Creating bread and friendships from ripe bananas

The simple act of sharing food can be powerful. A little of ourselves is entwined within each morsel that we give to others — demonstrating not only that we care about them but that we seek a level of synergy when we partake of the same fare.

When Emily (Lidbeck) Harrington, a young missionary, recently shared loaves of banana bread with a neighbor, visitors and an elderly street vendor in the Peruvian village she and her husband live in, she not only broadened their perspectives but also her own. With the three loaves she created, she forged new friendships, fostered goodwill and launched an unanticipated series of baking workshops that she will offer to the community.

She reminisces about the unforeseen outcome of her amiable generosity in a blog post titled “A Bunch of Bananas: An Unexpected Bridge to Friendship, Fun, and Ministry.” It’s a delightfully sweet story that I think you will enjoy reading. Additionally, she sends out a request for other recipes that she might prepare with the women and children in her neighborhood.

Emily and Rafael Harrington

Graduates of the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph and St. John’s University in Collegeville, Emily and Rafael Harrington, who were married in 2010, are missionaries in the community of El Porvenir, Trujillo, Peru, with the Camboni Lay Missionary Program. They arrived there earlier this year, planning to serve for three years. They occasionally chronicle their experiences in a blog called “True to Trujillo.”

In Peru, Emily works in the social work/psychology department at a small school for children and teens with disabilities as well as teaching baking classes for all age groups in the community and parents of the children at the school. Rafael teaches physical education classes at the school and English at another parish school in the area and has organized a soccer team for youth. The Harringtons also work in collaboration with local Peruvian lay missionaries to provide tutoring and activities for children in the community.

Prior to leaving for the mission, Emily, a native of Bird Island, Minnesota, had been working as a bilingual family advocate for Casa de Esperanza, a domestic violence organization in the Twin Cities. Rafael, originally from Venezuela, was working for Children’s Hospital and Clinics of Minnesota as a financial resources counselor. He previously volunteered at the Farm of the Child, an orphanage in Honduras, for two years.

Emily (middle) poses with members of a recent baking class.

“For us each moment is an opportunity to not only be witnesses to but also experience and accept God’s love in the people of El Porvenir,” Emily told Food, Faith and Fellowship. “We are both teachers and students of the people, sharing in life with them, accompanying and empowering one another. We are not giving up our lives or putting them on hold but rather receiving richly, as we serve and share of ourselves here.”

Banana bread — pastel de plátano — a comfort food bursting with the sweet flavor of an ambrosial fruit. The banana, botanically known as “Musa sapientum” which means “fruit of the wise men,” has lived up to it’s name in Trujillo — gently uniting a community of curious cooks and friendly folks with two gifted missioners from Minnesota. CJK