Unexpected hospitality opportunity

Yesterday I did something a bit unusual. 

I'm gradually realising that having extra free time gives me the opportunity to say yes to unexpected opportunities to serve and to connect with people. This month I've had coffee on two occasions with two different friends who happened to be in my neck of the woods and had time to spare. Both of them prefaced their invitation with "I've got this crazy idea"...and I was able to say yes both times and have precious time with them.

Then last Wednesday I got a message from a colleague about the five-day workshop she was organising at our OMF Japan headquarters this week. She was urgently trying to make sure the 23 people attending had lunch each day and they'd suddenly found themselves without someone to make lunch one of the days. As it turns out my work this week is pretty slow, so I had the time to go and do this. 

It was a big task, though, because it takes nearly two hours to get to the OMF headquarters on the other side of Tokyo by train (there's currently no car parking onsite due to renovations). So the decisions I had to make as I executed this plan were:

• selecting a meal that I could quickly make with easily accessible ingredients in the kitchen (two microwave-sized ovens, a two-burner stove, but lots of bench/counter space)
• budgeting—using two cheaper stores that I have close to me that I know they also have near JHQ
• figuring out quantities for this number of people
• figuring out timing, which included me buying the ingredients after I got there on the day, using a borrowed bike, and then doing the cooking

And then executing the plan. I couldn't do much prep at home or take much with me because of the train travel (and most of them quite crowded).

I did well on the first two of the above, not so well as the second two:

1. I bought too many ingredients. One of my biggest fears as a mum of teenage boys was not having enough food, so I've learned to cook too much! But because this was just day three of a five-day live-in workshop, there was plenty of scope for using the leftover salad and other things later in the week.

2. I didn't have enough time to do all that I'd planned on my own, but I easily found two wonderful helpers.

Sadly, the only photo I took of the whole event
was of the leftover ingredients at the end!

What did I make? Loaded potatoes: baked/jacket potatoes that you "load up" with various fillings. It was buffet style and I provided bacon, grated cheese, chickpeas, boiled egg, and yoghurt (cheaper substitute to sour cream). I also had a bunch of raw salad options that people could choose from to add to their plate as well as salad dressing, and a platter with the fruit that cheapest right now (apples, bananas and pineapple). It was a healthy, tasty, and economical meal that didn't require too much cooking and could easily be sourced locally.

It was a joy to use my ability to cook (again) to serve others outside of our household. I've been sharing baked goodies at church and mission events, and hosting people at our house for meals even so often, but this was another level of hospitality. Many who live close to JHQ do this all the time, but because of where we live, I haven't been asked to.

And, as I've noted many times in the past, an opportunity to serve practically like this provides many other opportunities to interact meaningfully with my colleagues. I had several good conversations that filled my heart with joy (and with things to take to the Lord in prayer).