Host homes….

Hospitality is something Christians should practice. The Old Testament tells many stories that present us the value of hospitality within the Jewish culture. The New Testament in turn, also presents hospitality as an important value within the Christian community.

Romans 12:13 calls upon followers of Jesus to “practice hospitality.” It is in doing so that we find a new dimension of sharing in the love of Christ.

During our mission trip we were hosted by families. None of these families were forced to host us, they offered to do so. Every time we thanked them for their hospitality they would remark that they did not want to miss out on the blessing of sharing with brothers and sisters in Christ. Our host families took us under their wings and went to great extents to protect us. They fed us, drove us to places, prayed for us, shared their testimonies, and cried when we left wishing they could have done more for us. It was a blessing.

One interesting thing of all this is how God worked out the placing of each and every one of us in the homes we stayed. We all took gifts for our host families without knowing who they were going to be; it turns out that the gifts we took worked out as if we would have known in advanced who we were going to be staying with. A lady collects bells from different countries, it turns out that the 2 students staying with them each took bells as a gift. Another family loves baseball, the girl staying with them took baseball gifts. Our host family loved candles so one of the team gave the lady candles for her beautiful display. Some would call this a coincidence, however, they thought, and we agree with them, that God in his love had placed each and every one of us in a family that he had prepared for us. There are lots of things that happened while we stayed in our host homes, we got to know the families and they got to know us. We shared, prayed, laughed, and cried together. We pray that God will bless the families that hosted us so lovingly.

Here is a picture of the family that hosted Martha, Jessica, Sharon, and I. We miss them dearly:

Here are pictures of a few of the loving friends we made in Venezuela:

Our host family

Julio and Mary

Osbaldo

Hermana Germany and Gilberto Pabon, and Henry

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