Spaghetti is for Breakfast!

Lately I have not been inspired to write. I am not so sure why exactly. I did start to think that one reason is seeing so many teams come down and watching them experiences ‘my world’ and the Haitian culture. There are so many mixed reactions from people who come. One of our devotions this week talked about judgment. We don’t normally mean to judge and yet we all do it. Because we grew up a certain way, our families did it This way; Americans do it This way, etc. We all come with biases on ‘the way’ something should be done. This is neither good nor bad but just a fact. The way we act on those ideas is what really matters. There are many, many things that are different from life in the United States and any other country; there are communities and cultures in the USA that are very different from each other. We need to be constantly challenging ourselves on what is the ‘right way’ to do something; there are many different ways.


Recently Lee came over to eat dinner at my house and I was really excited because I had figured out (with Gabriel’s help) how to make chicken alfredo. As we were eating Lee made a comment about ‘why is it Haitians think this is a breakfast food – its dinner’. Spaghetti with very little sauce and maybe a little cut up salami is a breakfast food in Haiti; which I have grown to love for breakfast. And I don’t know who said it first but we both thought wait who in the United States decided it wasn’t a breakfast food. It is just all about our perspective. It is just different, neither is wrong. In Haiti spaghetti is a breakfast food and in the United States it is a dinner meal. Why? Just because.

(picture of Lee and Sony eating Eggplant Parmesan a year ago for dinner - but it fit the story)

Too often we as Americans think we have all the answers. And I find myself often humbled and amazed by individuals from other cultures. I am inspired by my Haitian brothers and sisters on a regular basis. It is also a beautiful thing to watch mission teams unfold and discover this for themselves throughout a week trip. They come to ‘serve the least of these’ and soon they realize we are God’s children and equals. We are all living our lives and want the best for our families and loved ones, we just go about it a little different and we have different circumstances to work within our lives. We can learn from each other more ways to live in this world together.

‘Just like me’ You want a brighter future.

‘Just like me’ You feel pain and struggles in your life.

‘Just like me’ you have joy in your life.

‘Just like me’ you cry.

‘Just like me’ you want to be loved by others.

‘Just like me’ you are loved.

– You can fill in any ending to these thoughts that you want, this is just what came to my mind. But it is especially for people you don’t understand, don’t like, or may even be enemies of yours.

(Thanks to Joe for the ‘just like me’ prayer idea and this AmaZiNg team that is here right now from Iowa, Michigan, Texas, and England, hangin with a South Dakotan in Haiti that inspired me and helped me see things in a new way - what a combination - I am blessed.)