Would Jesus eat a Tarantula?
What do you think? Would Jesus eat a tarantula?
Our partner teacher in Cambodia, Jim Triezenberg, recently wrote that two of his students brought him a Cambodian delicacy to try - fried tarantula. One of the goals of those who work cross-culturally is to build relationships of trust with the people he or she is living with so they can eventually share the gospel with them. A good way to build relationships is to share food together. But this was a big, hairy, eight-legged arachnid! Being the experienced cross-cultural worker that he is, Jim reluctantly took a bite of one of the legs. It was crunchy and tasted a little like crab meat. So he ate the whole spider.
When I lived in Nigeria, I ate a few things most North Americans might consider somewhat unappetizing. One time I stayed for a week in the village of one of my high school students. The whole village was very poor and there wasn’t even a corner grocery, let alone a Wal-Mart Superstore or Applebee’s, to be found. The people ate whatever they could hunt or grow themselves. Needless to say, that week in the village I ate a number of things I had never even thought of eating before. I sampled monkey, gecko, and bat. The bat they fried whole. It wasn’t bad. You pick it up by one wing and tear some meat off the breast. Tastes like chicken - no kidding! I’ve also had monitor lizard, snake, and fish eyeball soup.
Maybe you’ve been on a missions trip and eaten some pretty strange things. Maybe your mom cooks some strange things sometimes. Would you eat a big, hairy tarantula if it meant you’d someday be able to share the gospel with your friends? What would you do for Jesus? What wouldn’t you do?
Here’s a recipe from one of our missionaries in Haiti that many of us in North America might like. You can pour it over your tarantula if you’d like!
Creole Sauce
(Sòs Kreyòl) Haiti
STEVE AND KIM HOLTROP
Serves 4-5
2 tablespoons oil
1 tomato, diced
4 tablespoons tomato paste
3 green onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 cup water
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon parsley
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1/2 teaspoon thyme
3 1/2 cups water
Salt to taste
Put oil, tomato, tomato paste, green onions, garlic,
and water into a pan and cook for 2 minutes,
stirring constantly. Add the bouillon cubes, cloves,
pepper, parsley, Tabasco, and thyme. Cook for
2 more minutes then add the water and salt,
cooking uncovered for 20 minutes. Once sauce
has cooked you may add Little Meatballs (Ti Boul
Vyan). Slice 2-3 onions in rings and add them just
before serving. Serve over plain rice.
You can find more recipes like this in our new cookbook, International Cuisine … from the Ends of the Earth. To find out how to order your copy go to our website, www.crwm.org and click on Resources (http://www.crcna.org/pages/crwm_cookbook.cfm).
–Bill Thornburg, Missions Resource Consultant
Add comment April 7, 2007
