Friday the 31st of January was Chinese New Year and we were invited out to lunch after church this Sunday by one of the elderly Chinese ladies at church, Rosey. She had booked a table in advance and invited people at church to join her. I’m not sure if she had any particular people in mind, she just invited people until the table was full.
So after church we were ready to go, but we didn’t know where we were going. Rosey can be a bit hard to understand at times but she said something like “we’ll eat barbecue”. Alright, sounds good to me. She had an agitated moment after church that made us wonder if lunch was off and she should just go home. But she was persistent; we were going to go and she was paying.
She said we could just walk, it was close. But then she had a sore hip so we decided to drive her. Those who didn’t fit in the car opted to walk rather than take another car. But we still didn’t know where we were going. She would give us directions as we drove (and then we would text those who were walking to let them know where we went!).
Once we got there, of course! She had said “Wok and BBQ”, that was the name of the restaurant.
When we were seated Rosey got busy diving through her three bags looking for red envelopes and money and pens and her cheque book. The lady sitting next to her at the tabled helped to write the messages because Rosey couldn’t see very well. Rosey gave an envelope to everyone who came, even if she didn’t know their names yet (and I had to look up someone’s last name on Facebook to write on the cheque).
We ordered a few dishes to share across the table. Well, Rosey ordered for us. She has been there a number of times and the staff there know her now.
When the fish dish came the waiter expertly split the fish and pulled out the spine. We smiled into our plates of rice as Rosey confused the waiter with where she wanted him to put the fish spine. On her plate? No, she wasn’t going to eat it! But not back on the plate!
J and I were touched and blessed by Rosey’s generosity towards us in paying for lunch and her gift in the red envelope. This experience has been a challenge to me about being generous, not just with my money, but my time as well. Relationships require generosity and I look forward to the growth that results from this in our relationships at church. Thanks, Rosey.
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