Hot Pot

When our family went on a mission trip years ago, my then 13-year-old daughter was most concerned about what food we would eat. She was a picky eater and she was sure she would have nothing to eat. We stocked up on protein bars and of course she learned to eat many new foods. She survived and actually expanded her tastes.

Food certainly can be a major change when you move to a new country. When my husband and I visited China a couple of years ago, we tried so many new foods. One of those foods was Hot Pot (Thank you, Peter!). It was a pot of boiling broth and a variety of veggies and thin strips of meat that we cooked right at our table. We both enjoyed this meal and I liked trying all the new veggies! Eating them with chopsticks wasn’t always easy but it was fun to try tree ear and lotus seed pods.

When we came back to China a year later, I mentioned that we had liked this meal so much. Unfortunately we had little time to go out for Hot Pot. Instead our new friends, Thomas and his wife Yao, bought us the broth packages to make it at home. And with the help of our friend David from Bethany Lutheran Theological Seminary, we did! We bought everything we needed and spent the day chopping. David was a great help in chopping all the veggies. We invited my parents, my daughter and son-in-law, and another seminary student over and made hot pot. Yum!

 

I am looking forward to trying new foods in Hong Kong and I am looking forward to experiencing new things. I am also a little nervous about this. I have become allergic to shellfish and worry about all the seafood there so I talked to my doctor. I now have 2 epi-pens in my possession. Recently I have stopped eating sugar and flour. This might be harder to avoid but I know that I feel better without either of these in my diet. Maybe I am going to become a picky eater, but I hope not. My husband and I have decided to try as many different foods as we possibly can at least once. I will have to tell you later about all of our food adventures.

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8) Food helps sustain us and keeps us going. God’s Word sustains me daily. It is the best food for me during this transition. In the same way that I routinely eat food every day, I am also reading God’s Word and staying focused on His mercy and grace. God is good and He is in control–even when everything else seems out of place.