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The Snapshot:

News:

• Our church community group hosted a few "second-degree dinners" last month and will do it again at the end of this month.

• We have reached 63% of our monthly giving goal.  We need an additional $912/month by March 31st to reach our next goal.

• We want to hear an update from you and ways we can be praying for you!

  Prayer Requests:

• Please pray for our community group, that we will continue to see our dinners and our lives as ways to love others for the sake of the Gospel.  Pray that our guests will sense that love and be open to Jesus.

• Please pray for humility and wisdom for both of us as we work to restart the compassion ministry at our church, care for the missionaries the church supports, and mentor individuals who want to grow in being "missionary-ish" in their own lives.

• Please pray that God will provide the remaining 13% of monthly support needed to reach our next goal.

  The Story:

Remember how we talked about how to make friends and not be a weirdo last month?   

It Might Be Easier Than You Think

My (Reagan’s) group consisted of three girls from my community group and one guest, a friend of one of the girls.  We sat down to a feast of chickpea, tomato, and bread soup (I know I’m a Californian now, but for real, this stuff was amazing), roasted brussel sprouts (also excellent), salad (okay, I’m just now realizing we only ate plants), fruit, and… cupcakes and brownies (we are human, after all).  We sat across the table from one another and swapped stories about work, Netflix binges, what makes us happy, and challenges in marriage.  It wasn’t programmed or scripted.  It was just getting to know each other.  I don’t know what it is about food, but it’s almost like this basic human need is the gear lube (bear with me) of conversation.  I eat, you eat, so let’s eat together.  The dinner table is where we can all find some common ground.  By the time we wrapped up, “We need to do this again!” was the unanimous vote. 

David’s group met at Sushi Bear (apparently we avoid red meat at all costs around here) and found common ground in the desire to give back to the community.  “You guys do homeless ministry?” one of the guests asked David.  “I’m not religious or anything, but I want to do that too.”  The guys thought the concept of second-degree dinners was a hit, too.  When David asked the two invitees if they knew what this dinner was, they shook their heads, so he pulled the blog up on his phone for them to read.  “This is amazing!” they exclaimed.  “It’s so hard to make friends.  More people should do this.” 

It’s not about inventing new things to do.  It’s about seeing our common, mundane practices as holy opportunities, being intentional with the things we already do.  In her book The Gospel Comes with a House Key, former atheist and Syracuse University professor Rosaria Butterfield shares about how Christians can engage their non-Christian neighbors in light of the ever-increasing gap between worldviews.  In a video series on the book, she says, 

“Christians have been struggling with, ‘How do I speak?  What do I do?  How do I move forward?  Home is a vital place to invite your neighbors in to have some heartfelt conversations…  To me, hospitality is the ground zero of the Christian faith.”   

She goes on to describe a pastor and his wife who had her over to dinner every week. 

"The way that they practiced hospitality became a living, breathing example of the theology that they were teaching.  [my first dinner at Ken and Floy’s house]…  they did not share the Gospel with me, and they did not invite me to church.  And that was so wonderful because what it showed to me was that they didn’t see me as a project.  They actually saw me as a neighbor…  That process of dialogue and table fellowship was... deeply compelling…  Hospitality, biblically speaking, means ‘love of the stranger’…  Hospitality has the stranger in mind because we were once strangers to the Lord." 

She continues in another article, 

“Get to know your neighbors well enough to know where it hurts, and then accompany them in their suffering. Show — as well as tell — that Jesus comforts the suffering.” 

We don’t know what these monthly dinners with Christians and strangers will turn into.  But our hope and prayer is to create a space for good food, a lot of listening, deep communion, and opportunities to engage in the talk of the eternal.  Please pray with us. 

(Not us.)

  How About You?

We try to take some time each day to pray for our ministry partners, and we like knowing we are praying for specific, current things in their lives.  << Test First Name >>, we would love to hear an update on your life and how we can pray for you.  Talk to us!

  Money in the Bank 

We are thankful that God is bringing more people to partner with us.  We are currently receiving 63% of our financial goal each month.  Our next goal is to reach 75% of our monthly giving by March 31st, 2019.  This means we need an additional $912/month.  Like we have said before, we would love to have as many possible be a part of what we are doing, whether they can give 1 penny or $100.  If you would like to learn more about partnering with us, you can ask us or click the button below!

How to Be Missionary-ish

We all have an opportunity to show hospitality to others.  Maybe it's opening up our homes to our neighbors.  Or it's taking a co-worker we don't know that well out to lunch.  What is a way you can "love the stranger" the way God has loved you? 

Sometimes it's hard to figure this out on our own.  If you want some help brainstorming about what this could look like in your home, workplace, or church, David and I would love to talk with you. 

Hit us up!