The Narrow Way

I can vividly recall how I felt as a missionary in Zimbabwe some years back. We went not long after the country had collapsed. After hyper-inflation and xenophobia, cholera swept the nation and killed many. 😞

We arrived at a Zimbabwean home, a friend of a friend, who planned to host us. The home was a common African style home, cinderblock walls, floor, and sparse furniture. After my first night, Frank, a young pastor of about 25 (our host) quietly knocked on my door “your bath is ready,” he said. I didn’t quite understand, so I came out and he pointed to the bathroom. In it was a large plastic tub with about 6 inches of hot water. I thanked him. It took me a minute to realize what he had done for me, and when I did, I was overwhelmed. You see, they didn’t have running water, so in order for me to take a warm bath, I would’ve needed to get up early and start boiling water. To this day I don’t know how long it took Frank to warm my bath water each day or how many buckets full he had to carry, but for the entire time we stayed, this man woke early and boiled water to give his guest the best he could. I was so touched. I guarantee he didn’t do this for himself every day. I was humbled. I was loved. I knew this was his best and just like the woman with the 2 coins (see below) he was giving it to me. 🥺

“Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. ⁴² But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.⁴³ Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. ⁴⁴ They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.“ Matt 12:41-44

I’ve mentioned before, we have a hospitality ministry out of our home. What I haven’t mentioned is I had a season of life where I felt “homeless.” I always had shelter and a place to stay, but for about 2-3 years during the years of missions, I moved around a lot and often stayed with others. While in different places in Africa, things weren’t always the same as America (for example having running water) but I always felt so blessed. People consistently gave their best. They would make little floral arrangements, serve a meal on their best china, anything they could to show care and love in their serving. And it made an impression on me. I may never realize how much their effort cost them, but it wasn’t wasted. The quality of care given has never left me. ❤️ So, when we began taking people in for seasons of life, I’ve had this in the back of my mind–I’ve wanted to give the best we can. Our house isn’t perfect. Our first guests had some inconveniences that our latter ones have been able to avoid. For example, although we have multiple lower level entries, there was no pathway, so we plowed it, but it would get messy come spring. We needed people to used the lower entries because of where bedrooms are located etc. on upper level (kids napping etc). Anyway, as time went on, we were blessed by my in-laws who led the way in a sidewalk construction project. We now have a proper entry/exit for people and they don’t have to get muddy to do it!

We honestly do what we can. There’s a lot I’d love to change for people, but the truth is, it’s not in the budget. But we offer our best, and as time goes on, we slowly improve things for ourselves and our guests within reason. It’s a fine line, what is necessary vs. what is nice. We really put a lot of thought and prayer into how we spend our resources–time included–as we take on projects because it would be easy to get lost in them.

This is no different with furniture etc. We recently needed a new mattress for our current guest. The mattress we have is approximately 15 years old. It’s still comfortable, though it’s becoming less, but our cat has decided to turn it into a litter box. 😒 Months ago, he was accidentally locked in that room and by no fault of his own, he peed on it. 🙄 We did all we could and it seemed we were able to save it, until recently. With our current guest, who the cat is quite fond of, he is downstairs a lot. At some point he smelled his scent and remembered his deeds…If you know cats, you know it can be nearly impossible to break them of peeing on something unless you remove the object. 😬 Despite numerous applications of Nature’s Miracle, he hasn’t relented and the damage is done. 🤦‍♀️

We obviously could not let our guest continue to sleep on a cat-pee mattress. At the same time, we didn’t plan for purchasing a new mattress, and being a primarily single-income home, it’s not a pocket change purchase for us. After praying about it and struggling to sleep, I felt the Lord saying “you have not because you ask not,” James 4:2, and felt led to reach out via email and a FB prayer group to people with our problem.

The response was quick with different kinds of mattresses and pledges of money offered. 🙌

That’s when I really began to struggle. Having community support for our ministry is a amazing, having community opinions is another thing! 🥴🤭😂 With many opinions and options, I began to wrestle…what was appropriate? Take the free firm mattress? Buy a cheaper new one? Buy a quality one? Take all of the money offered? Take some of it? How much do we put towards it ourselves? 🤷‍♀️

Initially, we bought a cheaper one as encouraged by some, but we lost all peace about it. There’s a reason that less expensive mattresses aren’t all the rave. It seemed God had provided the pledge of finances through a handful of people for a decent mattress, but was that wrong? Was it wrong to accept the money and buy something of higher quality? 🤷‍♀️

As I prayed, I kept thinking of “do unto others” and:

“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” Mat 25:40

Would I give Jesus the cheap bed? Well, no. Not if I could help it! If it were Jesus, I’d drain our savings on the best bed money could buy. So, should a person in a transitional season of life receive much less quality? I don’t think so…. I think that scripture is literal, what we do for those in need, we do as unto the Lord Himself. Then I thought of some scriptures about hospitality:

“Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality” Romans 12:3

“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” Heb 13:2

The amount of over-thinking this was not small…🙈 With an idea of what we should do in mind, I decided to consult some of the people who had offered to donate to see what they thought. To my surprise, their overwhelming response was “buy a quality mattress!” They wanted to give. They wanted to bless whoever would be in that bed for years to come, and they weren’t concerned with me penny pinching on their behalf. 😭🙌

With this, I set out with a friend and we purchased a new quality mattress. It isn’t THE BEST mattress money can buy, but it’s one that we both find quite comfortable and should last for many years to come. 🙌Best of all–I have absolute peace that we’ve done the right thing with the amount of money that God provided. We didn’t cut corners or receive less, and we didn’t spend more than we could afford. The end result is that whoever God sends to us, for whatever length of time, they will be able to rest comfortably–a valuable gift when you’re in transition.

I think every situation is different, and while some may disagree, I feel peace. I believe we followed God’s leading as best as we could and that He put it on the hearts of those He had prepared in advance to assist. The most generous giver actually said “we had been so blessed this year we were looking for a place to give to and then your email came…” God knew, and He provided for this need ahead of time.❤️🙌

If you’ve never known what it’s like to be in temporary housing, it’s hard to understand the difference something like a comfortable bed can make. If you’ve never received grand hospitality, it’s likely difficult to know how humbling it can be–for both the giver and receiver.

Hospitality is not an easy thing. Unless you know someone very well, you never quite know what you’re getting into. There’s always struggles, which God uses to knock some edges off of you. He forces you to give, and it’s often more than what you anticipated in time, energy, finances, and emotion. BUT the payoff is eternal, the rewards heavenly. While not everyone has accommodations for others, if you do, I’d encourage you to use it (with wisdom of course). You might be surprised at how God uses hospitality in your life to teach, transform, and bless you.

Thank you SO much to those who felt led to help us buy a nice new mattress for our guest/ministry. I know some may have wanted to but were unable, thank you for considering. And thank you also to those of you who offered nice used mattresses of various sizes and firmness levels (sorry Steve, I still can’t get my head around why anyone would want a firm mattress in the first place, 😆).

As always, thanks for stopping by.