Over the years, we have developed a grocery shopping list that will enable us to have what we need to stay in the village for two months, without needing anything other than fresh produce. So, when the opportunity came for our family to travel together to the capital city (about a three-hour drive) for a few days, we made our list, planning to buy as many of those groceries as possible, not knowing when we might be able to shop again.
During our few days in town, we made multiple trips to the main grocery stores, gradually checking off items from our list. As usual, there were a few things that we could not find, like ham and bacon. These were minor adjustments; we knew we could be frugal with the few packs of ham that we had, and we could do without bacon. However, the major item that we could not find was mozzarella cheese. We normally buy our cheese in Manila because we can buy a big block (about 5 pounds), which is a much more economical choice than paying the prices on our island. We have not been able to return to Manila though, so our supply of cheese was getting low. We could not find cheese in the stores where we had looked so far, so we called another place located on the outskirts of town to see if they had any. They had a supply, all that we needed, but their price was very high – $25 for one pound of cheese!
As Ginger was going through our meal list in her mind and trying to calculate how little cheese we could get by with, she suggested we try going to the one, older grocery store that we hadn’t looked in yet. We went to that store and were thrilled to find cheese! They had bigger blocks of cheese than we have ever seen, for a very fair price. We were able to buy a 22-pound block of cheese for $5 per pound. Incredible! We are so thankful to have an abundance of cheese, all that we could need and more. God is so good to meet even this “cheesy” request!
The following week, we had a cheese-packaging time with the whole family. Stephen cut the cheese into meal-sized portions, the boys wrapped each small block with plastic wrap, and Ginger and Abigail put the blocks into plastic bags. Our freezer is now full of cheese, ready to use. Again, so thankful!
We pray you have a wonderful July 4th holiday! While we don’t have any grand plans since we had planned to be in the States to celebrate this holiday, we are thankful to be here, to be together, and to be free to worship God!