Anne LeGare

It’s been almost eleven years since Marc and I embarked on our Central Texas house hunting mission. We probably looked at 20-30 houses in the three towns surrounding “The Great Place,” (Fort Hood, TX), before we found the home God intended for us all along. This home was the “WOW!” house on our list. It was also the one I had penciled “No Way!” in the margin of the flier, because it was beyond our financial reach. In fact, we shopped for two days, and went back to Northern Virginia without a contract or a house that met our needs. So Marc sent me back to Texas to try again. After much prayer, we decided to narrow our hunt to one of the three towns.

But when I returned two weeks later, there were no new homes on the market. We were seriously considering building a house to suit the needs of our seven-member family, when I passed the “WOW” house again. I asked our realtor if I could go look at it one more time … and dream. When we walked into the kitchen, we spied some brand new fliers on the counter. The price of the house had been reduced by $15,000. It was now within our reach! So after negotiations, we purchased it for even less, and we humbly thanked God for the “WOW” house.

Whenever we move into a new home, we pray over each room and ask God to inhabit everything we do in our new dwelling. This time, we acknowledged to God this was His house, and promised we would be faithful to use it for hospitality. We’ve kept that promise, and entertained 400 people in just the first year we lived here. But that was largely because Marc was a battalion commander and we were leaders in the church. We learned the true meaning of “Hospitality” in 2007.

In Hebrews 13:2, we’re commanded: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

What I never noticed before performing an in-depth study of Hebrews is that Biblical hospitality is not about entertaining those we know and love. It’s about strangers. When our family has practiced true hospitality, we’ve been blessed and humbled.

On June 23, 2007, the 1st Cavalry Division lost four young men in Iraq. They were all killed together by an IED. We had the privilege of knowing one of these heroes, Sergeant Joel House. He was one of our Sunday School students, and was a really special, quiet young man from Lee, Maine.

Joel was the type of boy I want my girls to marry. When we learned of his death, we offered our home to his family when they came to the 1^st Cav memorial service for the fallen heroes. The House family asked if they could invite the families of the other three heroes to our home for a small get-together after the memorial service. We were honored to comply.

The memorial service was probably the most emotionally draining event I’ve ever attended. I cried so much I was dehydrated. I couldn’t even imagine what Joel’s family and the other mourners were experiencing. When we got home, Marc and I got to watch the body of Christ at work.

We hired caterers to take care of the food, so cooking wasn’t a problem. Other members of our singles’ Sunday School class, and the 1^st Cav unit brought appetizers, desserts, and drinks, and had used the time we were at the memorial service to prepare the house to receive our guests. Shelby and Debbie Smith and their family helped us serve all night, and stood side-by-side with us through the clean-up. We were the visitors in our home that night. We just stood back, allowed the grieving families to hug, share stories, show pictures, and weep. Freddie Fuller, a local singing cowboy with connections to the soldiers, brought his guitar and played some songs he’d written about their sacrifice. We made lasting friendships that night with the House family and with the Riordan family, who lost their precious Daniel.

Nick and Dan Riordan

That one night, we saw why God allowed us to have this House, we experienced the true blessing of Hospitality, and we were in the rarified presence of Heroes (and perhaps some angels).