By Janee Angel, CBF field personnel in Antwerp, Belgium
During the holiday season in Belgium, we feed more people than I can count. It is part of the Middle Eastern hospitality that I have learned to embrace. From Christmas day until the 5th of January, the table has been full and more than dozens of people have eaten. On Christmas day, I was serving up turkey and rice, when one of the men who has recently started joining us, told us that it was also his birthday. What a joy to have your birthday on Christmas. But since our friend was from another faith background, no one celebrated him. So I went upstairs and found an individual cheesecake that someone had left in the refrigerator. I also found a birthday candle and quickly decorated the plate, lit the candle and brought it downstairs. We turned off the light and sang “happy birthday” in three languages. In Arabic, we always sing the same tune but the words are “a beautiful year with Jesus.” Our friend teared up and told us that in his 50 years of life, no one had ever done that for him. He later told my husband that we can’t even imagine how big the little things are that we are doing. We are loving people one little cheesecake at a time.