From Amsterdam, we began heading south towards Portugal where we would do 10 days of the Camino de Santiago. But that’s an upcoming blog so let’s not get too ahead here. From The Netherlands to Portugal is an extremely long bus ride so we knew a stop somewhere in the middle was needed. We prayed and the Lord began putting Paris on our hearts. I bet you’re reading this and thinking we’ll obviously y’all would pick Paris right? Who wouldn’t!? See the thing is that Paris is waaaaaay out of our budget and we had ZERO contacts there….
So where would we stay in Paris?!
Remember the Couchsurfing App from my Indonesia blog? [If not read it here] Well, this time we weren’t hosting people. We were the ones sending out requests to see if people would host us. We weren’t having any luck cause really hard to find a host that will take 4 people into their home. Most Couchsurfers live in flats with roommates or in a very small apartment. Then we decided to split girls and boys. The girls would send requests to girl Couchsurfers and we would send requests to guys. You probably already imagined this but in just a matter of hours, the girls already had a host! Haha isn’t that cray-cray. Tanner and I kept looking and the day before we left Paris we still didn’t have a host but we were trusting the Lord would provide.
People kept denying us so Cari reached out to her host and asked if Tanner and I could stay with them for a night. Her name is Ilham and she lives alone with her cats in the city center. She just recently started hosting Couchsurfers to meet travelers. When we arrived she welcomed us into her apartment. Then she gave us all the info we needed to go out into the streets. We asked her if she could hang out with us and she said yes! She took us to see the sunset at Montmartre which was breathtaking. Then she gave us a tour around the neighborhood and was interested in knowing more about why we were traveling. We got to share with her our mission and God’s plan for our lives. When we got back to her apartment she was excited to show us her bible. Ilham has such a caring and peaceful heart that allowed us to get to know her better.
We immediately knew that Ilham was a person of peace. God used her to provide for us and her generosity was overwhelming. The next day Ilham gave us her apartment keys and trusted us with all her belongings. Would you let 4 strangers come in and out of your house without you being there? In Luke 10:5-7 Jesus speaks about the “person of peace” when he sent out the 72. Just like Ilham, these “people of peace” from the Bible would welcome travelers into their homes for the entirety of their stay. Ilham offered us to stay for as many nights as we needed. She gave us breakfast and continuously checked in with us to make sure we were doing okay. WHAT A WOMAN! We can all learn from Ilham in so many ways!
I’ve been thinking about this a lot so id like you to start thinking about it too. Are we being a person of peace to others? I know I don’t have much this year but I also know that there’s no excuse when it comes to blessing others. So how can we bless others? Here are some practical ways that you can:
– Welcome or bring someone into your home
– Cook a dinner
– Be hospitable
– Speak Kind Words
– Write a letter or note to someone
– Give your time to meet up for coffee/dinner or even babysit
– Give $5, $10 or whatever amount to someone in need
– Share smiles, give hugs
– Buy someone a coffee or treat
– Click here for more ideas!
Thank you for reading my blog and don’t forget to drop some love.
