This brings back so many memories. Line your beautiful little sun porch we did yoga in, and that baby bouncer Jana basically lived in. Also the birth of coffee at Cats (but I think you called it something different at the time). And also the more serious moments and conversations, growth and going through real life. You've always been an inspiration to me when it comes to hospitality ❤️
Yes! Loved that porch, spent a lot of time in there singing. Haha, yes she did until she outgrew it and started crawling up and down the two sets of stairs and I'd lose her in the big house. It was called, "Coloring night." I couldn't remember if that's where I started it, you're probably right. Thanks Manda :)
Yes! I love your story and your openness to radically ordinary hospitality! And God blesses that openness.
I recently read the book The Gospel Comes with a Housekey by Rosaria Butterfield and it was so inspiring! Her whole life changed forever because a Christian couple invited her to dinner. And now she hosts dinners regularly.
We host an open invite dinner every week. Eight years ago that meant throwing in a couple oven pizzas after work and three friends might stop by. We were in a duplexed house, so all the rooms were skinny; once people sat down, they couldn't get back up unless everyone got up. 😅
Now, eight years later, we're in a (small) house. Last week we had over thirty adults and ten kids at dinner! I do most of the cooking, and I say, bringing a dish is admired, but not required. No RSVP needed. Old friends sometimes bring a dish, so new people who just got invited can come straight from work or school or wherever without any pressure. We've always had leftovers, which feels very loaves and fish.
Couples have met and gotten married after meeting at our dinners, new friends have converted, and it's all the Holy Spirit, I just cook. And no one cares that it's rice and beans most weeks and that my walls are covered in stickers and there are toys shoved in the corners. They come (and come again and again and invite new friends) for the community they find here.
I love that book! I read it with a couple friends of mine years ago, I think the book had just come out. We were living in a very small house, with a small yard and four kids at the time. It was just the encouragement and challenge I needed to keep going, keep having people over. Some of my best memories of hospitality happened there. Somehow without enough room there was always just enough space.
Wow, you still doing an open invite dinner every week after eight years??
I may have to borrow that phrase, "bringing a dish is admired, but not required." Haha.
Haha, yep, we might be crazy, hosting dinner most every week, but God has blessed us abundantly through it!
There's a long running Friday night Bible study at an amazing ministry center we first found 11 years ago. But we'd drive home from work and lose momentum and not go.
We moved to live walking distance to the center and started hosting dinner, to lower the friction for people going from work to Bible study.
We've been hosting and inviting everyone we meet for so long now, maybe half the dinner guests each week go to the evening young adult/young professional Bible study and half come for Christian community and go home afterwards (especially the families with kids).
This brings back so many memories. Line your beautiful little sun porch we did yoga in, and that baby bouncer Jana basically lived in. Also the birth of coffee at Cats (but I think you called it something different at the time). And also the more serious moments and conversations, growth and going through real life. You've always been an inspiration to me when it comes to hospitality ❤️
Yes! Loved that porch, spent a lot of time in there singing. Haha, yes she did until she outgrew it and started crawling up and down the two sets of stairs and I'd lose her in the big house. It was called, "Coloring night." I couldn't remember if that's where I started it, you're probably right. Thanks Manda :)
Yes! I love your story and your openness to radically ordinary hospitality! And God blesses that openness.
I recently read the book The Gospel Comes with a Housekey by Rosaria Butterfield and it was so inspiring! Her whole life changed forever because a Christian couple invited her to dinner. And now she hosts dinners regularly.
We host an open invite dinner every week. Eight years ago that meant throwing in a couple oven pizzas after work and three friends might stop by. We were in a duplexed house, so all the rooms were skinny; once people sat down, they couldn't get back up unless everyone got up. 😅
Now, eight years later, we're in a (small) house. Last week we had over thirty adults and ten kids at dinner! I do most of the cooking, and I say, bringing a dish is admired, but not required. No RSVP needed. Old friends sometimes bring a dish, so new people who just got invited can come straight from work or school or wherever without any pressure. We've always had leftovers, which feels very loaves and fish.
Couples have met and gotten married after meeting at our dinners, new friends have converted, and it's all the Holy Spirit, I just cook. And no one cares that it's rice and beans most weeks and that my walls are covered in stickers and there are toys shoved in the corners. They come (and come again and again and invite new friends) for the community they find here.
I love that book! I read it with a couple friends of mine years ago, I think the book had just come out. We were living in a very small house, with a small yard and four kids at the time. It was just the encouragement and challenge I needed to keep going, keep having people over. Some of my best memories of hospitality happened there. Somehow without enough room there was always just enough space.
Wow, you still doing an open invite dinner every week after eight years??
I may have to borrow that phrase, "bringing a dish is admired, but not required." Haha.
Our dinner hosting experience, to hopefully encourage more experiments in hosting science!
https://faithandwitness.org/2024/07/16/how-about-dinner/
Haha, yep, we might be crazy, hosting dinner most every week, but God has blessed us abundantly through it!
There's a long running Friday night Bible study at an amazing ministry center we first found 11 years ago. But we'd drive home from work and lose momentum and not go.
We moved to live walking distance to the center and started hosting dinner, to lower the friction for people going from work to Bible study.
We've been hosting and inviting everyone we meet for so long now, maybe half the dinner guests each week go to the evening young adult/young professional Bible study and half come for Christian community and go home afterwards (especially the families with kids).