Church in Irbid and MANSAF!

So every Sunday, there are 8 of us that take about an hour bus ride up to Irbid to the Arabic-speaking branch there. We help teach classes and do what we can for members. Today I taught Young Womens' or Shaabat. The youth here are spot on and have such strong testimonies. There are quite a few not coming though. So we help out the American missionary couple, the Lees, who are the branch presidency, with whatever the branch needs.


The Lees and Huda take half of us and always feed us lunch after church before we go visit families or head back home. Today, Huda fed us mansaf!


This was legit. The restaurant gave us the mansaf flavor, but at Huda’s house, we got the mansaf experience. So let me explain Mansaf to you. It starts with a giant, deep platter, lay down a large, super thin tortilla, pile it high with a rice-vermicelli mixture, place whole, juicy roasted chicken legs on top, sprinkle with nuts and parsley, and the best of the best parts, the cheese sauce. It’s the savoriest flavor I’ve ever tasted. It’s made of sheep milk and yogurt but the secret is some kind of de-fatted, de-hydrated cheese balls. It was like drinking parmesan cheese, but savory, not sharp or kicky.

The platter of delicious itself.

Huda with the miracle sauce.

We ate it Bedou style with our hands. Samor taught us how to flip and roll it in our hands. Their son-in-law, Christian, the dad Samor, Esther and Griffin (married), me.

A shot of me rolling the mansaf and Christian’s face which you should interpret as pain at getting too full but still wanting to eat more.

Esther down at the non-Bedoui side eating mansaf with a spoon with the three daughters of the family, Heba, Arene, and Haya.

It was really cool to be in their home on a family day like Friday. It feels like home, just different people and different food. I think the gospel does that a lot, unifies across otherwise unfamiliar borders. :)