Bread of Life | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Bread of Life | Previous Challenge Entry
By Elaine Hemingway
07/18/19
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It was another era. I had travelled from England to Africa and met a confirmed bachelor who had decided I was interesting enough to pursue. Then, as a young married, eager to please, I had to learn many new disciplines. Not least were the demands of farming life for I had been a city girl. Milk and meat came from shops as did bread and other commodities. A working day had fitted into eight or so hours with a break for meals. A rebellious run-away, I was in a cultural adventure. Everything was new and exciting.

An important lesson was to take advantage of those older and wiser than me. Was my mother-in-law to become friend or foe? It would depend on what she could teach me about her precious son and whether I could avoid confrontation about my failings. Was I feeding him well? Was I supportive or demanding? Did I meet the criteria she expected and was I as well trained as her daughter? After all, not only was I a foreigner I was also culturally unsuitable. In short, she didn't trust me and had not yet earned his home language!

My sister-in-law became an ally and because she was also a farmer’s wife we learnt together. Mother-in-law lived many hours of travel away, while sister-in-law was on a farm not too far distant from us so though we were not in each other’s pockets we were close enough to socialise and become sisters-in-love not only law.

One of the new lessons centred on church going. There was no local church! From having church buildings on almost every street corner in city life, African country style entailed a visiting ‘dominee’ of the Afrikaans Dutch Reform Church who would make a circuit visit every three or four months on his several hundred kilometre route. Not only was it a different denomination but also a different language! One that I had not yet mastered but was a work in progress. And I wasn’t yet a committed Christian; a nominal believer yet more of a pew sitter and learner than a submissive servant.

A lesson came from an unlikely source. My sister-in-law invited me for a bread-making day, and so I learned how therapetic it was to knead dough. I was fascinated by Ethel's method. She thre her dough in tje ir, scrunched, pummelled, stretched and twirled, while I used the old school, domestic science way. Edges to middle on a table, pound, push repeat. End result? Brad.

Church was different from my established habits, but guess what? The differences made me examine my basic beliefs, and discover that whatever the methos the result was the same! Worship.
Romans 12:4&5. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not have the same function, so, in Christ, we, though many, for one body and each member beongs to all the others.

We worshipped differently but we worshipped.

Psalm 34: 3 Come glorify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His Name together.

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