Dumplings and Fried Rice

On the way to 5 Senses to Prayer Book 2 - #30

Hi friends

Today’s prayers have been in idea form for a few years. In today’s post there’s one prayer of praise and adoration based on dumplings and the second prayer is a combination prayer based on fried rice.

In 2017 I spent an unexpected three months living in Singapore. It wasn’t a very easy time in our family. I went to look after my daughter who was living there at the time and wasn’t well. We needed to get her well enough to travel home. My own health had only just stabilised to the point that I wasn’t seeing my specialist every month and undergoing treatments and tests. I was still adjusting my diet and learning the food my body could tolerate. We lived in a hotel for the entire time I was in Singapore and there were limited meals I could prepare myself. Not that it was a problem in Singapore - even the locals eat out a lot!

Dumplings cooked in the style known as potstickers were one of my daughter’s favourite foods and it turned out that I could tolerate these well. I already knew that rice was one of my go to foods. We ate a lot of rice and dumplings. Singapore is a paradise for foodies. You can pretty much try any cuisine you like. Freshly able to try different foods I tasted my way through many different dishes. My own favourite dish was Hainanese Chicken Rice. My brother who at the time had architecture contracts in Hainan was very familiar with the dish. He thought it was plain and boring and could not believe with all the food choices on offer I’d opt for chicken rice. After two years of not being able to tolerate much food it tasted heavenly to me. It still does! It might look simple but it’s full of flavour. I’ve now found a place in Auckland that makes a very delicious chicken rice.

The few months I spent in Singapore are seared on my brain in technicolour images. I can play them through on a whim. These are detailed memories of whole days. I found it to be a place filled with sensory experiences. It happened to occur at a time when my own life was in a state of change and renewal. I have beautiful and joyful memories of my time there. There were so many precious moments with my lovely daughter. We had lots of laughter and fun times. It also held some of the hardest experiences I’ve ever endured. There were tears, sleepless nights, loneliness and fear. We navigated through everything with no maps to guide us. My day involved a constant prayerful conversation with God and I was so grateful to have my faith.

It makes sense that it was such a significant time. When we have experiences that are high in emotion and our adrenalin is pumping, our nervous system goes into overdrive processing sensory information. It’s our brain’s way of making sense of our surroundings and what is happening to us, through us, because of us and outside of us.

Often a sensory trigger will allow us a window where we can look back at both the worst of times and the best of times as if we were right back there again. Our sensory system connects us with memories. It might be the taste of a certain food, the sound of a piece of music, a fragrance in the air. Something stirs within us and reminds us of a moment in time that we’d forgotten about. or a time that was so relevant that it can’t be forgotten. I often experience sensory reminders of my time in Singapore. Even though there were hard times, now things are so much better and I hold these memories as precious treasures. In so many ways I wouldn’t swap those three months for an ordinary three months.

When we use sensory prayer we invite this opportunity to connect with God in the present, while also giving ourselves opportunity to build memories for our future selves. We can lean into in these sensory memories at times when we need reminding God is with us. If we already know the sensory cues that help us connect, we can deliberately use these to remind ourselves of this meaningful connection.

The prayer that I’ve often used in group settings and is a really good one for right now in Aotearoa is the mandarin prayer. You can find it in my first book on sensory prayer. It’s good right now because mandarins are currently cheap here! I’m popping this prayer into today’s post above the paywall. If you’ve never tried this prayer with a group before, and you have the finance to cover a mandarin for each person, I encourage you to give it a go. The prayer involves all the senses. I’ve seen the impact of this prayer on others, and for myself it’s still as fresh and real as ever. It will build in the wondrous memory factor to lean into in other times. I’m very confident in saying after trying this prayer you’ll want to say a prayer every time you peel and eat a mandarin again.

Today’s prayers have a taste focus, but taste is much bigger than just eating food. Taste involves other senses and it connects us to experiences and people and places. Taste prayers might sound the most gimmicky, and detractors of sensory prayer, migh feel a bit at sea with this prayer, but we all need to eat food. Prayers that connect our most basic needs with our faith, ground our relationship with God. When we look at the actions and miracles of Jesus’ we find he used food on many occasions in the gospels. Whether any of these prayers below are for you this week I encourage you to take some time to pray while you eat a favourite dish.

If you missed it, our lastest edition of The Seed Diperser has several prayer ideas included in it based on seasons of change. The whole edition is big on 5 Senses so there’s likely a few things in there you’ll enjoy. Something else you might not have heard about is thataour annual Stroll starts later this week on 19 May. If you haven’t registered and you’d like to, there’s still time to join us. I’ve popped some buttons below for all these things I’ve mentioned.

May you find God meets you as you taste food this week.

May you find comfort in the food you eat and with God.

Caroline

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Mandarin Prayer

Sense of Taste – Thanksgiving (T.TA.1)

Consider the different segments in your life. Think about things such as places you go to, the different groups of people you interact with, or the tasks or routines that make up your regular week. Hold an easy peel mandarin in your hand. Think of it as your ‘world’. Give thanks to God for the world in which you live as you peel the skin from your mandarin. Now slowly break off each segment, one at a time, eating each segment as you go. As you carry out the breaking off and eating give thanks to God for a specific part or segment of your life. ‘Thank you for… Work, Football, School, University, Drum lessons, Ballet, Painting, Reading, Fishing, Housework…” etc.  Finish by saying a one sentence prayer, giving your daily world to God.

Further suggestions and adaptations on using this prayer

Prayer Station

Arrange the prayer station with a simple basket and mandarins on a small table draped with a plain tablecloth.  You might like to display some images of everyday experiences typical for your participants and the worlds they find themselves operating within.  Have simple prayer instructions displayed. Add a bucket or container for disposal of peel.  You could also add other citrus fruit for visual display. This prayer could be extended to an intercession prayer with images of world needs on display and a globe or world map.

Individual

This is a great meditative prayer you can pray on your own at any time, even if you’re sitting in a larger non-praying group eating your morning snack or lunch.  Quietly sit and look at your mandarin and contemplate your world. Give thanks to God and focus on God’s involvement in your life.  Peel your mandarin and go through each of the stages of the prayer, eating your mandarin and praying silently.

Small Group

Use this prayer to focus your small group on the world in which they live. Talk together about the things that make up each other’s worlds.  Then pass around a basket of mandarins.  Invite participants to pray quietly, seated just where they are. Then conclude with one person bringing the prayer to an end by giving thanks to God for all those present.

Large Group

This is a prayer to use when mandarins are in season, particularly if you can get access to an orchard or someone who has a mandarin tree. Even if you buy mandarins, if they’re in season it will not be too expensive. Because this prayer is simple for your group to replicate at home on their own, every time they eat a mandarin, the expense is an investment in future prayer opportunities. With everyone in the group peeling mandarins, the citrus smell fills the air adding to the experiential nature of the prayer and making this one of the most powerful and memorable prayers I have used.

Visual Images - Static, Projected, Live Props

·       Citrus groves, citrus trees, lemons, oranges, grapefruit and mandarins

·       Everyday world of your group

·       World needs and global issues (if you’re going to adapt the prayer to include an intercession element)

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Potsticker Dumplings Prayer

Potsticker dumplings are pan-fried and then steamed. Crispy on one side, and soft on the other, they offer both a textural and taste sensation. Taste a potsticker dumpling. Think about the variety of ways God is at work in the world around you, in your own life and in the lives of others. Offer your praise to God as you bite into your dumpling.