Guest House Ministry
Where it started..
We started hosting overnight guests in October of 2022, and since then we have hosted over 60 guests in our house (For three nights or more)! Our guest have ranged from former, current and prospective students, to international workers and their families. Along with overnight guests, we have hosted 5 baby showers and a bridal shower!
What hosting means to us
Hosting goes far beyond just providing a space to sleep for a night. It means actively praying for the person before they come, while they are here and long after they leave. It means cooking them meals and waking up early to make them coffee every day. We are blessed to also stay up late helping others process where they are at with God and their communities.
Where we are…
We are continuing to host people in our home by providing meals, mentorship and fellowship to those that God has placed in front of us. On average we host 30 people a year (peak season is in the summer). We are continuing to look for new opportunities to host people, either for overnight stays or for gatherings to help support those in need.
How often are you hosting?
We go through seasons of hosting. There are some times where we go 4-6 weeks of hosting overnight guests or dinners every single night, although these are often followed by extended breaks to help our family recoup together. Outside of peak seasons, we are normally hosting 1-2 people a month in our guest room and hosting dinners 3-5 times a week.
Where it is going!
Our dream is to have more than just one hosting space, expanding to a mixed-use hosting space. This would give us access to serving long-term YWAM Montana | Lakeside students, long-term staff and urgent shelter options for those in our community who are in need of a safe housing option due to life circumstances.
How can I support this ministry?
If you are wanting to support this particular ministry, we would love your help! Donations towards this ministry help pay for meals and hosting costs for our guests. They also go towards larger projects like room upgrades and renovations. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. We would love to share all that we are praying for God to provide!
Living out Missional Hospitality in our Home
When we first got married and started in long-term missions together, we lived in a 250 square ft. studio apartment in Colorado Springs. Even though we didn’t have much, we always wanted to give what we had to others whenever we could. We had 4 to 6 people over every week for dinners, mentorship, community and discipleship. It was cramped in every sense of the word! To have a larger kitchen and dining space, we chose to only have a full-size bed (in hind-sight, that was a harder decision than we thought it would be!). The whole time we lived in that small studio apartment, we thought about all that we would do if we had a larger space. God blessed us when we moved to Montana with a beautiful 3 bedroom home in Lakeside, a gorgeous town in the Northwestern region of the state.
Now with a son (and a daughter on the way!) we not only have space for ourselves and our family, but room to host others as well! Since October of 2022 when we moved into our current house, we have hosted over 60 people (for three nights or more)! From former, current and prospective students, to international staff and their families, we have seen so many people come through our doors. Getting to host these people means more than just having an empty bed to sleep in. It means actively praying for the person before they come, while they are here and long after they leave. It means cooking them meals and waking up early to make them coffee. We often stay up late to help others process where they are at with God, with others and with themselves.
It is rarely easy, especially with a toddler! But we consider ourselves blessed in invite others into our family, include them in the process of parenting, cleaning, working and resting. Our prayer is that every person who comes through our doors will receive exactly what they need from God. That might be a better perspective on ministry or God, an inside view of how parents encourage their children, or maybe just a good meal cooked just for them.
God meets us in the menial, the regular, the normalcy. He reminds us that He is with us through the excitement and the trivial, He is there with us in it all. Our hope as the years go on, that we will continue to seem more people come through our doors, from the community and from the nations. And that God would guide us to help them feel seen during their time here.
