Hospitality Evangelism

There we were in a new big city 2,000 miles from home with four young children and feeling very strange. We had started attending a big church, and the young married Sunday School class had taken us in, but that was strange, too, and a little frightening.

Then one day a sweet faced young mother about my age asked us to come home to dinner. Her name was Wanda.

"Oh," I said, "that is so nice of you, but there are six of us!"

"That's all right. There are six of us too!" she responded. "I have a big pot roast in the oven. It won't be fancy, but we want to get to know you folks."

Our eight children and we four parents hit it off and First Church had us solidly in the Fold.

Your might call it "Hospitality Evangelism."

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From the January/February 1995 issue of Family Scrapbook, the one I mentioned yesterday, this column called "Oldtimer's Wisdom" was written by Tom's mom. Just recently, as Tom has been scanning slides from his childhood, he came across a photo of these two families, taken about the time Mom was referring to here. I hope she sees it today and remembers the sweetness of that special years-long friendship between these two families.