Nathan (na-than): n. the head of the Flack household; highly personable, has an uncanny ability to converse with strangers, makes friends easily; master-griller, card-shark
Joanna (jo-an-na): n. the second in command; holds her own in the kitchen (thanks to her mama), tries to keep a clean house (also thanks to her mama), loves entertaining guests (and you guessed it! thanks to her mama)
Shortly after Nathan and I got married, we realized that we liked to have people over. Our second realization was that our apartment was just shy of 600 sq. ft. : ) As you can imagine, the size of our first home made having large groups of people over slightly difficult! We made it work on occasion, but most of the time we settled for entertaining just a few people at a time. We have sweet memories of hosting dinner with friends and game nights at the Flacks in Cedarville, OH.
During our transition into the Air Force and down to Biloxi, we decided to take this whole hospitality thing a bit more seriously. Numerous times throughout the New Testament, believers are encouraged to practice hospitality. We lucked out! Nathan and I truly enjoy practicing hospitality, have entered a career where there are always newcomers, guests, and people in need of a warm welcome, and serve a God who delights in us doing so! So, instead of having some people over whenever we felt a bit lonely or just needed more people to play a game with, we decided to be more intentional about hospitality. We began praying that God would open doors in Biloxi for us to open our home, serve tasty meals, build relationships with other military families, and share the gospel.
Well, wouldn't you know! We serve a God who answers prayer. : ) He has graciously provided us with a beautiful home that is large enough to host many guests at one time! And since arriving in Biloxi two weeks ago, God has allowed us to have fellow Air Force couples over for dinner on numerous occasions. A weekly Bible study will also be held in our home beginning this Sunday evening. It's becoming the norm around here to have more than just the two of us around, and we love it!
So, come on over! I'll put the kettle on.
"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."
Hebrews 13:2
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