This past summer, I did something I have never done; I tried out a new service known as Airbnb. While on a research trip to Yale University, I booked a room in a apartment house that was billed as a clean room, in close proximity to the Yale’s campus, and with access to a kitchen, shower, and clean linen. I was told that the host, yes, that’s what you call him, was personable, knowledgeable about the area, and willing to engage in conversation if you desired it. For my part, there were a few rules to agree to, such as respecting the space of the other guests, providing some basic payment information, and being agreeable to the house cat which appeared every evening at dinner time. Beyond that, I was free to come and go as I please. So upon my arrival at the house, I found it just as it had been advertised; I found the host waiting for me, just as he had said, and I found that my room had been upgraded, because as I discovered, the window air conditioner was inoperative. The house was old and in the process of renovation, but otherwise it was clean, with a kitchen nearby and at least for the days that I was there, practically unoccupied. So, what does this have to do with you? Plenty!
Over the course of the last few days, we had the privilege of opening our home to a missionary couple whom I have known for the biggest part of twenty years.Ralf and Lena Schachinger were sharing their ministry at our church and stayed with us for a couple of days, and these few day proved to be some of the most blessed times in recent memory. In the midst of our time together, we learned that Lena had grown up in the Soviet Union, that’s Stalin’s Soviet Union, and had spent her formative years traveling on Sundays from house to house as her family sought to maintain the fellowship of an outlawed underground local church, where Bibles and songbooks were concealed under the kitchen floor and her father was regularly questioned by the local authorities, and taken from the home many times by the KGB. But thankfully, her father and mother persevered and championed the cause of Christ in their 16 children. Wow! What a story! Now I can think of any number of reasons it would have been easier to simply house them in a local hotel. And I also know that the practice of entertaining missionaries in our homes has changed, with the current trend being to provide them their own private accommodations. But I also know that quite possibly, we would have missed the rich blessings that come from engaging God’s special servants– the blessings that arrive in the private moments, long after the services are run their course.
In three short days, we experienced it all; we laughed uncontrollably, cried unexpectedly, and prayed spontaneously.
There is a reason that the early church grew exponentially in those early days and it had nothing to do with mind-numbing music, slick marketing campaigns, and emotionally driven self-fulfillment preaching. Please! get real!
The people who came to be known as the “Church” loved their God first and best, and lingered long with one another. They feared God, shunned the world and found their greatest joy together. Today we fear each other, shun God, and find new ways to live unto ourselves.
Maybe Airbnb is really on to something.
🙂 MJC
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