Caribbean Thanksgiving

I'm detouring from our adoption timeline for this post because I want to tell this story...

A few weeks ago, our Fellowship Team decided that we should do a Thanksgiving dinner together, but we should do something different than the traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, corn casserole meal.  Living where we live, we eat Mexican food a minimum of once a day and BBQ a minimum of once a week, so those were out too.  A suggestion of Caribbean food, in honor of where our children are coming from, was thrown on the table and we went with it!  It was decided that everyone would bring a dish, or two, of their choice, as long as it was Caribbean in nature, and even better if it was a native dish of St. Vincent, the kid's island.
So I spent the last couple of weeks (o.k., maybe more like the last few days before the feast) searching Caribbean recipes and ingredients, trying to figure out what to bring.  I finally settled on Stuffed Sweet Potatoes and Pumpkin Soup.  I chose those because:
a.) they looked like something I could actually make,
b.) they looked like something I would actually eat, and
c.) they didn't contain goat. 
Seriously.

I was SO excited to see what everyone else what bringing.  Rumors had been started and rumors had been discredited only to be started again, that some form of goat meat would be there.  I would soon find out! :)

Here are some of the authentic dishes we had...

Crab Gumbo

 Pork Tenderloin 

Five Fingers!  This may seem so simple, but this was the most authentic b/c Brian and I ate them while we were there.  We call them Star Fruit, but in St. Vincent's they are called Five Fingers.  These were part of a fruit salad that also contained Papaya and Mangos.

 

My Stuffed Sweet Potatoes.  

I personally didn't like them only because it had to much meat in them for me, but..I am going to make this one again.  I actually think this could be quite good with just a tweak (or two) of the recipe. :)

 

We also had Fried Plantains, Rum Cake, Rice, Pumpkin Soup and the ever so yummy and most delicious chocolate chip cookies.  (Probably not Caribbean, but no one was complaining!) :)

Oh, and No Goat! :)

After lunch, the afternoon was filled with American pastimes that we will soon teach our children.  There was an ongoing baseball game (wiffle ball actually), washers, kayaking, paddle boating, swinging, sliding and playing. 

It was an amazing day of fellowship.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized, it was way more than that.  We were having fun and playing with our church.

Yes, we go to church, but I don't believe that Church is a building.  I don't believe that Church is an event that takes place on Sunday mornings.  Though we have come to think of church as the denominational building that you walk into every Sunday and maybe one other night of the week, that is not what Scripture talks about when it talks about church.  Church means community.  I am going to borrow what John Eldredge in "Waking the Dead" says about church being community...

"The little fellowships of the heart that are outpost of the kingdom.  A shared life.  They worship together, eat together, pray for one another, go on quests together.  They hang out together, in each other's homes." 

We have been together for almost 2 years.  We laugh together, we cry with one another, we pray for another, we help each other move, we go on adventures together and do races together -- our lives are intertwined with one another.   Along the way, we've gained some families, but we've also lost some families.  It's those losses that leave me feeling like we, like I, somehow failed them.  Maybe if I had more to offer, they would still be there or if our discussions were more powerful, they would come back asking for more.  I know it's not true but it's how I feel. 

Our fellowship team is intimate and it's vulnerable.  Each of us have laid our hearts out there, trusting that the others will walk this precarious trail of life with us.  And that is scary!  God says, "Above all else, guard your heart, for from it flows the wellspring of life."  Guard your heart!  Sharing your story and opening your life to others goes against that initial desire to keep your heart under lock and key.  But God also says time and time again in Scripture how important it is to come together and pray and have fellowship with other believers.
I know our fellowship team is powerful for God and for his kingdom.  Together we seek God's will for our life.  We talk about what it means to pick up your cross and follow Christ.  We serve the homeless and the widowed and the poor in our community.  We bring the gospel of Christ to far reaches of the globe.  We love on children in orphanages in places so desolate that most of us wouldn't leave our animals.  Together, we are powerful for God.  I don't say this to bring us recognition or for a pat on the back, I say this because I know the enemy recognizes this and he attacks these relationships with a vengeance.
Going to church with hundreds of people isn't going to require much risk or ask much of you.  It will certainly never expose you.  But community - a fellowship - will. 
As a result, we've experienced disappointments and hurts.  Every last one of us have hurt one another.  BUT, and this is huge, though the enemy has won a few battles, he has not won the war and broken our "church."  We have walked long enough with one another to know that our hearts are good towards one another.  And this makes it so much easier to trust and forgive.  In the moment, our feelings may be hurt and we may disagree, but we can always come back to the truth that their heart is good towards you.
Fellowship, a true community, the "church" - this is something we have to fight for.  We had to fight to have one and we have to fight to keep it going.  But isn't anything worth having, worth fighting for? 

I don't know what the future holds for our fellowship team and who might come and who might go.  But I know that each person that makes up our team right now, is a unique and beautiful representation of Christ and I am made better by each person in there that challenges me to think and grow.  I can't imagine walking this road to adoption without their support and prayers.  Thank you isn't enough, but Thank you is all I have.

 

My prayer is that each believer can know what it's like to have a fellowship that is safe to share your stories in, one that will help you to discover the glory that have to offer, that walks with you as grow closer to Christ, that prays for you without your asking - one that fights for your heart!!

To the women in my "church" - I Love You.  I know it hasn't always been easy, but it's always been worth fighting for.

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."

"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."