I've done conversions in a kitchen before where you have to change milliliters to teaspoons, but I've never seen the kind of conversion I'm about to describe to you....
It all started years ago when we first heard someone describe his kitchen table.... supposedly it seated 20 people. There was a reason he loved his table - all his guests could sit around it and enjoy the hospitality he and his wife loved to offer others. That put a thought in my husband's head that he just couldn't shake. How could we do that? But we were not in a position to buy a 20 person table and even if we could, our kitchen wasn't big enough to fit it. So many times we had stood in our kitchen and wondered how we could fit a bigger table without knocking down a wall. The only way we could do it was to take out the island and that was possible, but I needed all the drawers that were full of things I regularly used in the island.
Then we thought, how about moving the table a few steps away to the homeschool room? Big enough, for sure, but I wanted to eat in the kitchen! It just made it so much more complicated to walk all the way to the other room. Not to mention, where was I supposed to put all the toys and things in the homeschool room if there were suddenly a big table smack dab in the middle of the room?
After all those potential scenarios, as much as my husband didn't like it, I just couldn't see a way to do it, so I dropped it. He left it. We carried on. Sure enough, for awhile now, every meal has resulted in our family scattered everywhere as there is just not enough space for all of us. Some sat at the island. Some sat at the table. RM and I would even have to move to the family room. We both hated it, but didn't feel we had a solution.
Now flash forward to this past weekend. I made a last minute decision, literally in the 11th hour, just before 11 pm on Friday night to go see Nancy Campbell from Above Rubies who had flown in one more time to Ontario for another retreat similar to last year. So early Saturday morning, a friend and I, as well as my oldest daughter, drove off two hours to London.
I am soooooooo glad I decided to go. This year, just like last year, she gave a much smaller group of women the same call as last year to be the best moms and wives that we have been called to be, reminding us of the importance of family worship as well as the call to hospitality. All things I knew, all things I've been trying to do. It was a great refill to my Mom and Wife "tank". This year, because it was a smaller group of women, she had been asked to model for us exactly how she and her husband, Colin, actually do their family worship in their home by role playing it as we ate lunch and dinner together. It was amazing!
The evening family dinner time was what struck me the most. The tables had been set up in such a way that we were eating as if we were a family with Nancy as both Mom and Dad. She modeled how at dinner they guide the conversation each night with a very specific question as simple as "What was the best thing that happened to you today?" instead of just rambling through dinner with less meaningful conversation. Each night it is a different question. The point is family togetherness. When you come to the table it isn't just about filling you with food. She suggested it is an opportunity to fill your soul and spirit as well. The only way to do this is to engage their spirit through conversation and their soul by the reading of the Word. I had tried that as she had suggested it last year, too, but as our family kept growing bigger and bigger, we could never sit together and this resulted in all sorts of conversations going on that just were never together.
Our conversation around the table that night was very fun. Nancy asked us to describe the most special thing that happened at our weddings. Each one of us went on and on when it came to us. Some even teared up as they recalled their weddings. It was such a better way to spend the typical dinner hour and what a wonderful way to get to know one another, especially as none of us really knew one another that well.
I came back that night late, but RM and I stayed up late into the night talking once again about all that I had heard and learned. Just as I was about to fall asleep, I said one more thing to him, "Oh, by the way, tomorrow we're changing everything around in the kitchen or the homeschool room. We're going to make the table fit us somehow." "Oh, ok...." he mumbled as he was already half asleep.
That next morning we were standing in the kitchen, a little more awake, and we looked at our situation in the kitchen and thought once again, how could this work? I still didn't love the idea of walking all the way to the homeschool room, so how could we get rid of the island to turn the table the other way so it could fit all of us (with another table attached at the end for more people)? Suddenly it hit him. The miracle began to unfold. I love it when that happens! In under two hours we had a whole new kitchen..... This all started around 10 am. Only 2 1/2 hours later we were expecting lunch guests, a family of 6! We were renovating literally minutes before they arrived.
So this is what we did. We moved the island to the other end of the kitchen where there was just enough space for it if we cut off the overhang on the top of it. Fortunately it hadn't been attached to the floor, so it slid nicely, revealing all sorts of things that needed to be mopped. Also, fortunately, my husband had a skill saw which chopped it off nicely, but definitely meant we were doing something more permanent! Kind of hard to attach the piece he was cutting off later! The island now occupied a space in the corner of the kitchen so I still had my pots and pans nearby. We then moved the table to the center of the kitchen and just turned it around 90 degrees so it was taking up the length of the kitchen instead of the width. My husband ran out to his office and got the little table he had been using, cleared it off and brought it into the kitchen adding it to the end of the other table making it much longer, able to seat at least 6 more people. There was still lots of room for people to pass by. It was starting to look good! Here's a picture of the final product....we add the big church pew when we need it, otherwise it sits against the wall opposite the table.
Then, when they did arrive, I explained, "You have to know, you are walking into a kitchen that looked completely different only an hour ago!" I told them that I had gone to the Above Rubies retreat and how I had been so inspired to make all these changes, even if it was just minutes before they came. Then, I told them where they were to sit. Nancy had reminded us, "Never tell your guests to just sit anywhere. They are important! You must make them feel like they are special and that you have a place for them!" So I told them, "Because we don't all know each other that well (we hadn't had them over as a family ever before, just the moms had connected), let's sit with one person from your family and then make sure the next person is from our family so that you don't sit beside someone you know." Then, in the spirit of good conversation I told them what we would talk about! How funny, I was being so obnoxious, but I loved it! I told them, "Ok, once you have your food, we'll start with introductions of ourselves. You have to say who you are and what your interests or hobbies are." It was amazing! I found out things about this family and their children that I never would have! It led to amazing questions from one another as each person revealed interesting information about themselves. It was so great. I think the best part was that the children were involved. Instead of being set far away from the adults, they were now a part of the conversation and I could tell they couldn't wait to be asked what they loved to do. My son looked up to me and said, "You haven't asked me what I like to do yet!"
The most interesting thing about the afternoon was that we all ended up sitting in the kitchen (after a tour of the farm) all afternoon, literally from 1-7. I couldn't believe it. No one got up. We went from lunch to coffee and dessert to more coffee and then eventually I had to put in a frozen pizza to feed them for dinner! The conversation just wouldn't stop! And what was so fantastic in the whole process was that the children never left the room. Only the little ones played outside, the ones under 7. Everyone stayed and listened and participated. It was our dream come true of what we longed for in our hospitality. Thank you, Nancy, for inspiring me once again!
Today I came down to my new kitchen and I just loved it. It feels like another answer to prayer as not a single dollar was spent, no walls were knocked down, no furniture was bought, yet God opened our eyes to what we could do and in a matter of minutes we had a whole new room, a new table, a new opportunity to be hospitable. And Nancy's whole point? Hospitality changes lives. It brings salvation! Sounds impossible, but in Acts it describes how the new church daily broke bread together, both communion as well as actual meals, and then it says how many were added to their numbers. Breaking bread together is part of people coming to the Lord! I have lived this and have proof in the person of Stephanie finding Christ through hospitality in our home as well as Jen who found wholeness as well. Not because of us, but because we were willing to be used by Him despite the fact our house wasn't perfect, wasn't completely anything! Just trying to be obedient, having people over. Now, I feel like we can take hospitality to a whole new level and I am excited about it! The mom who came over yesterday said, "I needed this reminder to have people over. I haven't done it in a long time." She left inspired, too.
There you have it. My kitchen got converted! I told you it wasn't your typical conversation story.....
wonder ful to hear about your creative job in the kitchen -anty ups your gifts of hospitality. bless you all.....oxoxo
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