Debra in her happy place

Hospitality & Beauty.  The smile on Debra’s face is priceless.  This photograph reminds me of a photo of Debra as a four-year old. The photograph captures a little girl ecstatic with intense joy—her wide smile, her focused eyes, her clinched fists, convey a feeling that this girl is about to explode with happiness. The picture above captures that same visage of absolute joy.  I’m thankful Kevin Lloyd captured this shot of Debra putting the final touches on our Friendsgiving Feast.  She is truly in her happy place.  Nothing makes my wife happier than when she is able to bless our guests with comfortable hospitality and the beauty of everyday life.  We worship a God of Hospitality & Beauty and any opportunity to share a glimpse of what we imagine eternal life with Him and each other will be like is an opportunity we have to take.  Debra wants to share it so much she’s about to explode.

Our first Friendsgiving

I am grateful for our first Friendsgiving at Lazarus House.  A dream come true.  This is one of the reasons we purchased this property.  We wanted a place big enough for feasting….but small enough to fit into our budget. Lazarus house is only 964 square feet; therefore, with such a small house we had to edit down to only that which is absolutely essential. We created one big room to cook, feast and live in. I’m happy to report it performed very well — design goal achieved! We had twenty plus folks inside and outside.  It was potluck style and there was no shortage of wonderful food and fix’ns.  This is the second Friendsgiving we have helped host, but the first one at our house.  It felt so good to have a place to welcome not just our friends, but our neighbors as well.  Many of our neighbors didn’t come. Perhaps in this age of virtual meetings, social media and texting instead of talking an embodied meeting with your neighbors is a little too personal. Hopefully in time they will feel comfortable to join us.  Having people in our homes is a wonderful way to get past our social barriers and political divides.  In time my hope is that our little cluster of households in Central East Austin will learn to feast together and celebrate the simple fact that we are neighbors.

A Big Table

I am grateful for big tables.  We inaugurated our Navasota redevelopment project with a gathering of friends from our small group back in 2021 during a break in the COVID pandemic.  It was a wonderful evening. Yesterday I was excited to hear about Big Table.  It’s a ministry to the workers in the hospitality and service industry.  They have a long portable table that seats 48 people.  Big Table provides a seven course chef dinner to the servers who normally serve others. People are referred to Big Table and gifted with the incredible experience — no strings attached — just one incredible meal.  Jesus said it is more blessed to give than receive, and a big table blesses us with an opportunity to give, the opportunity to receive, and when the food and wine is flowing it’s hard to separate who’s giving and who’s receiving.  That’s how it should be. That is our faith.  Someday we will be feasting forever at the wedding feast of the Lamb sitting at one incredibly big table!