Hospitality through Food, Discipleship Baking, and Waffles Around the World
One of the easiest ways to build relationships with people is through food. So, as I spent a good deal of this year observing the existing ministry at OCAD and trying to build relationships with students, I spent a lot of time making and eating food.
Hospitality through Food
My Knights live in a house on Jarvis, which we often used as a place to gather for meals and parties. In the fall, I began a semi-regular (twice a month) practice of invading their home and teaching them how to make different types of cuisine on Sunday evenings. My fondest memories are of our sushi-making gathering and our samosa party. These gatherings served as a conduit for deeper relationships in our community, places where people felt welcome to brings friends, and to hang out and spontaneously end up in worship and prayer. One of my student leaders, whom I’ll refer to as the Witty Chef, is also a gifted baker and cook, often making all the household meals for his siblings, even though he is the youngest! He works part-time at a grocery store, and often the beginning of every meeting I had with him would entail him telling me of specials for that week. One week, turkeys were on sale, and he decided to get one and learn how to cook it, even though he’d never done so before. He decided to brine the turkey, which is something even I haven’t done, and cook it one day, just for fun. He invited me and the rest of the leadership team to come eat it. and I can assure you. it was the best turkey I’ve ever had!
Discipleship Baking
Often when I’m getting to know someone I try to build relationship by doing something that they enjoy doing. This often works well when I also enjoy the activity too. Two first year students I met this year are avid bakers, and a few times during the winter semester I got to know them deeper as we baked together. I enjoy what I call discipleship baking, as it gives people something to do with their hands, and frees them up to be more candid than they might be if we were just sitting across a table having coffee together. Discipleship baking with art and design students is a lot of fun because there’s a willingness to be adventurous and ambitious in flavours and recipes, like during reading week, a student and I made all four of the cookies in this video!
Waffles Around the World
We again decided to love and serve the campus by giving away free waffles during the last three Wednesdays of the semester (the busiest time for students). For the winter semester, we were able to get an OCAD student union grant, and we wanted to switch up how we did our waffle nights. So we decided on the theme “Waffles Around the World”, as a way to showcase waffle flavours and practices from around the world and use these events as an opportunity to celebrate and engage the ethnic and cultural diversity of the campus. Each week we offered different flavours: Spanish Churro, Cambodian Coconut, and Savoury English Potato waffles. In our interactive art pieces, we asked people questions to engage their own and others ethnic and cultural identity, because we believe that people’s ethnic and cultural identity say something about our God. As we prepared for these events, we spent some more time planning and talking through the whys of event, and spent time in scripture helping us see how God values and loves diversity. As I worked with a team on the interactive art elements, the Witty Chef led the team in the kitchen. In both the fall and winter terms, the Witty Chef took care of getting all the waffle making materials and managing all the kitchen logistics for our waffle events. I found out later how much he’d absorbed the teachings from the scripture and was able to call his team to the vision. I also found out that my first encounter with the OCF community (where I made potato waffles and brownie waffles), made a huge impact on his life, and influenced his decision to choose to make potato waffles for one of the weeks.
The Arch 