We met our friends, Allan and Shelley shortly after we moved
to Colombia from Peru . At that
time we both had three young children (and later both had four). They were on
“holiday” (vacation) where they were missionaries in the western, coastal
jungles of Colombia
and were enjoying “civilization.” We were down in “coffee country” (where the
world famous Colombian coffee is grown) from the highlands of Bogota for Jim to speak at a camp.
During our mutual 15 years in Colombia we were able to see them
many times. Jim led teams of city Colombians to the jungles to see a bit of
missionary life inside their own country and the Mosses came up for missionary
retreats and health breaks. Two of our daughter became good friends and visited
each other when they could.
After Shelley contracted tuberculosis, they had to leave the
jungle and worked for a while in the city of Medellin
until God moved them back to Australia ,
about a year and half before He moved us to the states. So it was great to
connect up with them again in their homeland.
While Shelley and her oldest daughter fixed curried prawns
for dinner, I asked her a few questions.
Around the Table-- What are your memories of your childhood
mealtimes?
AtT: What were your expectations for your family mealtimes
as you and Al established your home?
Shelley: My dad’s dad died when Dad was 12 and his mother was
a strong woman, so Dad wasn’t a leader in the family. We wanted Al to lead the
family in happy mealtimes and devotions. We wanted to always invite
people 'round for meals as well.
AtT: How did those expectations change over the years?
Shelley: We needed lots of patience with the children as some
were really slow, others were really picky with their food.
There were times when Allan wasn’t there and I took over the
devotional side of things. This was agreed on, not negligence on his part.
There were happy times, story times, lots of laughter.
Sometimes it felt like it was a correction time for our Asperger’s Syndrome son
and we’ve had to fight that and work to make it a happy time.
AtT: What was the most unusual meal you’ve ever had?
Shelley: Smoked Caiman. I had no idea how to make it, didn’t
know that you have to soak it to get the salt content out. I just cooked it
straight up and it just burnt our throats. It probably hardened our arteries
straight away, but it was what God had provided when the banks had run out of
money in the jungles and we couldn’t access our funds from Australia so we had to eat it.
AtT: What’s unusual about your family and mealtimes?
Shelley: Our kids felt let down that there was no one to
invite to a meal on Sundays, especially when we left Colombia
and came back to Australia .
Lifestyles here are different.
AtT: How were your family meals an example to others on the
mission field?
Shelley: Sometimes in our jungle town when we’d been having young
people around for meals often, the young people would say, “This is what I want
when I have a family” because they might not even have a table or never sit ‘round
it together for a meal.
AtT: If you could put anything in a spray bottle and spray
it over your dinner table, what would it be?
Shelley: A special spray that is called “Offers to Do the
Dishes After the Meal.”—a spray of initiative!
AtT: If you had to embroider the phrase most often used at
your family table,what would it be?
Shelley: When the kids were young it was, “Sit up and eat!”
Now it would probably be: “Change of
Topic Please. Don’t talk about that while we’re eating!”
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