Hairy pork rinds, anyone?
It was an invitation that caused missionary Katie Moore some apprehension. She was walking home and some Nahuatl neighbor girls beckoned her to their fence. They asked her to stop and visit awhile and share some homemade pork rinds with them.
“I like to call them deep fried trichinosis,” Katie quips.
But Katie accepted the invitation.
The setting for this fellowship left a little something to be desired. The head of the pig was displayed prominently, decorated with dirt and flies. In an old yogurt container nearby, she glimpsed four hooves.
“And,” Katie explains, “in the middle of a circle of chairs was a huge wash basin filled with pieces of fried pig skin, some still with a healthy amount of hair.”
Katie shares her reactions candidly. Eating what the village people offer to share with her is often a difficult part of fellowship and relationship-building.
It’s hard because she is not a big fan of many foods that are obviously a special treat for Nahuatl people. It’s hard because she worries about getting sick—flies and unwashed hands are in evidence everywhere. And, Katie says, it’s hard because she know how little food they have. Accepting food from hungry people who sometimes go hungry bothers her.
“So why don’t I just say no? Make up some excuse? Say I’m full?” Katie asks.
She accepts their gifts because of what motivates the generosity of her village friends. “They are offering me friendship, a chance to be part of the community—the very best they have to give,” Katie explains.
And the love God has given to her for the Nahuatl people helps her embrace that reality.
Katie hopes toward the day when the Good News of Christ impacts her Nahuatl friends and their culture and community. She prays and invests her life toward a time when she can break bread with the first Nahuatl believers in Jesus.
“Until then,” Katie writes, “I will gladly eat greasy stew, lumpy oatmeal and hairy pork rinds to become Nahuatl—for the sake of the gospel.”
Are you willing to go for the sake of the gospel?