How is Your Theology Expressed in Your Hospitality? How Can We Offer Jesus Refuge?

I’ll never forget it — when I saw a devastating image of a lifeless little Syrian boy washed ashore on a beach in Turkey, the tragic result of a failed attempt of a family just trying to seek refuge from being killed from a raging war, and I asked God: what are we who follow You, called to do, to be like Christ? My husband and I and our family prayed, and were led by Jesus to personally welcome several families fleeing here to our own community, around our own table, befriending them, supporting them, helping them. And as I began to share about our personal experience loving families fleeing war and violence, a global Christian humanitarian organization called World Relief was a huge help, including in this developing of a book by three of their staff called Seeking Refuge. Fast forward a decade, and the scale of the global refugee crisis has literally doubled, The need for a genuinely Christ-like response, rooted in the biblical call to hospitality – which I believe is the best expression of our theology – is greater than ever. And I deeply understand and appreciate how this issue brings up strong emotions and opinions and responses among […]