My friend Tom

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My friend Tom.

I first met Tom in January 1979. My wife and I went to Tasmania for a holiday, along with our young daughter. On the Sunday we went to a local Church. Tom was an elder aged in his 40s, spoke to us after the service and invited us to his place for lunch. His wife was away, so it was Tom, his young daughter and us for lunch. We ate, talked and went on our way with a feeling of warm welcome.

I was struck by Tom’s hospitality to us strangers and used it a few times in stories over the years.

34 years later I went to the same church, this time to speak at something. I was sent to Tom’s house for my billet and met his wife Nola for the first time. I was again there a couple more times in the following years.

Nothing much has changed.

Tom is not as mentally sharp as he was in 1979 and sometimes forgets things. Nola is also getting on. But Tom and Nola still invite strangers home to stay or for meals. They maintain a global missions awareness and pray for missions daily. They are active church members, are found at every church event and take a keen interest in people from other lands who come to their city.  Tom and Nola have widespread global contacts and dropped in on these wherever they went on a recent and extended oversees trip.

Tom and Nola will never lack friends. Their warm Christian hospitality echos the hospitality of God. The number they have served and the blessing they have been to them is known only to heaven.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers …(Heb 13:1)

Therefore an elder … must be hospitable (1 Tim 3:2)