From my childhood, my family, and now our family, have loved to entertain people in our home. You cannot know someone by just exchanging Hello's at church or at Walmart, you need time to get to know other people. And what better way than inviting people to share a meal with you in your own home! All of our children seem to have followed in our footsteps, and no doubt the custom of entertaining will pass on to the grandchildren as well.
Today and also last week we have had people in for a meal with us. In one case, it was very dear friends and in the other case someone we see at church but did not really know before now. And now they are friends. The meal can be simple or complicated, but the friendship being developed is always a blessing to us. Milt and I work together when getting ready to have company.
The folks who joined our table today are longtime friends. They were overseas with the Alliance and now they are working in a recruiting capacity for missions, based here at Toccoa Falls College. These are also friends from the church and our Sunday School classes, we are interested in the same things and our conversations can go on forever. We also work together in Jail ministry. So we never run out of things to talk about and today was a blessed visit for us, and we trust for them as well.
Last week we had invited a family from church, recently started attending our church. I had gotten to know the mom at Retreat last year and Dad got to know the Dad subbing at the High School. He is a coach and teacher there. They came over last week on Monday and on Sunday I asked the lady how many they would be, as I had seen them with various children. Her answer was - they are eight people, two adults and six children!
So I started planning for that. That many children meant fixing a meal kids would like, so I did enchiladas which seemed to be a hit with everyone. I set a table for six in our back sun room and the kids loved that. There is a TV there and after eating they watched something on TV. We adults had a nice quiet meal in the dining room, just the four of us. So we got to know these folks better and that was a blessing. We showed them a video of our life in Africa so they could understand a bit better who we really are and the kids seemed to love that too. The children who came were a mix of black and white, as these folks take in foster children! And how well behaved and friendly those kids were. The evening was a blessing for all of us I think. And we made some new friends.
When you entertain strangers, they become friends, and so we have some new friends in our church. We like to use our home and time in entertaining others. When small groups are in session, we host a group in our home. God has given us a roomy home and we enjoy using it to get to know others better, as well as to deepen friendships with folks we know.
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