Liebe Älteren

Convicting. Plain and simple.

I am naturally an introvert, and the queen of excuses. Hand-in-hand, that has lead me to use my spiritual gift of hospitality incredibly sparingly with my neighbors, especially since Covid. 

As we prepare for our move I have been reading Rosario Butterfield’s “The Gospel Comes with a House Key.” Currently my “mission field” is my classroom where I have the opportunity to live out and share the Gospel daily. That will change for me when we move to Germany and my classroom is our living room. 

In her book, Butterfield defines Radically Ordinary Hospitality as “using your Christian home in a daily way that seeks to make strangers neighbors, and neighbors family of God. It brings glory to God, serves others, and lives out the gospel in word and deed.” 

Key words

• Daily
• Strangers to Neighbors
• Neighbors to Family
• Family to Family of God

I especially liked Rosario’s writing on the need for Spiritual preparedness. Our family is in the midst of “preparedness,” but how quickly the spiritual side can be set aside amongst the busyness of selling a house, giving away/selling almost all our furniture, finishing up a school year, etc.

Rosario says, “Radically ordinary hospitality does not simply flow from the day-to-day interests of the household. You must prepare spiritually. the Bible calls spiritual preparation warfare.”

I am pen and paper list maker. I have started a list of changes that will need to be made for our family to be “radically hospitable.” Some things will come naturally, but other things will take effort – either way, it is spiritual warfare and even when we are juggling ten different things, the number one thing must be our personal time with the Lord and our church fellowship as we prepare for what the Lord has for us in Germany.

Will you please begin praying for our new neighbors? We are moving with zero expectation of which village to live in around the Kaiserslautern community.