Book opens door to hospitality
KINGSTON, ON - "“Sometimes," says Debra Fieguth, “I feel like our living room has become a holy place."
The feeling is most likely to hit on a Friday evening, when the Kingston-based journalist and her husband Ian open their doors to international students for a meal, Bible study and a night of warm friendship, laughter and sharing.
Fieguth believes in hospitality and “hospitality, if I can bring it down to kernel, isn't about your family or friends, it's about welcoming the stranger."
Fieguth unpacks the biblical basis - "and there's plenty - "for hospitality in her newly released book, The Door is Open: Glimpses of Hospitality in the Kingdom Of God.
“When I say hospitality, people often think of dinner parties and having people for lunch and so forth. It's about that, but it's about a way bigger definition than that," Fieguth explains. “It's about welcoming people into your lives and not just your homes, ultimately inviting them into the Kingdom. It can happen at home, at church, in the community."
Fieguth provides plenty of inspiring examples of different kinds of hospitality in her book, from a church that stands by pregnant teens through the first two years of their babies' lives, to a congregation that serves bagels after every service, to examples of the “easy hospitality" modelled by her own parents as they opened their home, sometimes for long stretches, to people in need.
“In all of these cases," explains Fieguth, “people get a glimpse of the Kingdom of God. It's not just physical care, it's spiritual care. I'm not a theologian or scholar of any kind; I'm a story-teller, a journalist. I'm hoping the stories of other people will inspire readers to do what they can."
Sometimes on a Friday night, Fieguth may feel a little too tired to host a group of university students. But she does it anyway.
“I think I have to clean my house and cook, and there's all these dishes and stuff... but I'm always blessed, enriched and enlivened. The privilege of sharing food, and sharing the gospel story, is just so tremendous."
And, says Fieguth, when you see the transformation begin to take place in a student, “it's amazing and precious. Hospitality isn't the whole thing, but hospitality opens the door for that to happen."
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