You might be surprised to hear me say this, but my team is so spoiled here. We might live in a four bedroom/3.5 bathroom house with 46 people, but we totally lucked out with our contact, Pastor Manuel. Not only is he full of the Spirit and overflowing with love; he knows the way to any American’s heart: food.
Manuel actually lives in a beautiful Dominican house about two blocks away from us, and tonight he invited us over for mango milkshakes with cold ice. Believe it or not, ice is an American luxury and is not very common abroad, so its a treat to have it! You heard right Blake. Him and his wife Patricia made us homemade mango milkshakes and buttered toast to dip it in. Don’t judge; the shake tastes like a thick, juicy marmalade on deep dish buttered toast. He set down two HUGE pitchers in front of us and said, “ I am the Pastor and in charge of this house, so I say that you have to eat it all!� Needless to say, we didn’t have any trouble finishing it. Is your mouth watering yet?
I couldn’t tell you about this delicious drink without giving you the recipe! Its really simple and is listed as follows:
Peel, cut and blend several fresh mangos in a mixer.
Add about a cup of creamy milk
Add about 3/4 cup sugar
Add about one part ice
Bend until thick and creamy
It was such a wonderful surprise to be able to spend time with this family in their home and share traditions. Today actually was supposed to happen a little differently. The women of our team were supposed to go a women’s bible study in the village, while the men went door to door inviting kids to the VBS event tomorrow. But God had different planes. He actually brought down a calming rain all afternoon, which was much needed for the village’s crops, but unfortunately kept the women and families indoors. You see, since these people don’t have cars, if it rains, they don’t leave their homes, least of all for a bible study. And since the don’t have Facebook to send out event invitations, the Pastor drove us around in his van, door to door, to invite the kids to the bible study for tomorrow. It was quite 1910.
Since we didn’t have the women’s bible study, we had some awesome time to pray over Manuel’s church and spend time with him and his family drinking mango shakes. God shook things up and turned it into a great night!
