The Hospitality Project

 A few weeks ago, the youth pastor from our church called to ask if I’d be willing to help out with a little hospitality project. I looked over my schedule and knew the smart answer would be to say no – but I also really needed something to do that would be creative and encouraging to me, so I said yes.

            Remember earlier this year when I told you the story of my friend Abagail, who made a cake the same weekend I made a cake…but our cake experiences were not at all the same cake experiences? Abagail is so gifted in hospitality. SO gifted. Last fall, for example, she catered the meal for David Phelps and is band when they came to Kokomo for a concert. I borrowed these pictures from her Instagram to show you how amazing she is.

            And here’s a picture from David’s Instagram page. SO COOL!

            Anyway. Abagail takes hospitality to the next level. And I would love to have the time to put that same level of intentionality into a project, but right now, that is not my season of life. I knew I had to be okay with using purchased foods and gift cards. I had to do my very best to take something that wasn’t homemade and labored-over and still present it with love and joy.

            I worked on it for several weeks, crafting a plan, creating signs, and shopping for food and cards. Ryan helped, doing some of my shopping for me. I appreciate him pitching in for a project that wasn’t his!

            The project was for a youth conference that took place in our county this past weekend. They needed meals and snacks for the speaker and band. They were all going to stay together in an Airbnb, and after perusing the conference schedule, I saw that their free time was likely to be tight. I also know from my own speaking experiences that sometimes when you have a little down time, you don’t want to have to go out to eat. You want the option to get the food to go and enjoy it in the privacy of "home" while you rest up for the next part of the event. On the other hand, I know I’m kind of a rare breed, so maybe some of them would want to go sit in a restaurant for a while. So with those questions in mind, as well as the reality that we don’t have a large number of eating options in town, I did my best!

            I made a welcome sign and grabbed a brochure that talked a bit about town. If they wanted to go exploring, they would have some ideas of where to go!

            There were three meals I was in charge of, so I got gift cards to Pizza King, Subway, and a coffee shop – so they would have something to keep them nourished. I made signs for each restaurant that included the address, operating hours, and a copy of the menu.

            I purchased snacks that ranged from sweet to salty and junk food to healthy. I packed two baskets full of options and grabbed a pack of water bottles, too. (I verified with the Airbnb owner that coffee was provided, so I didn’t get that.)

            And then, since a couple of them were staying until Sunday and most restaurants here are closed on Sunday, I made sure there were extra muffins for that breakfast.

            I wrote encouragement notes to each one and printed/laminated some Scripture cards to add to their envelopes to keep them going for the weekend. I prayed over the words and verses and trusted God to match up the right ones for each person.

            I dropped it all off at the Airbnb (which, by the way, is ADORABLE) on Friday morning, just ahead of their arrival, and stopped back by after church on Sunday to pick up my baskets.

            It was a fun project that I enjoyed. No, I didn’t get to make anything from scratch this time, and it wasn’t quite a dry run at having my own BNB, but it sure was an enjoyable experience. It was also a great reminder that we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be as social-media-perfect as we see in our scrolling, and that simply isn’t required. It was a good lesson for me in doing what I could with the time and resources I had and being grateful for the experience!