They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of traveling to the UK with my friend and teammate Shae Baker. We were on our way to the AIM retreat in East Kilbride, Scotland where we would meet up with 14 of our classmates who are serving the Lord in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Zambia (the two from Zambia were a pleasant surprise). Before starting the retreat in Scotland, we decided upon making a stop in London for a day of some sight seeing and a little adventure of our own.

When deciding upon staying London, we knew from the flight details that we'd need a place to sleep for two nights. We were about to look up hotel prices when I remembered that one our classmates had to say in London for a few days before going to her field in Africa. I knew that she met some Christians there and got to hang out with them, so I thought I'd ask her if she could give us a contact so maybe we could meet some of the Christians while we are there, too, and perhaps even stay with them for the two nights. She gladly gave us a name and we went with it.

The name she gave us was one of an ex-AIMer. He was more than happy to help us out with our stay and was so excited to get to meet us. He found us a couple to stay with for the two nights and got off of work so that he could take us around London on the full day that we would be there. At first I was just excited about getting to go to London, but then I started to get really excited about meeting my fellow Christian and the people we'd be staying with. I mean, this is some of my family that I'd never met before! They've lived across an ocean from me all this time and we hadn't known each other before my trip, but they were my family, bonded by the strongest, purest blood of all-the blood of Christ. Hearing that they were excited to meet me, made me very excited to meet them.

We arrived late Tuesday night, but Pete waited for us at the airport (after much delay) and took us to Craig and Crystal's home outside of London. We were much later than anticipated, but Crystal (26) and Craig (25) waited up to meet us. She was so sweet and had saved leftovers for us to eat (which made me very happy because we were very hungry). We talked for a little bit before letting her get to bed and us to our dinner and sleep.

The next day was wonderful because Pete picked us up early and we went around London. And although seeing the sights was definitely fun, it was only half the fun. We didn't stay out all day because we had made plans to get back to the suburb before dinner to eat with Crystal and then head to Wednesday night study. While we were too late to make it to dinner BEFORE study, we made it back to the town in time for Wednesday night study at a Christian's home.

We had been told by Pete that everyone was excited to meet us and when we walked in I felt automatically in place and very welcomed. I greeted the 8 new faces (Pete, Crystal, and Craig made it a 11 person small group), grabbed a spot on the couch, and soaked in the goodness of an open, searching, loving, humble, sincere, group of adults discussing the challenges they face and how Christ would have us face them. The discussion was great, the leader did very well, and it was obvious that when we had already gone past time, they all wanted to keep going talking about scripture and Christ living in us. It was awesome! By the end of the discussion, I was fighting back tears because being in a group of English speaking, hungry for God's word people had been an experience I haven't had in half a year. It felt soooo good.

When we concluded the study, there was no pause between that and just talking about plans for the week, asking questions about us, us asking questions about them, the host offering beverages and bringing out the snacks, and just easy-flowing, laid-back, talk amongst ourselves. We had two other households offer to have us stay with them When we come back again to visit...they kept stressing how they wanted us back and it was a shame we had to leave so soon.

After leaving from the study we headed back to Crystal and Craig's place for dinner. Five of us gathered in their little kitchen and had some more good conversation and fellowship. I just kept feeling so blessed to have that family there who would just open up their home to us, feed us, and have this bond with us. A few hours later we had to call it a night and the next morning Shae and I left for Scotland.

I had told Craig and Crystal that last night that we were really grateful for their hospitality and blessed by the small group. I told them that if it had been a non-Christian in my place, he or she would have been shown a good example of what Christians are because of the love they showed, the unity of the group, and the sincerity of interest in God's word.

I love meeting family across the world! This world is big, but the family stretches far and wide.