Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers

10 days ago, my wife and I were in Cardiff to attend a concert. Before going to the concert, we went for a meal in a Turkish restaurant (called Lezzet very good by the way.) Halfway through our meal, 3 Muslim ladies in head scarves came in and sat at the table next to us. They smiled and nodded at us and we smiled and nodded at them. They were an older lady and two in their 20s (Mother and daughters as it turned out.) Presumably Turkish as they spoke to the waiter in a language that wasn't English

A bit later, the waiter brought their meal over. They'd ordered a selection of things and it looked really nice. I smiled and before I knew it the older lady was making it clear that she wanted us to taste some of the food they had ordered. Then one of the younger ones joined in and insisted we had something from the dishes. We'd finished eating, so in a very British way (polite and slightly embarrassed) declined. But the mum insisted. So, we each took a taster. Delicious. And made even more so by the generosity of these three women.

We started a conversation and it turned out that one of the daughters was studying for a doctorate at Cardiff university in engineering having got a masters previously. She said she liked Cardiff. People were friendly and didn't judge her for being a Muslim and wearing a head scarf. She'd been in a city in the Midlands previously and sadly had encountered racism there.

The young student thanked us for talking to them and smiling at them. She asked us what we did, and we explained that Anne was a nurse and I was a minister.

Unfortunately, we had to leave for our concert or otherwise we would have spent longer talking to them.

The Methodist churches in this part of Wiltshire are all following a book called “Holy Habits”. There are around 10 modules and we look at one over a two-month period. The most recent one has been about “Fellowship”.

Fellowship is a word that isn’t used very often in everyday English. Though it is often used in a church context. Collins on line dictionary defines it as:

1. A fellowship is a group of people that join together for a common purpose or interest.
...the National Schizophrenia Fellowship.
At Merlin's instigation, Arthur founds the Fellowship of the Round Table.
2. Fellowship is a feeling of friendship that people have when they are talking or doing something together and sharing their experiences.
...a sense of community and fellowship.

Although at the time I would not have described our conversation in that restaurant as “Fellowship” I think it was.

During the “Fellowship” module of Holy Habits, we looked at the importance of “table fellowship”. That is through eating together deep bonds form. One verse in the Bible illustrates the importance of this really well:

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2

I’m not claiming to be an angel! But clearly for those three women their culture, their faith, places great store on hospitality. All I know is, we left them with reluctance and felt we had been blessed by spending time with them.

It just feels so sad that there are always people who resent “foreigners” when they are a blessing to us.