on hospitality

"Elrond’s house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all ... All of them, the ponies as well, grew refreshed and strong in a few days there. Their clothes were mended as well as their bruises, their tempers and their hopes."
JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit

What an image of hospitality! And, what a familiar image of hospitality!
We have stayed at Elrond’s house, oh, 3 or 4 or 5 times.

Since moving out of our house on June 15, we have been abundantly blessed by folks just like Elrond. We have visited family, friends, and friends of friends. We have stayed with folks in 7 states. In those two months of travel, we have only had to pay for 5 nights of hotel rooms. A couple of times, others paid for a hotel room for us. We have eaten wonderfully prepared meals, and we have been treated to many meals in tasty places. We have been entertained. We have heard stories, and we have sung. Sometimes we were just left alone. And we have rested.

We have been blessed.

And soon, our travels end, at least for this season.
Today we hop on a jet plane and journey south to San Jose, Costa Rica, where we’ll learn Spanish for the next eight months.
Suddenly, the path that has sometimes seemed so very long and winding is taking us to where we hoped to be all along. We are excited for the next stops along the way to serving at the US/Mexico border.

We have been blessed.