Sermon Central
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Please Be My Guest
Contributed by Martin Spoelstra on Aug 29, 2024 (message contributor)
My son and I visited Honduras several years ago, just before the pandemic. Compassion Canada workers escorted us to the home of a family that was receiving some of the funds we had raised for our sponsored children. The idea was to see how those gifts had been able to change dramatically the situation, not only for the child but for the whole family. We were taken to a very poor area where the house was situated on a 30% grade. The houses had dirt floors. The water flowed from one home to the next. This house was the home of 6 people and was probably around 150 ft.²
When we arrived the father, who was a cobbler, took out some money and gave it to the youngest child to run off to the store and get some cookies and coke. I looked at my son and he looked at me and we both realized the sacrifice they were making by providing hospitality to us. We both started to object to the expense but our guide from Compassion stretched out her arm, placed it on mine and said in a quiet voice, “Allow them the honour and the joy of being your host.” It also meant that she was asking me to be a good guest.
Yes, we had provided financial resources to sponsor one of their children. But the act of being their guest and receiving hospitality in their home is probably the thing that will impact me the most. I felt more like Jesus that day by being humble enough to be the recipient of their hospitality than I did by sending the money to begin with.
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