Dinner Dates

I recently started reading Brennan Manning's The Ragamuffin Gospel. It is a very unique book and I am only on the sixth chapter but already it has opened my mind to a great deal of thought.
Manning talks about Jesus' ministry of meal sharing. I really like this idea. It reminds me of the standing date I have with my family- and friends whom I call family- at our favorite mexican food restaurant on Saturday nights. I'd like to call that our ministry. I can't figure out which I love more, the food or the company.
It also reminds me of the movies. I have been watching a lot of movies lately and I am finding that my favorite scenes center around the dinner table. Think of The Holiday; I love to watch the camera pan the table when Kate Winslet's character,Iris, hosts a "get to know you" dinner party. The soft light mixes with the conversation and the laughter. I have to admit it as one of my favorite scenes, among many in that movie!
It seems we catch up with old friends best when there is food involved. The table seems to make it so that we can see and hear each other and there is some kind of magic in just the simple gesture of sharing a meal.
I think I fell in love with dinner parties because of my mom. I don't so much care about the perfect china or tablecloth or even preparing the perfect meal, what I love is the rawness of sitting down together. My mom understood the value of this and created a very special meal.
About ten years ago, she brought a dream of hers to life. She did not do it for herself, but for the homeless and jobless who found their way to her office every day looking for a place to start from.
The Agape Meal.
It is served on Thursday nights and it offers the homeless a haven where they are served dinner on nice china and pampered with Christ's love. I was in the second grade when this began and Thursday used to be my favorite night. I made a best friend at the meal and we dined together frequently. I loved to sit and laugh and my mom let me wonder through the tables with reckless abandon. I was probably just a cute little girl that they could pick on, but I like to think that I was a little bit of hope and a something that was constant about dinner in their everchanging world.
So, I blame my mom for the love of a good dinner.
This is a good love to have while living in Macedonia because dinner can sometimes last hours. That is just fine by me. That just gives me more time to settle into the time and space where the outside noise of the world stops and conversations and laughter can begin.
I know that people will ask upon my return, "So, what is it that you did there?"
I guess I could just answer that my ministry found me as I ate good food with friends around many different tables. As Manning says, "the shared table symbolizes a shared life."