"BREAKING BREAD TOGETHER"

"Breaking Bread Together"

Our church is comprised of persons from many different countries. Many were not allowed to practice Christianity openly in their own country. These immigrants began coming to our church and were very excited that now here in America they could come to Church without fear of reprisal and even get baptized if they wished.

Those of us who were already church members wanted to make these people feel welcome. However, both groups were kind of shy about speaking to each other because of the language barrier and the unfamiliarity with the different cultural backgrounds.

We felt that there was a need to develop some kind of group event in order to bring all of us together in some manner and facilitate conversation and getting to know each other despite our differences.

Thus the "Breaking Bread Together" project came about. It was to be a fundraiser for our church that all of us could be involved in. The idea was that every country has some kind of unique bread. And what could be more appropriate than having a bread and soup luncheon featuring many kinds of bread from the countries that were represented in our Parish.

We only needed to ask that everyone make loaves of bread representing their country to serve with a soup luncheon. In addition, we had some of the families make soup using recipes from their native country. Some of the breads we had were Greek Christmas Bread, Bohemian Christmas Bread, Russian Wheat Bread, Serbian Butter Bread, Amish Quick Bread and Cypriot Cheese Bread.

What happened at our "Breaking Bread Together" event was exciting! As we sat and ate the different kinds of soup and bread it sparked much interest in the recipes which led to all of us beginning to engage in conversation with each other.

We also placed a colored world map on the wall and marked each country represented in our church with colored pins. This also led to conversation between the different cultural groups as we viewed the map and asked persons about their country.

There was no cost to attend the soup and bread event. However, we made up packs of recipe cards with the bread recipes and sold them to anyone interested. And now these packets can be ordered through this web site. (Quantities are limited at this time so order now.)

Set of 30 bread recipes from 13 different countries
can be ordered for $10.00
(includes shipping & handling) from:

LASA Books
PO Box 90425
Sioux Falls, SD 57109

Send name and complete address with payment (check or money order)
payable to LASA Books at the address above.

ALL CONTENT©2004-2008 Lynn Assimacopoulos ALL RIGHTS RESERVED