Melting pot potluck

Friday night was our "Mwanza Missionary Potluck"; all the missionaries from Mwanza and the nearby areas gather on the first Friday night of each month for food and fellowship.
At these meetings we don't discuss doctrine, mission policies or have theological debates.
We have single missionaries, young couples, families, couples with grown children and grandparents. We have Americans, Canadians, Swedish, South Africans, Europeans, and a variety of other nationalities. There are AIC (African Inland Church), Baptists, Pentecostals, Lutherans, Church of Christ and a variety of Faiths.
We gather together for the purpose of fellowship inspite of the many things that could divide us. The things that we have in common: the call to Tanzania, the love for Tanzanians and the desire to be obedient to the call of God on our lives to build HIS Kingdom, these are the things of importance that cause us to come together and become friends.
We eat, we fellowship, we sing, we share testimonies, we share needs, we pray together and then we are free to go. Most of us, however, linger; basking in the comraderie of people different from us in some ways but alike in the important things. In our countries of origin there is a good chance that we would not be together in a setting like this and that we would not be friends or even aquaintances. But in this place where all of us are considered foreigners and strangers, we come together for awhile and are able to "blend in" with everyone else. Time enough to return to the isolated places where most of us do our part for the Kingdom of God; sometimes we feel alone, forgotten, frustrated, helpless, and overwhelmed. On this one night a month, we take the time to have another piece of pie, another cup of coffee, another shared story and another laugh.
Be blessed.