Baking Soda

This morning, I had a really random memory. This memory usually strikes every time I get the notion to bake something. This morning I was making blueberry muffins for my family. Yum!

For those who don't know or remember, I spent the summer before my senior year of college in Namibia, Africa doing missions along with 4 other friends from my college (Jay, Sean, Beth, and Pamela). It was a wonderful summer of ministry and discipleship of some really neat teens and children. The missionaries we worked with were great. One of the things we did each week was a teen Bible Study on Friday nights and a Children's Bible Study on Saturday nights. Part of the fun of the evening was providing snacks for the kids. The missionary we worked with typically did all the preparation and baking for all 30 plus kids for each night. Beth, Pam, and I were able to help out and even take over some of this food preparation while we were there. For those that know me, this is right up my alley. Hospitality and baking are definitely in my spiritual gifts. Now, I know that "baking" isn't listed anywhere in the New Testament as a spiritual gift, but I am grouping it into the hospitality category. :)

One week, the missionaries we were staying with had to go to South Africa for a missionary meeting. In the meantime there was this older couple from the states that was there doing missions as well. They were doing the short-term mission program for retired couples. We had known that they had some personality conflicts with the missionaries we were working with, but so far everything had gone smoothly. Well, as Beth, Pam, and I were trying to do some cooking for the Friday night snacks, we came across a recipe that called for "Baking soda". We tore that kitchen apart looking for the little orange "Arm & Hammer" box that we all know and love. I don't think we were actually looking for the orange box, but we were looking for something that said "baking soda". We couldn't find it and we had already started the recipe, so we called the older couple and asked if they had any baking soda. I can't remember the if they did or didn't, but that's not the point of the story. This couple came over to either bring us baking soda or to look for it. The short story is that the older lady found "Sodium Bicarbonate" in the pantry. We had NO IDEA that baking soda was actually "sodium bicarbonate". The three of us girls thought it was funny and we made a joke about not knowing what that was. Instead of also thinking the incident was humorous, this lady got really mad at us and insulted us for not knowing the difference. Apparently we "ruined" her afternoon because we didn't know those two were the same thing. She never apologized for yelling at us, so needless to say the working relationship wasn't the greatest for the rest of the time we were there, which wasn't very long.

I still wonder why this lady got so upset with us. I obviously don't know the circumstances in her life that caused her to get upset. But I am still able to look back and laugh at the story. All three of us girls thought it was funny pretty quickly. Don't you think it's a funny story? Up until the lady got mad at us that is.

If you are ever over seas... just remember to look for Sodium Bicarbonate!