Most of us are aware that a volcano has been spewing ash all over Europe and shutting down flights in and out of the continent.
This has happened at the tail end of the Easter holiday in England leaving numbers of British travelers stuck in Florida.
This led, for us, to finding some new and wonderful friends. A stranded family from Yorkshire (Christine, Andrew, and Alex) joined us for worship on Sunday. We invited them to have Sunday dinner with us, and we had a great time comparing cultures, churches, and stories.
It would have been better had they spoken our language, but we managed to deal with that barrier.
We sympathized for them in their dilemma, but we all agreed that there could be worse places to be stranded!
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As we spoke about their experience here, they told us that when they pulled into our church parking lot, they were greeted by a very polite young man who directed them where to go and where to find things. He was their guide from the parking lot into worship.
This is such a wonderful and welcoming ministry. This young man was demonstrating a sensitivity to newness that few of us in the church understand. Coming to a new church is daunting and confusing. To have someone naturally and casually and in an unprogrammed way take interest in our experience will leave an impression upon our guests far greater than most anything else we do as a church.
I should add: this young man is only nine years old. Pretty cool. [This detail, I should note, will identify the ‘young man’ of the story to some. But for the rest I leave him anonymous. His natural and sincere care for the stranger humbles me as it should us all!]