Banana Picking

When I first started making short-term mission trips here back in 1993 the desire grew in me to actually pick a fresh banana from a tree. It just seemed like such a 'tropical' thing to do! It never happened on any of those short term trips, but the house we moved into when we arrived in country had a banana tree. A dream was realized when eventually I was able to take bananas right off the tree. You cannot even imagine how flavorful a banana is that has not been picked green and shipped. A pastor friend of ours was telling the story of a boy who had grown up eating bananas straight from the tree, and after tasting a banana in the states said he didn't want any more fake bananas! This week friends from South Carolina were here preaching some crusades with Brother Robbie Strickland and took time out to visit us at our new home. Did I mention that we also have a banana tree in the backyard? It seems I'm not the only US girl who thought it would be cool to pick a banana from a tree. Donna Bowen of Set Free Chrisitan Fellowship was just about as excited as I was!