What’s your reaction when you get an invitation to stay on couchsurfing from a strange man if you are a girl? My reaction was slightly negative because the profile picture (only did I know later that he didn’t think I was an ideal host because of my profile picture….. well, I was holding a picture of King Abdullah of Jordan and he thought I might be pro-Palestinian).
Luckily, and miraculously, I had a friend who was traveling with me. So my idea was if this host was cool with me bringing a friend, then I would know he was genuinely hosting.
And I must have read something about him writing that He’s Messianic Jew in his profile, but it didn’t draw my attention. At that time I knew too little about this sect, and I didn’t know if I wanted to know the details as I felt sects are dangerous topics.
When I met my host, my first reaction was that he was a really good looking man who picked an ugly profile picture! I looked around his house and the place he prepared for couch surfers (a bunk bed, a couple of mattresses and he was the one who slept on the sofa).
He welcomed us with nice coffee and imported cookie though it was late and he had other surfers too. Yet he gave us more attention because we were there just for the night.
Being polite, I tried to offer help in the kitchen, and I asked him why he started hosting people on Couchsurfing? He said he only knew about CS recently, but he had been hosting his friends regularly. And then he told me about hosting his friends before the Sabbath every week for barbecue, and then they would go to congregation and worship together. I was amused, and probably because of the look on my face, he asked me if I knew he was a Messianic Jew. Er, I said I read that but I don’t know what it means.
Then he explained to me it’s a community of Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah! I was really surprised, and excited! I thought all Jews are either Jews or atheist, I didn’t know some also accept Jesus as their personal saviors!
He showed me his Bible, and told me there are just too many places in the Old Testament that prophesied about Jesus and those have been fulfilled by Jesus. I wish he could have more time to show me.
And he had hillsongs in his iTunes!
And though my friend was an atheist, he was touched by the way this person hosted CS. He made sure each of us was comfortable, and he dedicated his time to his surfers.
What did I learn? I can pray for a special community in Israel who are God’s elected people and are disciples of Jesus. Like Elijah’s experience, God had prepared 7000 prophets who had not kneeled down to Baal. We are limited as human being, but God is great! And then secondly, being a Christian doesn’t mean I should run away from weird people, admittedly I didn’t want to come to this host because I thought he was gay. It’s not that I think better of myself because of my sexual orientation, I just felt too scared as a Christian and I wouldn’t know how to hang out with people who are different than me. However my host showed me how he treated every person equally, and great love and passion to each individual as if they are awesome work of God (oh because we are!) And maybe that’s what I should do– get out from my Christian bubble, as that’s what Jesus would do!
When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:16-17)
So yes, God is great, and don’t avoid people who aren’t ‘godly’!
Traveling Mega
