Wednesday, March 22

Do all the good you possibly can to the bodies and souls of your neighbors. Be active. Give no place to laziness. Be always busy, losing no shred of time. ~John Wesley

We have two weeks left in the village to do all the good we possibly can to the bodies and souls of our neighbors. For Sarah and Benjamin, it's their last two weeks for a long, long time. Since we love to cook, food is often the method we use to encourage our neighbors. At lunch time, we took a big bowl of potatoes, pumpkin greens, and fish (all swimming in coconut milk and curry) over to a new mama.

 

For the translation team's afternoon tea break, we provided banana muffins. And for part of their evening meal, we made pisu. As much as we love to eat pisu, it is a labor of love. But we love these guys who are working so hard and giving their all towards Bible translation. The work began while I read aloud to the kids and they peeled cassava. Then Sarah scraped twelve coconuts and squeezed the thick, beautiful coconut cream out of the meat.

While the coconut cream boiled and boiled and boiled, the house began to smell marvelous. The oil and fat separated, and the fat began to caramelize and float to the top. When the color changed to a beautiful brown, Sarah took the pot off the stove. She and I took turns smashing the cooked cassava. It is a full body workout, and we joked about the extra salt from our sweat making the pisu taste even better.

 

Sarah smoothed the pounded cassava on a tray, slathered the caramelized coconut curds on top, and rolled it up. We ended up with enough for the translation team, our chief's family, the head chef's family, and our own. And it was delicious!