Surprised by Community

During our July summer vacation, after my wife, daughter and I drove over 1,200 miles to visit my parents, they told us a wonderful story of hospitality and community.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, they were taking a few days away and staying together at what people in Michigan call a “cottage.”  People in Texas would call it a “vacation home.”  A small town nearby was advertising a community-wide pig roast on the 4^th.  My parents thought it would be fun to attend. So they did, knowing no one there.

After they got their food and looked for a seat, they saw a table with some open seating. They sat down to eat and noticed a young 20-something couple sitting nearby. Judging by their dress, my parents could see they were Old Order Amish. They, too, seemed to know no one.  After a bit, my parents struck up a conversation with them and learned that the couple lived a couple hundred miles away. How, my parents wondered, does an Old Order Amish couple who use only horse and buggy for transportation get to a pig roast a three-hour drive from home?

The young couple explained that they had never had a vacation since they were married, not even a honeymoon. So this was their first vacation ever. With their three children staying with their parents, they paid a driver to drive them to this area for their “vacation.” After three days, the driver would pick them up and return them home.

The conversation flowed easily, with my parents asking some not-too- intrusive questions about their way of life.  My parents, strangers themselves, were practicing hospitality in a strange place, reaching out to another pair of strangers. Returning the hospitality, the Amish couple then invited my parents to their home for an Amish meal.

On the agreed-upon date, my parents made three-hour trip to the home of their newly-found acquaintances. They shared a wonderful meal together, while my parents continued to learn more about the Amish lifestyle—complete with a buggy ride. What my parents experienced on these occasions, in addition to delicious meals, was community. These Christians of very different flavors, both strangers in a strange place, reached out to each other and made room in their lives for each other. They each blessed each other and were blessed in the process. That is the kind of community we envision in our recent book Community; Making Room for Relationship. Practicing hospitality is just one of the habits that Jesus practiced during his time on earth – and one that he desires us to continue developing and practicing until he returns.