(See part 1 for the background to this post.)

The second idea Karyn came up with happens on the alternate Tuesday evenings.

On those nights, we have International Night. Karyn picks a nation from around the world, looks up dishes from that country on the internet, buys any special ingredients needed when she does the weekly shopping that day, and then gives the recipes a go.

I come home a bit earlier than usual. She tells me what country it is, and I take the kids for their fortnightly visit to our local library. (Wollongong City Library is fantastic!) Apart from getting the books they want, we borrow a couple of books—generally from the junior section—on that particular nation. We'll also look for a CD in the world music section of the library to see if there's something from there to play during dinner.

When we get home, everyone has to come up with at least one interesting fact about the country in question to share at dinner. We've found the CIA World Factbook very helpful for this. Often you can print off a map and a copy of the country's flag from there, which we display at the table. So far, we've visited Mexico, China, Russia, Afghanistan, France, Pakistan and, most recently, D.R. Congo.

Doing this has broadened our culinary tastes. The Pakistani curry and the Congolese kuku paka (chicken coconut curry with potatoes) have been highlights, along with the Mexican tortillas. We've also discovered that desserts from most other cultures aren't nearly as nice (read not nearly as sweet!) as the typical Aussie desserts we enjoy (with our western European tradition)!

But doing this has made us more aware of the world around us. Of course, perhaps the main reason we go to all this trouble is revealed by the last thing we do at our International Dinners: we pray for the spread of the gospel of Jesus in those countries. We're keen supporters of CMS—the Church Missionary Society. All the countries we've picked so far have CMS missionaries—some of whom our church has links with. The ‘Go’ section of their website has some helpful information on many such nations, as well as prayer points and links to news about their missionaries who serve there. (I guess we'll use the Operation World book and website when we ‘visit’ countries not covered by CMS.)

International Night gives us something special, fun and constructive to look forward to on a regular basis. Not only that, it's also strengthened our family.

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