I Blame Janice Wood [PHOTOS]

I have been so blessed to participate in numerous different ministries over the last month and a half. Minstries like teaching English to kids in a bilingual school; bringing food to families who have lost their homes in a hurricane and now live in shanties and lean-to's; preaching the Word in the yard of a house in a poor village; praying for the sick in a hospital; taking care of orphans from a mission to rescue young women who have been incestuously sexually abused; playing soccer with kids in a Compassion International center. There have been so many. But by far…so far… my favorite ministry has been one focused on my team. I have most enjoyed….so far…COOKING.

I blame Janice Wood.

I only really began learning to cook last year, having grown up in a house where my grandmother thought it nearly offensive if you wanted to cook for yourself, so much was her love of caring for people by providing for them in the kitchen. A lot of people- my Mom, my dear Ellice, my sweet Casey- have poured into my cooking repertoire, but it has been Janice who has made the most impact on me.

Janice Wood is the wife of my pastor (and practically my adopted papa) Joe Wood. Joe and Janice host a meal for college kids every Sunday of the fall and spring semesters after church. It's called "Mooching Off The Pastor. I mean, who doesn't want a home-cooked meal? But in order to prepare enough food for 60+ people, Janice hosts a "Mooching Prep" session for college girls who want to learn to cook, or who want to be a blessing to the 60-some-odd college students who will be partaking of their time and effort, consumption-wise.

I started attending Janice's Mooching Prep, I guess, a year and a half ago and, MAN, have I learned a lot. Not just about cooking, but about intimacy with friends and family, about how to do life with people, about how to love on people and draw them into your home and your life. There's something really special about preparing a meal for people, or preparing a meal together, and then eating together, that you can't really get from many other activities.

And- suprise, surprise- the second I leave the country to go be God's hands and feet all over the world, the moment I get the opportunity to do crazy miraculous things I could never have even thought about in the states…I discover that I find more joy in washing and peeling vegetables, in grating cheese, in rolling pupusas than anything else.

Don't get me wrong- I LOVE the ministries that we are getting to do. I LOVE experiencing cultures and crowds that challenge me, that stretch me, that cause me to look at my life from a new perspective- but, again, there's just something really beautiful about caring for my team(s) and my hosts in preparing food. There's something really cool about learning how other people in other cultures prepare meals. There's something really…satisfying… about sacrificing my own personal time to serve the people around me whom I love so much.

And for all this… I blame Janice Wood.