“Show hospitality to the saints”
This month I have repeatedly been struck at how GENEROUS and loving the Indian Christians are here. At the beginning of the month my team mate Ty, her sister Rachel and one of our squad leaders Courtney were blessed to be able to sped one night at the home of our contact Philip and his wife Miriam.
“Would you like a shower?” – well yes we would love one!
“Some coffee and ice cream after dinner?”
– I never say no to ice cream! : – )
“And a bed to sleep on?” – yup, that would be awesome too.
“Well, how about our bed?” – Wait, what!?
Hospitality here looks SO different from hospitality in the states. In the US we consider it a great hospitality just to provide guests with a drink, a meal (if that) and a couch to sleep on if we don’t have a “guest bedroom.” Here, guests immediately become family, and only the best is provided for them. While staying with this sweet couple they offered their OWN bed to sleep on in THEIR bedroom, while they slept on the floor of their sons’ room. And here I was just excited to have a real shower and a place to sleep that didn’t have mosquitos in it. I never expected anything like this! And Philip is a giant (literally he’s like 6’ 9” tall!) so that meant that he slept on the floor while we were comfortable on their bed! They brought us ice cream before bed, they cooked breakfast for us, and they treated us like family. They encouraged us, and drew us out to get to know each of us even though they knew that we would be leaving within the next two days.
After this unexpected but welcomed care for myself and my squad mates, I felt convicted of how little we really do for our fellow neighbors in America. If someone needs a place to sleep we offer them a couch, not OUR bed… as if we are going out of our way to provide care and comfort to them. If they’re hungry we rush to the store and pick up the cheapest thing we can find, whereas we should provide the best that we have to offer. When we meet someone whom we know we won’t know for very long we have surface level conversations, where instead we should seek to encourage each and every person we meet no matter how long we’ve known them nor how long we will know them.
One of the other teams is staying two blocks away from my team at an orphanage. They invited Team Rooted to come over for a BBQ, mashed potatoes, Hawaiian rolls, green beans, etc. and it was such a huge blessing. Team Apex, a team of six girls, proceeded to tell us how the orphanage didn’t have a bathroom until two weeks ago. Their ministry contact BUILT a bathroom for their team, so they would have one to use while they worked at the orphanage. I am humbled to hear stories like this and I know for myself, hospitality will look much different when I return.
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