Dining with the King
26 Sep 2017
My husband László and I have been missionaries in Hungary for more than ten years, and we continue to be amazed at the wide variety of ways that we can witness to people about Jesus. One of these ways is sharing ourselves and our food with the people we meet, just as the Lord himself did so many times.
Jesus ate with the most despised people of his time, tax collectors and prostitutes; and he miraculously fed large crowds of people. Meals provided an intimate setting for many important messages and revelations from the Lord, using the similarity in our need for physical food to live with our need for spiritual food. Even the good news of our salvation and eternal life is remembered using elements of our daily food, bread and wine: Christ’s body and blood given so we can have life.
In today’s Europe, where Christianity is looked upon as a relic of past history and is considered irrelevant, the spiritual vacuum in people’s lives is often filled with new age mysticism or the occult. With the increase of individualism and virtual relationships, more and more people are becoming depressed, lonely and socially awkward. They long for meaningful relationships, love and acceptance.
Our ministry during the past ten years has focused on developing relationships, and these often started with invitations for a meal. Out of the many such occasions I would like to emphasize one particular group of young people we came to know through working in a Hungarian Reformed Church in Kolozsvár/Romania.
At the start of December 2013, we invited these youth (aged 18-28) to our home to have a meal with the King. They had to dress appropriately, knowing that they were going to meet a great and powerful Lord. When the day came, I spread a very festive table using fine china and delicate crystal, and served a variety of delicacies that I had come to know about while living in Australia. When the guests arrived in their beautiful garments, László introduced to them the King of the Universe, showing a short documentary on the immensity of the universe, the powerful Lord who spoke it all into existence, the Father of all mankind who is loving, caring and all merciful and who descended from His heavenly realm and lived amongst us, walked and ate with us and died for our iniquities so that we can have redemption and a future in His presence for ever and ever.
This little group were so interested to hear more about these things, that a Bible study started weekly at our place. Often food was served first, as many were students, appreciating a home cooked meal. After a few weeks, we started taking turns in hosting the study, and sometimes we could hardly fit into the small places they invited us to. The food, warm fellowship and time spent studying God’s Word brought us closer and closer.
As we became more familiar with each other, the girls wanted to learn to cook some of the recipes that they enjoyed so much. They also wanted to hear more about what the Bible says on topics like premarital relationships, rights and wrongs in Christian living, marriage, and just generally about being a woman according to God’s will.
After about one year of meeting with the girls, our little group was interviewed for the local radio. I was asked to cook some dishes for the radio’s cooking program. This program was followed by an article in the local paper with pictures and instructions for the recipes that I’d selected because of their quick preparation time and very cheap ingredients. This was such a success that the journalist who put them together came back to write another article on us, our lives, and our missionary work that made us leave the comforts of our Australian home.
Let us never forget the Provider of our daily needs as we eat together and as we enjoy the many varieties of foods with which He has blessed us. Give Him the glory as we sit around our tables with those who do not know Him. May God bless the work to make His name known amongst the nations, and may He use this work to bring many into His everlasting kingdom from all over the world.
Eva Mihalyi
One of my recipes for you to try:
Stuffed Mushrooms
Baked in a frypan or in the oven, super quick and delicious
Stuffing Ingredients
- Breadcrumbs
- Butter (melt in Microwave) and olive oil, mix enough into crumbs to get a paste
- Fresh parsley minced
- A few garlic cloves according to taste, minced
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Choose a few larger head Champignon mushrooms
- Pick out their stalks, wash under running water and dry
- Mix the stuffing ingredients and stuff the mushroom heads with the mixture
- Place a slice of cheese or grated cheese over the top of stuffing
- Bake in hot oven (200 degrees Celsius) until cheese is melted and the mushrooms are cooked (about 5 minutes)
- Or you can cook in non-stick frying pan under a lid until cheese melts and the mushrooms get cooked
Bon Appetit!