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Be hospitable!Thoughts on opening your home to aliens'When an alien lives with you in your land, do not ill-treat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God' (Leviticus 19.33-34). Many of us love to invite friends into our home. They come for a meal or stay for the weekend. It is such fun preparing a special meal or organising a trip. If they are Christian friends there is the added dimension of fellowship and prayer together. It is wonderful being part of the body of Christ! Hospitality. So we're quite good at that really! Or are we? What did Jesus say about hospitality? It is clear from Matthew 25.31-46 that our hospitality should include strangers (or foreigners) in our towns and cities. Indeed, if we fail to do this Jesus tells us that we might as well have refused him hospitality. The New Testament word we translate as hospitality literally means love of strangers. How many strangers have we loved recently? Christmas dinnerAn estimated one million international students have arrived on our shores this year. Many of these students are, of course, not yet Christians. Some come from countries closed to missionaries. Furthermore, the majority of postgraduate international students represents the well-educated, leadership level of society whom missionaries rarely have the chance to meet. What a remarkable opportunity God has given us to introduce these people to the Saviour! All it need take is an open home. As I flip through our visitors' book, going back many years now, the richness and variety of names speaks for itself - Paola, Bilal, Wei Zhou, Malama, Sudharshan, Rolf, Megumi, Karega, Eli, Yves or Yemi. So then, here are just a few reflections on welcoming international students into our home over the years... Christmas morning: we learn from a Ghanaian friend, who comes to our church, of a lonely student from Thailand. There's a large turkey in the oven so there's plenty for extra guests. Pichit gladly accepts the invitation, and so does his next-door neighbour in the hostel, who is also on his own. But Ganga, who is a Hindu, is a strict vegetarian. However, he looks at the spread on the table and takes in the roast potatoes, sprouts and chestnut stuffing and smiles. 'There is plenty I can eat here!' he says with delight. For many of our guests, this is their first experience of a meal in a British home. (In fact over 85% international students never enter a British home during their time studying here). Usually they cook for themselves in their hostels or eat in their college or university canteen. How then is our Pakistani guest to know that the spoon laid at his place is for the dessert? After all, since I've prepared a casserole dish with rice, it's a much more sensible implement to use than a knife and fork! Of course we make mistakes - like the time we invited an Arab student for a meal, booking him up one month in advance (our diary was full). We didn't bother to remind him a few days beforehand and realised our mistake when he never came. He wasn't being rude - he may have forgotten, or something else turned up at the last minute. In his culture, planning ahead for a social event is an alien concept! Useful itemsOver the years we have found certain items useful for helping entertain guests and making them feel at home, particularly for a first visit: * Chopsticks. One Chinese visitor who was struggling with the Christmas turkey confessed it was the first time he had used a knife and fork. He wasn't averse to a bit of help cutting things up. But his eyes lit up when we produced a pair of chopsticks and the rest of the plateful disappeared with astonishing speed! Positive effectAnd has it been worth all the effort? I can honestly say that after the first few nervous occasions it hasn't really seemed like an effort at all. We're told to 'practise hospitality' (Romans 12.13) and, like most things, thinking internationally does get easier with practice! But the answer is 'yes' when I think of how my horizons have been stretched as I have learned of other cultures and understood my own better. It is good to reflect too on the positive effect a simple Christian welcome can have in a culture renowned for its reserve. (One Albanian friend commented, 'I'd been told the English were cold, but it's like being in a freezer'). Given the leadership potential of these students, who knows what future government officials will be deciding the fate of the church in their country in ten years' time? By offering hospitality you will show the love of Christ and you will be surprised by how often students will ask about your Christian faith. It happens quite naturally. So if you have never started on this adventure of international friendship, why not try it this Christmas? And if things didn't go well the first time, don't be discouraged from trying again. We all have fiascos sometimes - and it does become easier the more you do it. After all, if heaven is international, why not start practising for it now? Catherine Weston,
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