Hot-and-sour Vegetable Soup

Nativity scenes and Christmas cards make the birthing place of Jesus like something out of a “Tennessee Made-for-Television Christmas Special” with Garth Brooks sitting on a bale of hay strumming some of our Holiday favorites in a clean barn with domesticated animals and seats for the children to drink their hot chocolate. Clearly this was not the case for Joseph and Mary. The conditions were crude. We can assume animals were present, but the text never confirms it. Animals probably were at some time housed there since Jesus was placed in a manger, which is a feeding trough for animals. The whole place smelled not only from animal droppings, but also from poverty, scandal, insignificance, helplessness, humiliation and embarrassment.

Randy Smith

CATEGORY	CUISINE	TAG	YIELD
Vegetables	Indian	Fatfree, Indian, Stews	4	Servings

INGREDIENTS

4	c	Vegetable broth
2	T	Soy sauce
1/2	t	Salt/omit if broth is salty
1/4	t	Hing
1/2	t	White pepper
1/2	c	Corn kernels
1	c	Chinese cabbage
1/2	c	Celery, chopped
1/2	lb	Diced tofu
2	T	Lemon juice
2	T	Cornstarch
1/4	c	Water

INSTRUCTIONS

In 3 qt. saucepan combine veg. broth, soy sauce, and seasonings.  Bring
to a boil and add vegs.  Cover and simmer for 15 min. Add tofu  and
lemon juice, an cook uncovered for 5 min. longer. Mix cornstarch  and
1/4 c. water. Stir paste into soup, and continue to cook until  soup
becomes slightly thicker, abt. 3 min. Serve hot. Posted to  MM-Recipes
Digest V4 #008  From: Tonya <[email protected]>  Date: Mon, 06 Jan 1997
14:32:03 -0800

A Message from our Provider:

“With Jesus, you can do it”

In our battles with sin, we need a team of people. We need teachers to help us understand Scripture, prophets to help us apply it, interceders to pray for us, preachers to focus our eyes on Christ, encouragers to remind us of God’s grace when we feel like failures, wise men and women to discern when we are making foolish decisions, and people of faith to tell us that everything God has said is true in Christ. In other words, God’s gifts to us are people – not just one person, but the church. This is how Christ meets us. The reason we need so many people is that we need Christ Himself. Since His glory and gifts are so immense, we need many people, not just an individual person.

Edward Welch