens were inside the house. One ran under Ashley’s chair.) Maybe if I slowly eat the crackers then it will be time to leave and I’ll be off the hook….
No such luck.
It’s difficult to put something in your body that you truly feel is going to make you sick, not to mention taste bad. As with everything, the Bible gives pretty clear instructions for a situation such as this. Paul was the first real missionary, traveling all over the middle east to proclaim the Gospel. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul says, “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer” (v4-5). In reality, our gracious hosts had probably spent several days worth of food money just to feed us. They live in poverty and offered us the one thing they could – a small plate of food. So ant or no ant, I had to eat this….
So with a prayer over the food, my stomach, and my hosts, I ate half of it. It didn’t taste good, but it pleased my hosts to have been able to feed their American visitors. And it pleased to me have brought some momentary joy and smiles to their faces.
And no one got sick!
