Hospitality Ideas for Fall

I love any excuse to entertain people in my home! Maybe it's because my husband is away at work nine hours daily that I crave a little adult interraction, but all the same, I love having company. Before, my focus has always been on making sure the home is spotless and sweet-smelling, that I had an impressive dish to serve, etc... Not that those things are not important; when we invite guests into our home we do indeed want to offer them our best! But recently, I've become convicted that the focus of inviting people into our homes should be more on sharing the Gospel with them. Many places in Scripture state that the home, not the church, were centers for evangelism. As a culture, we've begun to move away from this practice, feeling as if our homes are our "personal space" not to be invaded. However, Scripture tells us otherwise (Mary and Martha ring a bell?).

I really get inspired to host visitors in my home during the fall; crisp, cool air, warm smells of apple pie and freshly baked bread from the oven...I could go on and on. I want to share with you some of my plans for extending hospitality during the next couple of months, including how I plan to keep entertaining Christ-focused.

Ladies' Tea

I am planning on hosting a Ladies' Tea this month for several of my female family members and friends. I will prepare some delicious treats (seperate post on this) as well as have a question and answer session with the ladies that I obtained from Girl Talk blog http://www.girltalk.com/ that has some wonderful questions designed to steer the conversation around to faith and the Gospel message. I will also pray for all the ladies before they leave my home, as I am trying to implement this practice with every person who enters my door!

Sharing the Gospel on Halloween

This year, my family and I have chosen to not celebrate a conventional Halloween, but instead use this time to share the Gospel message with any trick-or-treaters that may come to our door. I plan on passing out my fall trailmix (dried cranberries, candy corn, peanuts and mini-pretzels--not super-healthy, I know, but it's a once a year treat!!!) as well as a role of mini lifesavers candy with a tract sharing the Gospel message that I downloaded here:

www.lisargood.com/holidays/halloween.html It comes in English and Spanish!

Baking for New Moms

I plan is to bake some fresh bread, cinnamon rolls or cookies for new mommys that I know. I will be including a Biblicaly-based card with each of these care packages.

Blessing My Neighbors

I am ashamed to say that I have never met the elderly couple that lives next door to us, and we have been living here one year now! My plan is to prepare a wonderful home-cooked meal of baked chicken, dressing, sweet potatoes, rolls and broccoli and deliver it to the couple and, if they desire, share company with them. They are both pretty much confined to their home, so I am sure they could use an encouraging word!

Those are my plans for now. Of course, I would like to do more, as I have hundreds of ideas, but I am trying to take it easy in these last seven weeks of pregnancy! I would love to hear from you about how you do hospitatlity!