As mentioned in my previous post, I hosted a pair of couchsurfers this past weekend. They left a couple of hours ago and I'm now going to take the time to reflect on their stay here. First off, I had a blast! I loved showing them around Sarasota, we went to Siesta Key Beach (only for a little though since it was so darn cold), we went to Marina Jack's. We also went to St. Armand's Circle last night and enjoyed that too. It was cool seeing those places with new eyes again. Also, I really enjoyed cooking for them. The only bad part was that I'm so used to not buying hardly any groceries that I actually had to dip into my food budget quite a bit to feed all three of us. Now I know how my friends must feel when they feed me, lol. It's such a joy to share a meal with people. Call me desperate or whatever, but I often eat alone at dinner so having people to cook for was a great way to shake things up for me. A lot of people complain about having to cook dinner every night but I guess it's just the novelty of it that attracts me to it still at this point. If I had to do it every night I'm sure it would get old but for right now I can't get enough of it, especially when I'm cooking for others.
They also went to my church today so that was pretty cool. Today was my day for working with the elementary kids so I wasn't able to sit with them but they said they enjoyed the service and both of them commented on how young our pastor is. Back where they're from apparently that's an exception to the rule, most pastors are older like in their 60's or even older than that. We had some really interesting talks about Christianity and its role in philosophy as the guy who stayed here was studying philosophy in university. He said he has got one more year to get his master's but wanted to take some time off in between, which I can certainly appreciate. When they first got here, I shared how a gap year isn't really a popular thing here in the US and when I first heard about it I felt like I had gotten ripped off so I ended up taking one after several years in a career. Anyways, we talked about Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Akempis (sp?) and Soren Kierkegaard and their various contributions to the field of philosophy. He's taking his degree at a Catholic university so they look at philosophy through a Catholic lens. He also said they study a lot of different people's interpretations of the Bible but don't actually study the Bible itself, which I found to be sad.
Couchsurfing is a great opportunity to display Christian hospitality. This is an area where I feel the Church has often fallen short in the US at least. That's why when we go to different countries we are often humbled by their generous hospitality. They want to make sure you're at ease and feel welcome in their abode, whether that be a hut or whatever. I'm finding that I love making people feel welcome in my house and taking care of others. There are so many passages in the Bible that deal with hospitality if you think about it. In particular love your neighbor as yourself sticks out to me. What better way to show people God's love for them than to open your house to them? Obviously, I don't shove my religion down people's throats but it's such a central part of my life that it's bound to come up in conversation I'm finding. Whether it's with coworkers or random couchsurfers, I can't help but talk about my faith and relationship with Christ if we talk for long enough.
Well, to all of you who thought I was going to get killed this weekend, I'm still alive and kicking. And I simply cannot recommend couchsurfing enough. Go to couchsurfing.org and set up a profile page; you won't be disappointed :)
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