We Needed Plates, We Got Plates

Paige Hoerle is part of a Globalscope campus ministry team in Tübingen, Germany called Unterwegs where she consistently invests time and love into the busy lives of students. Here she shares a story of how a need in their ministry was met in a very unexpected way.

The absolute shortest version of the story: we needed plates, we got plates. The longer story is much more interesting:

In August I went to a Franciscan monastery about 90 km from Tübingen, for a week of prayer, work, and hiking. In the mornings I worked in their various gardens and orchards, and in the afternoon we explored the surrounding hills, and stopped at a delightful lake for a sunset swim. It's always a bit risky to enter into such experiences with a community that is fully new to me, with other guests that are complete strangers. But we had a great week full of open conversations and eating a lot of cheese and bread (honestly pushed my limit on cheese and bread, if you can believe it). At some point, one of the sisters mentioned a huge garage sale that the monastery had had a few years ago, and off-handedly offered me kitchen stuff for Unterwegs. I gave some kind of grateful nonanswer and kept washing dishes.

A few weeks later at a team meeting, we talked about our constant issue of running out of plates, forks, and spoons at Mittagspause (our free lunch event) and whether it was worth it to buy more or just keep doing what we're doing with running the dishwasher as often as possible. The conversation with the sister popped back into my head, our team agreed it was a good thing to reach out about, I wrote to a sister at the monastery, and she replied, “is 100 plates enough?”

So, already floored by their generosity and hospitality, I booked a car and drove out there on a cold, rainy morning to join them for lunch and see about what kinds of things I could pick up for Unterwegs. It is a special thing to find yourself standing around in the cellar of a 1000-year-old building, waiting for someone to unlock a door so you can just take a bunch of stuff and pack it into your car. The sister who works as the “crockery manager” opened a door I thought was a closet but was actually a series of four rooms, in the first of which was a cart with things she thought would interest me most - 100 plates and all the forks, spoons, and knives that they had to give. Then there were three more rooms! I felt overwhelmed and told her I would be so grateful to start with the plates and silverware, then come back if we need more stuff in the future. She told me those things would be there for a few years, so I can take my time and come back whenever I like. Then, another sister made me coffee, got a bunch of newspapers, and helped me carefully pack everything for the windy road journey back to Tübingen.

We needed plates, we got plates. That comma is doing a lot of work - holding the astounding, unexpected gift of finding a community who wants to stay connected to our work at Unterwegs and happens to have a treasure trove of things that we need; holding the love of a God who simply gives, simply shows us the abundance we find ourselves in.

We are caught up in that web of abundance, in a lunchtime-centric gift economy that could not be more bizarre or beautiful. As I write this, our first lunch event of the semester starts in one hour, and I find myself in a place of incredible blessing. To be able to offer a warm meal, a place to sit and catch a breath, a conversation, a chance to connect - this is an incredible gift. Whatever work I am doing today, it is because I am held by a thousand hands. Hands that unlock doors to rooms full of quality kitchen goods, hands that give their hard-earned money for the good of students they may never meet, hands that pray and hug and high five. Thank you for being on this winding road with me, with our team here in Tübingen, and with the ever-growing community of folks who want to show the love of God in our little corners of the world.