A Word on Hospitality

"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it." - Hebrews 12:2

Earlier this summer, Lisa and I registered on warmshowers.org. Warm Showers is an online social network that connects touring cyclists to each other and to potential hosts along their journeys. We have friends who use this to find housing as they tour, and we would like to go on bike tours someday, so we decided to start by giving hosting a whirl.

It's odd and a little scary to host strangers in one's home, but we've become familiar enough with the tour-cycling community over the last couple years to know it's not as scary as it may seem. Also, Warm Showers does have some security built in that helps with peace of mind. We decided this would be a perfect opportunity to offer hospitality to weary travelers - an expected practice for early Christians and often written into the rules of living for monastic orders.

Wednesday night, we had our first guests, Paul and Jane from New Jersey. This lovely couple is celebrating Paul's retirement by biking from Portland, OR to Washington, D.C. As you can imagine, they're almost at the end of the road. We shared dinner and conversation, and they delighted in telling their greatest and most horrifying stories from the road - all of which seemed to happen in Montana. And by 8 am Thursday morning, as quickly as they had arrived, they pedaled into the sunrise on their tandem bike.

We couldn't have asked for more pleasant inaugural guests. Surely, not all of our guests will be as pleasant, but we look forward to the opportunity to meet and host new people. We feel blessed to be able to practice our faith in this small way in our small trail town.