IWT Experience

A couple of years ago I would never have had the wonderful experience that I had these last few days.  My spiritual gift has never been hospitality and I have had a lot of insecurities about my house not being clean enough or nice enough or not being a good enough cook to invite people over.  But when I heard from a friend that the Impact World Tour was coming to Jamestown and they needed host families to house all  of the atheletes, I knew this was something I wanted to do (which is very unusual for me).  Initially, I was told they would be here for 10 days so this was going to be quite a commitment.  There were three different groups coming, Island Breeze (a Polynesian dancing group) GX ( a skateboarding and break dancing group) and Extreme Team ( guys that do feats of strength).  All in all there was going to be about 100 atheletes to house.
I was told I would be hosting a family with 4 children.  They ended up not coming until Wednesday night so they were only here for 4 nights and I wish they could have been here longer because they were such a blessing to me.  It's hard to explain how they impacted me but in those few short days I felt like they were part of my family.  They live in Brazil when they are not traveling and the father, Bram is from Holland,the mother, Sheldrey is from Brazil.  The children, Jemima (6), Jedidja (5), Ezechiel (3), and Eliezer (18 mo.) were adorable and so well behaved.  Even though the only breakfast they really seemed to enjoy was pancakes.  And the children only spoke Portaguese so I couldn't understand anything they said but they enjoyed the slingshot and watching the squirrels.
What impressed me most was their total dependence on the Lord for everything and the stories of how the Lord provided transportation, cellphones, money for airfare...the list could go on and on.  And never a complaint from any of them.  They seemed so happy and grateful for everything.
I had the offering appeal for Sabbath and it was about giving 100% of ourselves to the Lord and I know I have never done that but I felt that they where a great example of someone who has given themselves 100% to the Lord.  And because of sharing their story in church a couple came up to me after church and told me she was from Brazil and would like to meet them so we ended up inviting them to supper so they could meet the Buitenhuis family.  There was much fun conversation even though I couldn't understand most of it.

It was a wonderful experience I will never forget and hope that maybe in the future I will open my home up again to someone and receive more blessings.