A Cross-Cultural Supper with Friends

Tuesday evening we spent in fellowship around the table with our friends, home on furlough from their missionary work in South Africa.  It's been four years since we've seen them all together.  Their voices are music to my ears.  She, an American, sounds, of course, like us - but his South African voice has a lovely sing-song quality to it.  And the voices of their three children are a mix of accents - American, South African and a definite hint of a British tone which comes from the strong English influence in their schooling and culture.

It was good just to sit and catch up - oh, how I love our conversations.  Because of their backgrounds and experiences, our talks are fascinating and rich.  And because this blog is a bit of journal besides an outlet for encouraging others, I'm making a little list of some of the topics that we touched on so that I might remember the rich discussion of that night:

* the differences in South African culture versus American culture:
- most there fear God and know that there is a Supreme Being; their response to atheism as sheer foolishness and that you best watch out if you dare say there is no God/here, of course, there is little fear of God and much atheism
- the different tactics Satan takes in the two cultures - there being blatant, in-your-face demon possession, witch doctors, curses and fear; here in America Satan's tactic seems to be that he doesn't want anyone to know he's working, subtleness, apathy among the people, a nation drugged and enslaved to technology, to self

* the similarities between the two cultures - television and technology both directly affect the cultures (and usually not in a good way) - the rural part of Africa is still somewhat protected from the influences and their hearts are more open and pliable to the Gospel/in the cities with more access to "entertainment" there is a hardness as there is here; our societies are becoming what we watch

* the Western philosophy of how we "do" church - as well as similiarities and differences in what worship looks like in Africa

* the various languages of Africa - the Xhosa language of clicks,  mixing 3 types of tongue-clicking with words!; the Afrikaans language that their children are learning is a carry-over from the Dutch influence in Africa - we discovered some similarities to the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect!

Besides talking we also ate, of course, and I share the menu below:

Chicken Spaghetti
Cooked Broccoli & Cauliflower
Tossed Salad with Croutons
Homemade Warm & Chilled Applesauce (Their children loved the applesauce and ate every last bite!  My friend said that it's expensive in Africa and eaten only as a type of topping on meat, so they rarely have it.)
White Cake with Butter Frosting
Cremora Pie (A popular South African dessert they brought to share - similar to a cheese pie here but made with coffee powder (!), water, condensed milk and lemon juice in a graham cracker shell - though there the shell is made of crushed coconut biscuits and margarine)
Iced Water & Hot Coffee

Our friends never fails to bring a little something from South Africa for us when they come home to visit - this time being a packet of strong black South African tea, a Nestle Peppermint Crunch bar, and a little keychain of tiny replicas of the nation's money.

The evening ended with a time of prayer (something I always look forward to when we end our fellowship with them) and promises to get together again before they head back to Africa.

Thank You, Lord, for another sweet night to add to my memory collection -