There is a blog that I love to read from time to time called Life for Dessert. By far one of my favorite posts of hers was one called The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pans. It defines how I feel about my friends, how I love them.  Here is an excerpt from her blog post that pretty much says it all:

One of my favorite chick flicks ever is the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.  Of course there’s the lovey dovey stuff that butterflies in your stomach are made of…young love and silly crushes.  But, when I think about this movie, the thing that I love the most is the bond of friendship that weathers heartache, and real life loss, excitement and adventure.  Friends who use something as inanimate and lifeless as a pair of killer jeans to transcend the space and time that comes between them for a summer.  Though they aren’t together in the flesh, their hearts are still knit and bonds continued as they pass a pair of pants from home to soccer camp to time with an estranged parent to a trip to Greece and share the stories they each experience in the pants along the way.  There’s the evidence of the pants, that even though they’re not together, that they still carry one another in their hearts.   – Logan

Life is much the same for my friends and I.  The scenery changes from day to day as life busies us with family members, takes us on a new journey of commitments, or moves us out of reach of the ones we hold on to in crisis. But – we still love each other. When I read about Logan’s initiative of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pans, I just couldn’t help but smile. This is exactly how my friends and I like to love each other. With Food!

It seems that each time we get together, even if it is just for a chat in fellowship hall, we are always eating!  Something! So I’ve decided that this would be a great way to let my friends know that even when we aren’t together, I am thinking of them. The idea is that you make extra from dinner and share it with a friend….or a neighbor that you don’t know to encourage hospitality and build friendships.  Here are Logan’s instructions for how to go about starting a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pans: …and don’t forget to download the printable feb STP-Journal-Recipe-Page pdf

Go out and buy a cute 9×13 pan that you don’t care to get back.   A nice sturdy one will probably be best. After you buy a pan, make your dinner and double it.  Fill the pan with dinner.  Now take it to someone.

Now here’s the part that I think will make this awesome.  I have 2 pans that I’m starting to circulate.  I have a group of about 10 friends or so that I’m going to start one pan amongst.  Part of the purpose for this is just to help each other out.  I know that we all have days when dinner is about the LAST thing we want to think about.  So what if a friend just calls you up and brings you one unexpectedly?  I do this a fair amount anyhow, but this time it’s super intentional.  Grab a group of friends and plan to start a traveling pan within your group.

I’m also starting a pan in my neighborhood.  I know a good many of my neighbors, but there are plenty that I don’t know.  The purpose of this pan  is to stimulate the growth of community and hospitality within your neighborhood.

There are rules though…so here you go:

When you get the pan, you must send it to someone else within 2 weeks from receipt -  It doesn’t matter what you put in it, but it needs to be dinner.  If this is in your neighborhood, then I encourage you to take the pan to a neighbor that you don’t know.  This way, once the pan is going, you’ll be meeting 2 people who you didn’t already know.  And you won’t just be meeting them, you’ll be loving them well!

Also, when you take the pan, I encourage you to start a notebook to go with it.  I’ve created some printable 8.5×11 PDF files that I’m attaching below so that you have it all ready to go.  The idea is that you keep a guest book of sorts to travel with the pan.  Put your name and who you’re sending it to for each journal entry.  Write a short note to the recipient on the top of the left page and on the right hand side, include the recipes that you’ve sent them.  When they get the pan (or before they send the pan on its way) they write some notes about how the meal encouraged and blessed them.

I think that people will love reading the past entries, and again, it will build community to get to know people better this way!  I’d suggest calling that day to let someone know you’re bringing the meal so that it’s a complete surprise.  If for some reason, it’s not convenient for them, then just take the pan to bless someone else!

And here’s what I ask of you: Let me know how it goes!  Leave comments below on the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pan Page here on the blog, and leave comments too on the Life for Dessert facebook page!  Let’s start a movement of blessing and community building one pan at a time!

Make sure to join the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pan on Facebook  to share stories, recipes, and more!

We post new recipes here every week on a beautiful life. Consider trying one of these out for your pans!  We would love to hear about dinners you’ve given, or received. Let’s encourage one another to stay connected to friends and to build community. In this busy digital age, it seems that our relationships have been reduced to tweets, texts and emails. This is a great way to talk to someone face to face, and let them know that you care!

I hope this blesses you as much as it has me!  Happy Traveling!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Lisa

Printable Journal Recipe Page feb STP-Journal-Recipe-Page pdf