Notes From Day Seven: The time Elvin stayed at my house
It would have been great if Elvin's name
had ended with an "s", because the title for
this column would have been so much more
exciting. Still, he had an interesting story to
tell. He came from Singapore to London to
study business. His family had arranged for
him to stay in residence. But one week of
dealing with the noise on his floor convinced
him that rez was not for him. He called one
of the chaplains, as it turned out, me.
This is how Elvin ended up boarding with me and my family for a few weeks till he found accommodations that suited him better. I'm not sure anymore if he moved to a student apartment or to another spot in residence. What I do know is that Elvin seemed very grateful for the little help we could provide for him. Back home in Singapore, Elvin kept in touch with us. One day a wedding invitation from his family arrived in our mailbox. It would have been great to go to Elvin's wedding, but that didn't happen for me.
Having Elvin stay at our place turned out to be no trouble. I was good with it because around the years I was a student, people in different church communities made space in their houses or apartments for me. When I first moved to Michigan to begin studies in seminary, a young family took in not just me, but my wife and first child. We ended up staying there a little too long; we got on each other's nerves a bit. But eventually we found a place of our own.
A few years later I was driving through Moncton, New Brunswick, on my way to a meeting. Suddenly, I noticed that the oil pressure in the car engine had gone to just about zero. Always a bad sign! I pulled over. Once the car had been towed to a repair shop, the technicians told me what they'd have to do fix the engine. The trouble was that one of the parts they needed wouldn't arrive till the next morning. I was two hours from home and didn't really have the funds to get a hotel room.
There was a Baptist Church across the street. The pastor heard about my dilemma and within minutes contacted someone who said they had a spare room that I was welcome to use. That night, I watched an old Flintstones movie with my hosts — a lot more fun than the meeting I had been aiming for.
Hospitality is a big theme in the long history of Christianity. People who founded monasteries and convents wrote about it all the time. Those who live in them today still do. I remember watching my own parents make sandwiches for people who came knocking on our door for food, letting them eat and then making sure that they left with at least one other meal's worth of sandwiches. During the last few years I've seen local police work with churches to provide shelter for people out on the streets during winter nights.
Churches have this long history of providing a welcome because stories of hospitality are all over the Christian Bible. There's the famous Christmas story of the parents of Jesus, arriving in Bethlehem after all the travelers' shelters are filled. But someone finds them a dry safe spot in a barn. There's the story of Abraham inviting three travelers to stay in his encampment.
And there are the many stories of Jesus finding places so that the crowds who wanted to hear him would have a place to mingle and sit. And at least once he provided a meal for several thousand people. Around this time, and later on too, the disciples of Jesus traveled from village to village, discovering that people were willing to share roof and table with them.
Our world can be an inhospitable place. This morning I learned of an employee in a large IT company that has been pressuring him for years to work for decreasing wages, to work longer, and to increase his billable hours from 85 per cent to 92 per cent, and now to 95 per cent. Industrial farming, with the help of government, is driving people out of rural Canada. Increasingly Canadian young people grow up in disintegrating families or in families where time for kids is squeezed out. More and more we find ourselves in jungles of concrete, glass, steel and plastic, feeling isolated from each other.
Hospitality — how can we create more of it? I think that drawing on a Christian approach to life is not a bad place to start. A tradition of hospitality rooted in the many stories of the Bible can go a long way towards bringing a cure to the isolation that hems many of us in.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
This is how Elvin ended up boarding with me and my family for a few weeks till he found accommodations that suited him better. I'm not sure anymore if he moved to a student apartment or to another spot in residence. What I do know is that Elvin seemed very grateful for the little help we could provide for him. Back home in Singapore, Elvin kept in touch with us. One day a wedding invitation from his family arrived in our mailbox. It would have been great to go to Elvin's wedding, but that didn't happen for me.
Having Elvin stay at our place turned out to be no trouble. I was good with it because around the years I was a student, people in different church communities made space in their houses or apartments for me. When I first moved to Michigan to begin studies in seminary, a young family took in not just me, but my wife and first child. We ended up staying there a little too long; we got on each other's nerves a bit. But eventually we found a place of our own.
A few years later I was driving through Moncton, New Brunswick, on my way to a meeting. Suddenly, I noticed that the oil pressure in the car engine had gone to just about zero. Always a bad sign! I pulled over. Once the car had been towed to a repair shop, the technicians told me what they'd have to do fix the engine. The trouble was that one of the parts they needed wouldn't arrive till the next morning. I was two hours from home and didn't really have the funds to get a hotel room.
There was a Baptist Church across the street. The pastor heard about my dilemma and within minutes contacted someone who said they had a spare room that I was welcome to use. That night, I watched an old Flintstones movie with my hosts — a lot more fun than the meeting I had been aiming for.
Hospitality is a big theme in the long history of Christianity. People who founded monasteries and convents wrote about it all the time. Those who live in them today still do. I remember watching my own parents make sandwiches for people who came knocking on our door for food, letting them eat and then making sure that they left with at least one other meal's worth of sandwiches. During the last few years I've seen local police work with churches to provide shelter for people out on the streets during winter nights.
Churches have this long history of providing a welcome because stories of hospitality are all over the Christian Bible. There's the famous Christmas story of the parents of Jesus, arriving in Bethlehem after all the travelers' shelters are filled. But someone finds them a dry safe spot in a barn. There's the story of Abraham inviting three travelers to stay in his encampment.
And there are the many stories of Jesus finding places so that the crowds who wanted to hear him would have a place to mingle and sit. And at least once he provided a meal for several thousand people. Around this time, and later on too, the disciples of Jesus traveled from village to village, discovering that people were willing to share roof and table with them.
Our world can be an inhospitable place. This morning I learned of an employee in a large IT company that has been pressuring him for years to work for decreasing wages, to work longer, and to increase his billable hours from 85 per cent to 92 per cent, and now to 95 per cent. Industrial farming, with the help of government, is driving people out of rural Canada. Increasingly Canadian young people grow up in disintegrating families or in families where time for kids is squeezed out. More and more we find ourselves in jungles of concrete, glass, steel and plastic, feeling isolated from each other.
Hospitality — how can we create more of it? I think that drawing on a Christian approach to life is not a bad place to start. A tradition of hospitality rooted in the many stories of the Bible can go a long way towards bringing a cure to the isolation that hems many of us in.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
