Lunchtime Mint

On every Sunday in October, Mint Methodist has had a lunch for its college students. Every Sunday except today, that is. Today, there was a lunch at the home of a couple of Mint's members. We, along with about seventy others, were invited to attend. About fifty of those invited showed up, judging from the number of plates used at lunch. Reportedly, thirty-eight were set out, and had to be supplemented with more.

The menu consisted of rice (lots of Koreans were there), a vegetarian curry of some sort, ham, cheese, biscuts [crackers in American English], nuts, crisps [chips in American English], fruit salad, and a wide selection of desserts, including cake, chocolate pie, brownies, a raspberry cobbler-type dish (Amanda says it was really good), and lots more that I can't remember. Amazingly, despite the number of people there, the food did hold out, and there were some (small) leftovers. Perhaps if all seventy of the invited guests had come, all the food would have been consumed!

The gathering was quite international, with those in attendance including people from the UK, the US, South Africa, Lesotho, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea! Conveniently, the lunch doubled as a baptism party for a little boy from South Africa who was baptized this morning. Most of his family lives too far away to attend the baptism, so the church made an extra-special effort to make this a special day for him and his parents.

In other news, we've been invited to another lunch next week, this one at the pastor's house. At least I guess that's what you call him . . . when one of the Koreans asked him what to call him, he said that just about everyone calls him "Andrew," he is addressed on letters as "Reverend," his position is "minister" (not priest, which was the question that started all this), and that in formal situations, he is referred to (though rarely addressed as) "Mr. Sails." Somehow, I suspect that "Brother Andrew" or "Pastor Andrew" or even "Reverend Andrew" would probably elicit recognition.