Here's what we're asking of hosts:
1. Open your home to a group of students (6-8) on
November 27th or 28th.
2. Provide a traditional Thanksgiving Meal for them
3. Give a brief explanation of Thanksgiving and its Christian Roots / Meaning.
4. Follow up with those with whom deeper relationship seems
possible.
5. Prayerfully consider additional gatherings in your home again for
Christmas and or Easter where we will share the Christmas Story and the
Resurrection miracle.
To sign up for this, email Joey Shaw as soon as possible.
If you are looking for a way to live missionally, consider opening your home to host an International exchange student. These are high school students that come for a semester or a full school year to learn about the our culture and improve their English skills. What if they went home with the gospel as well?
For more information please contact deanna valdes at teamv3austin@gmail.com. Read Deanna's journey toward this great opportunity below!
There is an amazing opportunity we've been given in the ownership of our homes. It's easy to take for granted that everyone I know has a home and confess that sometimes I feel entitled to have one. But several years ago, I learned an important lesson about letting go and giving up ownership. My husband left me to parent two young children. All of a sudden, all the "man jobs" were mine and this house was just too much to handle on my own. During that season of life, a friend gave me the challenge of living out this verse: "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." (1 Cor 10:31) I struggled with how I could glorify God in the mundane tasks of housekeeping and motherhood. How in the world could God be glorified as I cleaned the toilets of two toddler boys with bad aim?
I never did figured it out, until I loosened my grip on what I thought was mine and let go of the home I was so afraid to lose. This is not my home. It is a tremendous blessing that God has given it to us to live in, but it is not mine any more than these precious boys are mine.
I've served in Africa and the DR. I've been to places like Belize and Mexico. I knew in my mind that I was blessed. But I didn't actually experience blessing until I gave up ownership. Once my tight little fists and heart were open, God showed me how He was glorified by using this house for so many things. I can't tell you how many people have sat in the living room, that I vacuumed for the glory of God, so that we could study the Word, pray for each other, live in community and sit under amazing teaching. God moved in my cheerio-free living room and lives were changed!
As long as this is HIS house, then He will be glorified.
We all have the same opportunity. To honor God and glorify Him with all He's give us. We can use our homes as places to retreat from the world or we can use our homes as places to welcome the world.
Right now God is bringing and unprecedented amount of people from the nations right to our doorsteps! What an incredible opportunity to send the gospel to every tongue, tribe and nation.
In Acts, Paul shows us that God is Sovereign over even our address.
"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." Acts 17:24-27