God’s Grand Hospitality
This is redemptive history, and we are called to continue our assignment of Eden care for one another and for this Earth today in ways that work to redeem our tragic mistakes.
Invited: The Power of Hospitality in an Age of Loneliness
Coming into marriage, my husband and I had very different experiences with hospitality. I grew up in a socially “quiet” family. My parents’ friends never stopped by unannounced (or practically ever) and I can only recall one memory of our family hosting a party. We only saw our relatives every few years because they lived…
Welcoming Strangers
My first Christmas in China, my American teammate got sick and asked to be alone. Rather than spend Christmas binge-watching television by myself, I jogged to the outskirts of the city where tarmac turned to orange dust. I ran through dry fields that would grow potatoes, spinach, and sunflowers in the summer, then wandered into…
What Is True Biblical Hospitality?
The tables were all set with festive tablecloths and centerpieces, and light twinkled from votive candles as we awaited the arrival of our guests. Christmas was in the air. As more than 40 of our close friends gathered in the warm Florida December evening to celebrate the birth of Jesus, I addressed the group to…
You’d Do the Same for Me
We’ve been invited to a church member’s home for a meal just three times in three years. As an accidental experiment in the Colorado city where we moved three years ago, we visited 17 churches, landing at 2 for about a year, 3 for a month each, and visited the others once or twice. Not…
Hospitality Flipped Upside Down
I edged to the front of my folding chair, bobbing and weaving my head to find a view through the heads in front of me. “Do you have a child there?” an older woman sitting next to me asked with a slight accent as she pointed toward the stage. “I do!” I beamed. “She’s there,…
Hospitality for an Introvert
I love face-to-face conversations with friends—long-time friends or brand-new friends. I do not prefer large social gatherings, mingling with people I barely know and engaging in shallow conversations. I also love extended time alone with a good book. You guessed it. I am an introvert. A major part of my job, though, is people. Lots…
The Sacred Table
I grew up in an Italian family in a predominantly Italian community in the western suburbs of Chicago where I learned how the pillars of my ethnic heritage are open hearts, open doors, warm hospitality, and the sacredness of the table. My grandparents emigrated to America in the 1920s. My maternal grandmother, my Nonna Pierina,…