Monday, March 21, 2011

Hospitality and Hilarity

This address will take you to an introduction to the life and times of my uncle, Emanuel J. Sorenson, a missionary in Ethiopia and Jamaica. Once a week, for the next 20 weeks, there will be story that provides a glimpse of what missionary life was like for his family, as related by my cousin, Jane Spear.

We grew up with our home open to all visitors. There was a guest room in the house where our teacher lived, but all persons had three meals a day together at our home. This was sometimes a very trying experience for my mother because Shirley and I were slow eaters and did not find food interesting. At times, one could find crusts under the table. Or, we would excuse ourselves from the table with food in our mouths, which we deposited into the calla lilies. Not having big appetites was one thing, but not finishing the various courses of food, with many people at the table, was another. My Mother came up with a solution. On the wall appeared a large poster with the days of the month marked off. Three meals were marked off each day. One section of the chart was for my sister, and one section was for me. My Mother explained that for each meal that we finished on time, we would be awarded a gold star on the chart. One week of perfect stars would mean a special surprise. We could speculate as to this surprise. Would it be a new dress Mother made for one of our dolls? We never knew, and we never found out. Alas, neither one of us ever achieved a week of gold stars.


Read more at Adventist Perspective.

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