New Malden Life Group’s Cultural Exchange

Last week, instead of our usual lifegroup meeting, we had a bit of a cultural exchange evening. 

It all started as a passing comment towards the end of 2025, when we were chatting over dinner about how many countries are represented in our lifegroup.

What started as a simple idea of sharing food from our different backgrounds, became something that snowballed into an evening of GREAT FOOD, lots of laughter, a very competitive Kahoot quiz, fun facts from our home countries, and overall amazing time of fellowship. 

It’s obvious that we come from different places, but our love for Jesus, and being part of King’s Church, meant we have some things in common. However, in our sharing of food, and sharing fun facts meant that we have more in common than we initially thought!

One of my highlights was that Chi and Emeka (photo below), despite not talking about what they’d be wearing, and not arriving together, came in the same shirt! The room filled with laughter as we couldn't believe that they came with the same shirt! It also meant we were all intrigued as to what the shirt signifies in Nigerian culture!

Speaking of clothes, part of Saint Lucia’s national wear (Jip) is made of madras cloth (photo above). Since I was determined to find a new fun fact from Saint Lucia, I Googled where madras is from! Lo and behold (despite it being similar to Scottish tartan), madras was brought to the Caribbean from India - specifically, Madraspatnam (now Chennai).

Stephanie told us about the Daffodils poem by William Wandsworth, which was a favourite of hers! Turns out that this is a poem Joy had studied in school (back in India) as part of her 8th Standard English! We all then had a go at head waggling, and apart from those in our life group from India and Sri Lanka, no one quite understands if it's a yes, no, or maybe? TBC - it’s also quite hard to do it effortlessly!

Did you know that The Philippines is an archipelago with over 7,000 islands, depending on whether it’s high tide or low tide? Neither did we!

We had a very brief overview of Nigerian government systems, and how intricate it becomes the closer you go - think of the systems being like a Russian doll. Moving to England, the patron saint, St. George apparently fought a dragon! NEWS TO ME - though, I won’t admit to asking ‘how did he kill the dragon?’.

We even had a quick lesson on Chinese characters. ‘Lamb’ which is “羔” and ‘I/me’ which is “我”. They make up “義” which basically puts the lamb above me and it means ‘righteousness’.

What an evening, and special time together. Tuesday felt like it should have been Friday, leftovers were packed for lunches tomorrow, and laughter continued to fill the Goddards’ house until the last person left.

While putting away plates covered with remnants of food from seven countries, I couldn’t help but think of Revelation 7:9:

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…”

What a beautiful reminder in Revelation 7:9, that God’s kingdom is not colourless or cultureless. Heaven is not a place where our differences disappear, but where they are redeemed and woven together in unified worship of our Father. 

God’s family has always been global. Our lifegroup that night (in particular) felt like a tiny preview of that reality: different backgrounds, one table; different stories, one Saviour; different cultures, one King.

Every nation. Every tribe. Every people. Every language. All gathered around one throne.