Hospitality, Part 8

Hospitality, Part 8
-Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow

Do we remember that gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit? How about within our home?  We may think of ministry as being ‘out there’ somewhere but in our calling to hospitality it brings it to right where we live.  Many times I have needed to apologize to my family for a wrong attitude. I do not want the Holy Spirit to be grieved. I love living in the peace of God rather than the heaviness of pushing my selfish ways. Yes, it affects everyone within the home.

Gentleness is so healing and so pleasant as it fills us in our attitudes and deeds. I love being a vessel of gentleness rather than a vessel of harshness.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control... (Galatians 5:22-23 NLT).

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Char Lessin was raised on a Minnesota farm and grew to love the Lord at a young age. She and Roy met while they attended Bethany Fellowship in Bloomington, MN and early in their marriage they served together as missionaries in Mexico and Puerto Rico. She continues to serve the Lord through their home in NW Arkansas, ministering to the people that the Lord brings to her.

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#hospitality #charlessin #meetinginthemeadow #asuntothelord #mrsroylessin #fruitofthespirit

©2023 Roy and Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow. Photos by Grace Nast, Marina Bromley, used with permission. All rights reserved.

Hospitality, Part 7

Hospitality, Part 7
Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow

 

I may be willing to pack my bags and go around the world to minister, but am I as willing to fetch my husband a cup of tea?

Sometimes it’s yes and sometimes it’s no.

I remember those times when the plea for Sunday School teachers would come and feeling guilty in not responding, yet knowing that the Lord had others for that and to be at rest where He had me. A need does not mean my calling—my calling is in His voice to me!

His peace and His approval are my greatest rewards in each day.

What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? (1 Samuel 15:22 NLT).

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Char Lessin was raised on a Minnesota farm and grew to love the Lord at a young age. She and Roy met while they attended Bethany Fellowship in Bloomington, MN and early in their marriage they served together as missionaries in Mexico and Puerto Rico. She continues to serve the Lord through their home in NW Arkansas, ministering to the people that the Lord brings to her.

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#hospitality #charlessin #meetinginthemeadow #asuntothelord #mrsroylessin

©2023 Roy and Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow. Photos by Grace Nast, Marina Bromley, used with permission. All rights reserved.

Hospitality, Part 6

Hospitality, Part 6
Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow

 

This is a high call and an honor. An ‘as unto the Lord’ attitude makes it a blessing for everyone. Peace and rest come as we walk in what He has for us. If we feel unsettled and unrest within then it’s a good thing to consider if we’re in a place that is not for us. It’s a restful place to do only what we are called to, but a restless place to try to fill someone else’s place. 

Do we understand the awesome place of keeping our hearts in right attitude before people and the Lord? Anger and resentment and jealousy, to name a few, can block the beautiful ministry of the Holy Spirit in our midst. I much more desire His way than my selfish way. It’s so much better. It’s so much purer. It’s so healing.  To have His presence fill our lives and our home is so much better than an atmosphere of strife or confusion or unrest.

Do not stifle the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19 NLT).

#hospitality #meetinginthemeadow #charlessin #mrsroylessin 

©2023 Roy and Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow. Photo by Marina Bromley, used with permission. All rights reserved.

Hospitality, Part 5

Hospitality, Part 5
-Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow

Living in the middle of nowhere on the edge of the Ozarks. That’s what we thought. Come to find out it was amazing how the area drew people to visit and live. One day while stirring a pot of soup on the stove, our phone rang and it was a friend from California traveling with his wife whom we had never met. They were wondering if they could come by for a visit as they travelled to a nearby city. One thing I have learned in the ministry of hospitality is how important it is to let the Holy Spirit be the Director of who comes.

It is an atmosphere of a home that people relax in and find it easy to open their hearts. It has been a privilege to sit around the table with a piece of pie before us sharing hearts and needs. What a joyous visit it was as we had the privilege to hear her heart pour out, another opportunity of hospitality.

When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality (Romans 12:13 NLT).

Char Lessin was raised on a Minnesota farm and grew to love the Lord at a young age. She and Roy met while they attended Bethany Fellowship in Bloomington, MN and early in their marriage they served together as missionaries in Mexico and Puerto Rico. She continues to serve the Lord through their home in NW Arkansas, ministering to the people that the Lord brings to her.

#hospitality #charlessin #meetinginthemeadow #asuntothelord #mrsroylessin 

©2023 Roy and Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow. Photos by Grace Nast, Marina Bromley, used with permission. All rights reserved.

Hospitality, Part 4

Hospitality, Part 4
-Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow

 

I desired to do more hospitality in our home but I held back as I was embarrassed with our drapes. They were clean, but had water stains. Our carpet was an outdated ugly green, our dishes were old and handed down from others and did not match in color or design. One day as I sat at our kitchen table thinking about these things the Lord took me back to a meal served to us when we were first married…

    

The most unforgettable meal I have been served was in a poor village in Mexico. We sat on cement blocks for chairs on a dirt floor. We ate off of chipped dishes. The hostess made us rice, beans and eggs on tortillas in a pan set on an open fire in a hole in the kitchen wall, her stove. There was no furniture to fill the room. The experience of that visit which was so unusual was the peaceful yet powerful presence of the Lord.  The reality of her walk with the Lord radiated on the face of our hostess.  I could have been in a palace with royalty, for the experience lifted me out of the poverty into the richness of His presence. She served us with joy and graciousness like I had rarely seen. Her example taught me that happiness is not in things. The Lord filled her home, and that filled our hearts…

I realized it was not my carpet or my drapes or my dishes that would minister to people, but it would be the presence of the Lord touching hearts, just as I had experienced when sitting on cement blocks in a home of mud bricks, in a poor woman’s home in central Mexico.

Now godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Timothy 6:6 NKJV).

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Char Lessin was raised on a Minnesota farm and grew to love the Lord at a young age. She and Roy met while they attended Bethany Fellowship in Bloomington, MN and early in their marriage they served together as missionaries in Mexico and Puerto Rico. She continues to serve the Lord through their home in NW Arkansas, ministering to the people that the Lord brings to her.

#hospitality #charlessin #meetinginthemeadow #asuntothelord #mrsroylessin 

©2023 Roy and Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow. Photos by Grace Nast, Marina Bromley, used with permission. All rights reserved.

Hospitality, Part 3

Hospitality, Part 3
-Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow

 

Some close friends of ours from California had taken their vacation to come visit us in Arkansas. One afternoon while they were out canoeing on a nearby river and exploring, I thought I would surprise them and my husband with a blueberry pie! My husband loves pies and blueberries were in season. The whole time I was making that pie I was imagining how happy they would be and how expressive they would be in their enjoyment of the pie! They would think what a great baker I was and my husband would tell me in front of them what a great pie it was!  

 

Come serving time I cut my husband a piece and in handing it to him he said, “I‘m sorry but I’m just too full, I couldn’t.”

I was in shock! All my expectation burst and I felt very disappointed.  In that moment the Lord spoke very clearly to my heart and said “You baked that pie for man, not me.” Trying to please people can bring a striving and discontentment to the heart. But, what peace when we do all things to Him.

 

One day, many years later, I was expecting guests and went ahead and baked cookies for their arrival. When they came and I offered them the cookies, their response was, “We couldn’t, we just came from the Wooden Spoon Restaurant. We are way too full!” 

 

It was a test, but I think I passed, as they had been baked as unto the Lord.

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Char Lessin was raised on a Minnesota farm and grew to love the Lord at a young age. She and Roy met while they attended Bethany Fellowship in Bloomington, MN and early in their marriage they served together as missionaries in Mexico and Puerto Rico. She continues to serve the Lord through their home in NW Arkansas, ministering to the people that the Lord brings to her.

#hospitality #charlessin #meetinginthemeadow #asuntothelord #mrsroylessin 

©2023 Roy and Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow. Photos by Grace Nast, Marina Bromley, used with permission. All rights reserved.

Hospitality, Part 2

Hospitality, Part 2
-Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow

 

I began to do the laundry and the dishes with an attitude of ‘as unto the Lord’ and what joy and peace began to fill me! His presence began to fill those places in my day! When having guests for dinner I would look forward to preparation beforehand and clean up afterwards as His presence would be so real and special at the kitchen sink. In fact, as my whole day became ‘as unto the Lord’ my day was surrounded in His presence! He met me at the vacuum cleaner, at the washing machine, in the car running errands— everywhere! Tying my child’s shoelace - what a privilege! Serving my family brought such heart happiness. Nothing could or would replace it.

 

Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men (Colossians 3:23).

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus… (Ephesians 3:17).

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Char Lessin was raised on a Minnesota farm and grew to love the Lord at a young age. She and Roy met while they attended Bethany Fellowship in Bloomington, and early in their marriage they served together as missionaries in Mexico and Puerto Rico. She continues to serve the Lord through their home in NW Arkansas, ministering to the people that the Lord brings to her.

#hospitality #charlessin #meetinginthemeadow #asuntothelord #mrsroylessin 

©2023 Roy and Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow. Photos by Grace Nast, Marina Bromley, used with permission. All rights reserved.

Hospitality: Part 1

Hospitality Part 1
-Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow

 

I had finally arrived on foreign soil! I would now happily ‘serve the Lord’ as a missionary telling the people about Jesus! I would finally ‘be spiritual’! 

 

I had also arrived at my lifelong dream to one day work in an orphanage.

I found as time went along that our laundry, preparing our meals and mopping floors interfered with my vision of what I thought serving the Lord meant. Playing the piano at a Sunday evening church service only helped strengthen my vision a little bit! Sorting used burned down candles and raggedy clothing that people had donated to an orphanage barely helped the image. The ‘generosity’ of people in their giving was near embarrassing as I unloaded box after box of broken things.

 

One day while riding the bumpy roads into town on our way to the post office to fetch our mail, I was feeling disappointed and discouraged as missionary life was not the exciting life-changing experience I had envisioned.  I heard the Lord speak very clearly to my heart that day and said, “Char, I have called you to be a homemaker and serve me within your home. Your ministry is hospitality to your family and others.” Suddenly a calm and peace flooded over me that I really liked. 

 

The scripture that brought rest inwardly was, “Whatever you do, do it whole heartedly as unto the Lord, and not to men.” I would learn through the rest of my life what this verse would mean. It was no longer my minds’ image of how I should look and be, but rather what the Lord had for me! The attitude of ‘as unto the Lord’ would change me. I would learn that the ‘whatever’ would be washing a cup, doing the laundry, and vacuuming the floor or grocery shopping. It would be serving at my kitchen sink rather than a pulpit.

Whatever you do [whatever your task may be], work from the soul [that is, put in your very best effort], as [something done] for the Lord and not for men (Colossians 3:23 AMP).

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Char Lessin was raised on a Minnesota farm and grew to love the Lord at a young age. She and Roy met while they attended Bethany Fellowship in Bloomington, MN, and early in their marriage they served together as missionaries in Mexico and Puerto Rico. She continues to serve the Lord through their home in NW Arkansas, ministering to the people that the Lord brings to her.

#hospitality #charlessin #meetinginthemeadow #asuntothelord #mrsroylessin 

©2023 Roy and Char Lessin, Meeting in the Meadow. Photos by Grace Nast, Marina Bromley, used with permission. All rights reserved.