By Dianne McNary
Welcome to the table with our CBF field personnel! Each day from today until the end of September, we will feature one of our field personnel units and include a recipe for you to try.
A Place at the Table has been the Offering for Global Missions theme for 2022-23. Based on Luke 14:12-14, we have been invited to share hospitality to the community around us. “When you give a banquet, invite …”.
Often when we invite guests or friends to the table, it is a formal affair involving cleaning your house, planning and preparing a meal, setting the table with your best dishes and linens; or it may be picking out a restaurant, making a reservation and sending an invite. Maybe next month your friends or guests will reciprocate and invite you.
In Luke 14, Jesus tells us that when we throw a banquet we should invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind – those who can’t reciprocate or are left off the guest list. CBF field personnel welcome those who are neglected, overlooked and searching to the table.
Nineteen years ago, I left Arkansas to move to Slovakia to work among the Roma people in Slovakia and Czechia. With my husband, kids, dog and flatware, I thought I was ready to serve. I believed that I was welcoming and hospitable. I had a lot to learn – language, culture, true hospitality. For a time, I was the one who was searching for knowledge, for friends and a way to fit in. I was welcomed to the table by church members who helped me learn the language and Slovak culture; by the Roma I met who welcomed me into their houses and taught me about Roma culture and sacrificial hospitality. I knew hospitality from abundance, not scarcity. I was invited to the table even though I had nothing to offer. I’m so thankful to those who welcomed me and made room for me at the table.
The kitchen table is where I learned to speak Slovak; where I learned to cook halusky (ha-loosh-key); where I spent many hours drinking tea and eating cake while getting to know friends and partners. Sitting around a table, I led book clubs, discussion clubs, conversational English groups and made friends for life.
Our CBF field personnel serve around the world in 19 countries using their unique giftings to welcome all to the table. Your gift to the Offering for Global Missions supports the long-term presence of our field personnel by providing salary, benefits and housing. One hundred percent of your gifts go directly to the support of field personnel. As we wind up the 2022-23 OGM promotion, I ask you to give generously to the Offering for Global Missions. If you have already made a contribution, I ask you to prayerfully consider an additional gift to OGM.
I know the importance of the Offering for Global Missions. I have been a beneficiary of your generosity for 19 years. I could not have lived out my calling without your generous support. Now, I am thrilled to take on the role of Offering for Global Missions Advocate and to share about the unique ministries of CBF field personnel.
Thank you for your gifts to the Offering for Global Missions which allows CBF field personnel to minister around the world.
Please join us around the table.
Slovak Recipe
Bryndzove Halusky (Halusky with Bryndza) similar to gnocchi or spatzele
(Bryndza is a soft sheep cheese common in Slovakia. You can substitute cream cheese or linberger cheese if you don’t have bryndza. There is an online store in Chicago where you can order bryndza)
Ingredients:
1 potato for each person, peeled and finely grated
Flour to make a semi-soft dough
Water
Salt to taste
6-8 oz smoky bacon, cut into small pieces and fried – save the grease
4 oz bryndza cheese
8 oz sour cream
Instructions
Put on a large pot of lightly salted water on to heat; bring to boil.
Meanwhile, grate potatoes and place in large bowl. Season with salt and add flour and water until you have a semi-soft dough that drops easily from spoon. Use a grater with large holes or spatzle maker to drop the dough into the boiling water. Stir often to keep dough from clumping together. Cook until halusky rises to top of water – about 10-15 minutes.
While halusky are boiling, cook bacon until crisp. Set aside; do not drain.
Place bryndza in bowl and mix with water from halusky pot to make a thin sauce.
Once halusky have cooked through, drain thoroughly. Place in large bowl; add bryndza sauce, sour cream and cooked bacon along with the oil/grease and mix together. Serve immediately.
Our friend, Daniel says that Halusky are best served in a wooden plate, eaten with a wooden spoon and a glass of buttermilk.
Dobru chut! (good eating) or Bon apetit!