Preschool Picnic

Whew! Sunday was a busy day! Starting with a Church Council meeting at 8:30 a.m., and then Sunday School and worship, it was already a busy morning. (It was a saving grace that I had a friend preach in worship this Sunday). After worship, I had a second meeting with my “Simple Church” leadership group. I got home at around 1:45 p.m., grabbed a bite and quickly mowed the lawn so that our church Preschool could have their picnic at our place at 3 p.m.

It was amazing seeing over forty people (I lost count) gathered in our back yard enjoying food, conversation, playing in the swing, climbing the tree house, walking in the woods, etc. The weather was perfect–warm in the sun, cool in the shade. Most of the folks who attended were not members of the church. I recognized most of the preschool children since I do a monthly devotional with them, but it was fun getting to know their parents in a more personal way.

Recently, I’ve been preaching from Acts and highlighting the importance of hospitality and welcoming the strangers. I was struck that many of the families who were at the picnic were relatively new to Farmville. It was nice to practice, in a very small way, what I was preaching.

And it was so easy. We just opened up our place, and Tammy Dunning, our preschool director, and all the parents did the rest. They set up the tables, brought the food, the ice, the drinks. They brought chairs and blankets, ate the food and cleaned up afterwards!

And as they say, “A great time was had by all.” Great food. Great fellowship. Pictures of children having fun. A glimpse of the Kingdom?

The Hospitality of a Woman of Faith

Preached by Michael Cheuk, May 13, 2007
Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C
Acts 16:9-15

When I was a kid living in Shreveport, LA, we had a neighbor in her sixties living one street over named Sookie Johnson. When we moved into the neighborhood, she welcomed my whole family with open arms. When we first met her, she told us not to call her “Mrs. Johnson”; she told us to call her “Aunt Sookie.” And she treated us as if we were part of her family. I remember many days of my childhood spending time at her house with my sister eating freshly baked cookies, playing on her piano, and just visiting. In the summer, we would “help” her pick tomatoes from her garden, and she told us to “help” ourselves to those delicious vine-ripened tomatoes. Aunt Sookie would drive me to my doctor’s appointments and choir rehearsals when my parents couldn’t take me. When I was older, and about to enter seminary, Aunt Sookie offered me commentaries and Bible reference books from her library—the ones that she used to consult when she taught Sunday School at Highland Baptist Church for so many years. Aunt Sookie taught me so much about the Christian faith—not through lectures or Bible studies—but through the way she welcomed strangers into her life with the love of Christ. She not only did that with my family and my uncles’ family—the only two Asian families in that whole neighborhood—; she also welcomed many neighborhood kids of all races into her home, and she cared and nurtured many people. Even though Aunt Sookie did not have children of her own, in a very real way, she became a “mother” to my whole family.

Have you ever had anyone like that in your life? Have you ever had a person who was at first a stranger, but extended hospitality to you and welcomed you into her life and nurtured and cared for you like a second mother?