The following is an exert from chapter 9 of the book Missionary Guidebook For Ladies by Mindy Bush
Hospitality is a huge part of the ministry, especially on the mission field! Within just a few weeks of arriving in Argentina, we had one of our biggest groups come to visit to help us with the opening day of our first church plant! I think there were around 30-40 people in that group! It really pushed me to get the house furnished! We had over 300 visitors in our home before our first furlough! We stopped counting after that, but we had many guests come through our home on the mission field! Some stayed only a night, others stayed for a month.
One of the important things you will be doing as a missionary wife is being hospitable. It is receiving not just people visiting from the USA, but also the people from your mission field! Your husband may show up for lunch with six men for you to feed with no warning. You will have people over for Sunday dinner. Everyone has their way of doing things, but we rarely took people out to eat at restaurants. We wanted them to feel comfortable asking us to their house without feeling they had to take us out to eat. It isn’t so much the food you feed them or the house that you have, but the kindness that they feel from you.
Since hospitality is such a huge part of being a missionary, let’s see what the Bible says about it. Hospitality does not come naturally to some people. We can come up with so many excuses to not have people over:
“I have a small house.”
“It’s always messy.”
“My kids are rowdy.”
“I don’t know how to cook.”
“I’m afraid of doing something wrong.”
“I don’t have time.”
Can you relate? I have to put away my excuses and do what is biblical. 1 Peter 4:9 says “Use hospitality one to another without grudging.”
In the Bible we see so many examples of hospitable people: Aquila and Priscilla, Zaccheus, Mary, Martha, Abraham and Sarah, Abigail, and many others. Can you see how God blessed these people and their guests because they were welcoming to others? How much we miss out when we decide that our excuses to not entertain are justified!
Next week I’ll give some ideas for hospitality that are easy, budget friendly and doable for anyone!
