The word 'home' is a challenging word to define anymore. Is home Minnesota? Is home Hungary? I almost dread being asked the question "Where are you from?" or "Where's home?" anymore. There is not an easy answer. It's complicated. It reminds me that I am not home whether in Hungary or in Minnesota or elsewhere. I am not alone in this challenge of defining home. Missionaries and expats alike have a different view on "home." But how as a follower of Christ am I to view home? What does it mean to be "at home?"
I am thankful to God for my friend, Ren, a South African classmate at Covenant College, who recently shared some reflections in chapel on home and hospitality and how they relate to the gospel. Ren's comments encouraged me and pointed me back to the truth of God, his word, and my role as a Christ follower, missionary, and teacher in God's world.
I am learning that "home" is more about relationship than it is about location. I hope to illustrate further more of what I mean and have learned about hospitality and home below by giving examples of "almost homes" that God has graciously given me.
An Almost Home: Covenant College MEd Program
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| Sunset from the dorm room at Covenant College |
I have spent 2 or 3 weeks of the past few summers at Covenant College working on my Masters of Education in Integrated Curriculum & Instruction. My first year (2014), I was nervous about classes, my professors, and my classmates. Would I be successful? Would I fit in? I felt much like the anxious and uncertain college freshman.
Now three years later, I feel as if Covenant College MEd program, the classes of 2017 and 2018, and the professors (and even my coursework) is an "almost home" to me. Why? Is it be because I know how to find my classes or know how to navigate a few trails on the mountain without getting lost? No. My classmates and professors at Covenant have extended hospitality, invited me in, and created a space for me to flourish. Each year we gather on Lookout Mountain, Georgia from four continents (Africa, Asia, Europe & North America) and many states to learn and grow as professionals and followers of Christ.
Covenant College is now an "almost home" to me, yet it is not my ultimate home with God. By God's grace and goodness it is a place where I feel a sense of belonging and love. A place where I can serve and be served.
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| Post pancake breakfast at Dr. Steve Kaufmann's house |
The coursework is thoughtfully planned to encourage deep thinking and reflection on what it means to be a Christian who works in education, either as a teacher or a leader. The work is challenging and sometimes I have felt like I would not be able to complete either due to time or ability. Each year, I am pushed a little more as I wrestle with what how to view education in light of a biblical worldview. Thinking through questions such as: How does creation, fall, redemption, and consummation reflected in curriculum areas such as animals? What are normative and anti-normative classroom practices in light of learners being made in the image of God? What is knowledge and what is worth knowing?
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| Dr. Bill Davis - The Nature of Knowledge and Curriculum Integration |
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| A Biblical Account of Knowledge |
My insights and reflections are valued by my professors and classmates through in class discussion and formal assignments. Even though the standards of the program are high, my professors assure me that I can succeed. They remind me when I'm being too hard on myself.
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| Brainstorming about Integrated Curriculum |
Everyday opportunities to build relationships with both professors and fellow classmates are abundant. The small intimate class sizes, two thirty-minute break times and lunch allow us to further discuss and learn more about each other. For those like me who stay on campus in the dorms, there is even more opportunity for developing a sense of home as we live in close community. We go shopping, go on hikes on the mountain trails, play games, discuss class assignments, attended church, go on weekend adventures, and cook and eat meals together.
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| My Covenant roommates Kristen & Laura |
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| Going out for ice cream at Clumpies! Strawberry rhubarb, mmmm. |
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| See Rock City! |
What does all this have to do with the ministry God has called me to in Hungary? A lot when I stop and reflect upon my "almost home" of Covenant College MEd!
God invited me to be in relationship with him but that was only made possible through Jesus Christ leaving his home, in heaven with God the Father & God the Holy Spirit, and coming to earth. He came to invite me into a hospitality, a home, and a relationship that is far bigger and greater than any of this world. It is in this home- my relationship with God- I find my sense of belonging. I am loved perfectly and completely. I am served by God and in response I offer my obedience and service back to him in worship.
I have been given the task, as an image bearer of God, to represent God and to make him known in places and ways that he is not known. I am called to be hospitable to others and to make an "almost home" on this earth. A place, relationships, where together we can be sanctified and grow into all that God desires for us to be. And a place where I can invite others into the hospitality of God and to find their home in him alone. For me, that is joining God in the work he is doing in Hungary and Eastern Europe through being a teacher at the International Christian School of Europe.
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| Image Bearing |
What are your "almost homes?" Why? How can you be offering hospitality and creating an "almost home" for others to grow in their knowledge of Christ?
More thoughts to come on a few other "almost homes" of mine.
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| Almost Home: My Rowhouse/Townhouse |
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| Almost Home: Classroom |
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