Stormy Night Blows In Unexpected Guests

Sometimes, God just makes you smile…

 

On the evening of Wednesday, June 17, I was working in the commercial kitchen icing about 300 cupcakes, most of them for a weekend wedding.  It was already dark outside.  I am not sure if it was because it was late enough to be dark, or because of the storm that was blowing through.  Evidently the storm was a bad one, but I couldn’t hear it with the new playlist I had created earlier in the day on Spotify blaring in the background and my eyes focused on swirling icing on cupcakes. 

 

It was going to be one of those after midnight nights before I finished up the day’s work.  Since my day in the kitchen at 6:00am, I had just called Recruit Andy to see if he could help me cut strawberries for the strawberry pie we would be serving the next day to the private OLLIE luncheon here at The Bee-stro.

 

We have a driveway alert the sets off an alarm in both the commercial kitchen and the residence to let us know when someone pulls into the driveway.  The alert didn’t sound, but I heard a knock at the commercial kitchen entrance door, the big glass one marked “Deliveries and Staff Only”.  I looked up and saw a young man.  Now, you have to understand, when Andy walks into a room and I don’t hear him, I scream when I see him.  We have been married for almost 37 years and he is the other half of me, but for some reason, that man’s stealthy silent ability to walk into a room followed by his presence scares the crap out of me every time.  Well, for some reason, this young man standing in the rain in the dark of night at the commercial kitchen door didn’t illicit the same response from me as Stealth Walking Andy.  No scream.  No surprise on my part.  Just a regular person response of “There is a person at the door.”

 

I actually thought the person staring at me was Tanner.  Tanner has been on the payroll for almost 5 years.  I say payroll because the last couple of years since he has been in college, we think every summer it’s the last summer we are blessed with his presence, but then he shows back up saying he’s willing to work some shifts if needed, which we gladly utilize because he’s a good worker and just so darn fun to be around.  Anyway, I digress.  Since the door was unlocked, I motioned for the shorter, darker skin toned Tanner look alike to come on in.  He looked a little afraid, so I went to the door.  That’s when I realized that the person definitely wasn’t Tanner. 

 

The once-Tanner-turned-stranger said to me in accented English, “We are traveling.  Can you shelter us from the storm?”

 

“Sure, come on in”, I said.  “How many are you?”  He replied, “Five.”  It was at that time I saw the car.  It was parked between my car parked close to the door from unloading my Myer’s Market pick up  earlier in the day and Andy’s truck.

 

Five strange guys, obviously not from around here with only one fluent in English stood in my kitchen.  I told them to come in and I was going to go let my husband know they were here.  I met Andy in what we call “The Pantry” between the commercial kitchen and the dining room.  He had no idea we had guests but was coming in to fill my earlier request to help with the strawberries.  I whispered, “We have 5 Mexican men here asking to shelter from the storm.”

 

Andy welcomed them and took them to the dining room where he got them drinks, talked with them, and turned on the tv so they could watch the soccer game.  He found out they were from Ecuador and were driving on I-70 when the storm warning came.  They got off at the Brazil exit, and the gas stations and restaurants were full, so they decided to Google the next closest restaurant and Google directed them to us.

 

I stayed in the kitchen working while Andy showed them the Heat & Eats and the microwave.  By this time, we were in “home” mode and were practicing what I call our “sloppy hospitality”, which is basically you are welcome to (almost) whatever you want, but you have to get it yourself.  It’s a hospitality technique I saw practiced at my Grandma Pell’s but perfected by my Aunt Norma.  From my spot in the commercial kitchen swirling frosting on cupcakes, I could hear laughter from the dining room.

 

As all this was going on, I just kept smiling.  It was all too strange, out of the way, and random to not be God.  Our guests were very much like us in all the important ways- friendly, comfortable, easy to communicate with even without the sharing the same language, and grateful for one another for just being, well, authentic.

 

Andy told them about The Cottage and offered it to them for the night.  They accepted, so Andy went over to tidy up from our last guest, Denise Fleming from WBGL.  Denise had stayed with us for several days and has become somewhat of a “regular” at The Cottage by staying with us when she is in the area.  She had already done some cleaning before she left.  That’s not typical of Cottage guests, but like our new Ecuadorean friends, Denise feels the sense of “home” when she is here.

 

I was in and out of the dining room carrying boxes of cupcakes for the next morning’s pick-up while the game was on and our guests were eating.  During those cupcake trips, I found out the teenager who could speak English fluently had spent the last year in Pennsylvania as a foreign exchange student.  His dad was one of the men in the group and they were on their way to St. Louis to watch Ecuador play in the World Cup.  Now, this may be a shock to you, but I have no idea about anything going on in the sports world.  So all this was new to me- having soccer on our tv, people cheering for soccer, and knowing a worldwide sporting event was so relatively close to us, and to have such diehard fans that would make a trip from so far away come and watch their country play, which is no small commitment. 

 

Since I had extra cupcakes, I gave them some White Wedding cupcakes.  They seemed to like them even though I don’t think they have had the flavor before.  Maybe they don’t add almond flavor to their white cupcakes in Ecuador?  Andy let them know The Cottage was ready for them.  They seemed hesitant until they asked if there was a tv in The Cottage.  When Andy told them there were four, they seemed applicable to head over to The Cottage.  The one with fluent English was speaking with his mom on Facetime.  She was very pleasant and we got to exchange niceties.

 

As we do with all our Cottage guests, Andy delivered breakfast to them the next morning at 8:30 in a picnic basket delivered on The Cottage’s front porch.  Our friends from Ecuador got the Hoosier classic breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy.  They took advantage of the beautiful morning and strolled the grounds and went down to the lake.  With all the wind that had come the night before, it was amazing we didn’t have any limbs down or items tossed around the yard.  The only thing that seemed out of place was a chair cushion that had blown from the chair in the carving shed.

 

That day, we were hosting OLLIE for a private luncheon, so I was focused on getting it prepared.  Sami Miller, my little kitchen sidekick, came at 10:00 which she usually does on Thursdays to help with the weekend prep.  I had forgotten to tell her we were hosting a luncheon and needed to prep and serve it while she was here and oh, yeah, we had Cottage guests from out of town.  That part didn’t surprise her since by that time the Facebook post about our unexpected guests from the night before already had over 400 responses.

 

The OLLIE group was supposed to have a tour of The Cottage, but because of the Facebook post about our special guests, OLLIE coordinator Pete Kikta asked if I would share the story from the previous night, which he said was more entertaining than touring The Cottage, which is true.

 

After we had served our OLLIE guests their Marcella’s Strawberry Pie and while we were tidying up the commercial kitchen that comes with serving 27 guests all at once, our guests from Ecuador popped in to say they were leaving.  They had a gift for us.  Come to find out, Erika Barriga, wife of one and mother to another of our guests, has a business in Ecuador making bracelets.  They gave Sami and I a bracelet.  I am sure they would have given Andy one if he looked the type.  Anyway, the bracelets are beautiful.  Mine has a cross on it.  I told them we would encourage our readers to like her Instagram @eribel_bm.  She really does create beautiful bracelets and don’t you need an Ecuadorean friend who is a real person that creates beautiful things?

 

Since they were in the kitchen and we were cleaning up, we had one extra Hoosier Breaded Tenderloin left from the OLLIE luncheon.  We cut it up for them to sample and sent them off with some Dollie’s Potato Salad, Kickin’ Baked Beans, and more White Wedding Cupcakes.  We gave hugs to each other and told them to come back if they were in the United States again. 

The whole encounter brought too much joy for it not to be from God.  Evidently, it has done something to others, too. The Facebook post I made that night has had over 30,000 views with over 950 reactions.  Not viral, but by far the most we have had in the 10.5 years we have had our page.  From that post, I got a phone call yesterday from Audrey in Pennsylvania, who told me she was the host mom for Martin, telling me the name of our guest who was the foreign exchange student who spoke English fluently.  We had a lovely conversation.  Through the Facebook post, I was able to see and learn the other names of our companions from Ecuador- Edison, Juan, Mauricio, and Javier all from Riobamba, Ecuador.  It’s amazing the connectability in our world today. 

 

Every year, I ask God for a word or a theme that He wants me to learn.  Last year, it was to give up my fear of man.  I’ve come a long way in that department.  This year, the theme of humanness and connectability have been impressed on me.  For years, inauthentic people have driven me nuts.  I don’t do fake well nor do I do pious Christianity well.  I have realized our society is toxic with both.  I don’t know how I would have handled 5 strangers from a foreign land showing up at my door last year.  I have a stinkin’ hunch I wouldn’t have been so chill.  But, as I let down my presuppositions and focus on the humanity of our fellow travelers in this thing called life, I have found myself much less guarded toward those with whom I have been taught are “not one of us” whether it’s politics, religion, skin color, or lifestyles.  That does not mean I have diminished my values or beliefs.  It just means I have started to embrace grace which in essence is dismantling barriers.  I am starting to understand that Truth wins out in the end.  All we have to do is to pursue Truth and walk out grace.  When that happens, you never know who God will bring into your life to make you smile.

Blessings,

Jodi