The Importance of Hospitality

Holding a trowel with the Mayor!

I was surprised at the opportunity to rub shoulders with the influential mayor of an important village recently.  Just the previous day I was invited to travel half-way across the country to be part of the breaking-ground of a Student Hosting Center that our partner church is building in partnership with our home church.  Knowing we'd only have time to be there for about an hour or so, I wasn't sure what kind of ceremony there would be.  But the space for the main walls of the building were corded off, the mayor of the village showed up, and I had the honor of holding the trowel with the mayor to put the first clumps of mortar on a handful of bricks to mark the start of the building.  And to mark the start of this important program the church hopes to expand across the country for helping students have better access to secondary schools and positive inter-religious interactions.  The mayor was given a little time to speak at the end and reflected on why he thinks this is such an great addition the church is making to the village, even though he's not a Christian.

Why is this initiative so important?  To expand on the two basic reasons given above, there are 5 basic types of situations these hosting centers are designed to help (many students fit into several of these situations).

1) Students who live too far away from a village with a secondary school - This is the broadest category, the situation in which most children live, because only the equivalent of "county seats" have a secondary school.  Just on the reports of Christian families alone, the church is aware that many families may have to send their children to walk up to 10 km one-way to get to a school.  In villages farther than that, there are not many who will have children walk all day to spend a few hours in school.  The village where this hosting center is starting has 35 Christian students who walk over 5 km one-way.

2) Students who aren't safe in their families - The mayor of this village told a story about courageously stopping the marriage of a 15-year-old top student (most of these marriages are not stopped by the government, although illegal up to 18).  But now he has the dilemma of where to have the girl live while she finishes school, since she's likely to be stopped from going to school again in her own household.  This hosting center will be a perfect place for her to thrive.

3) Students who can't find a place to live in a village with a secondary school - Another story we heard at the breaking-ground ceremony was of a Christian student who came from a far village with money he had saved to pay for his lodging for the school-year.  But he couldn't find a house who would take his money to have him stay.  The pastor in the village already had his small house maxed out with two other students in addition to his family. Other villages have stories of Christian students being forced to practice Muslim prayers and customs in order to find lodging.

4) Students who don't have any support in the place they stay for going to school - In some large villages, students have gone together to rent a house and stay together.  But in this situation there is no adult looking after the well-being of the group or individuals.  We've heard several stories of leaders here who were studying in this situation and became Christians through the kindness of Christian fellow students who helped them or looked after them when they were sick.

5) Students who only have negative role-models for inter-religious dialog, or no real chance to hear the Good News of Jesus - In a country where radical elements are increasingly coming to recruit youth and preach a religion of intolerance, some youth have never heard about Christians in a positive light. But these hosting centers are designed to have equal space for Christian students and Muslim students. The hope being that more chances for Muslim students to have hospitality given them by Christians and to live in an environment where Christian life is modeled but not forced, the more will have the chance to work for a continued atmosphere in the country where religious differences are tolerated.

-- El Padre