Humans of Pilgrim Dinners: Luca, Italy

"I came in Tasmania because I knew this place was so wild...to be just inside the nature and to think a lot about my future. I think that I just found all what I needed. I think about a lot of things. I found really a new world with incredible people, starting with my farmer. The first day I came [to Tasmania] was December 3rd. It was a Thursday so I came directly to Pilgrim Dinners. So I was impressed! What you are doing is amazing. In this place - this little place - the people know the worth of the small things. That is the most beautiful thing that I can tell about this place. I saw this here, with my eyes.  First I was completely not thinking about my Christian background. Week by week I keep thinking about every topic. I think that I grow a lot in this place. I am always writing in a diary so I can remember. Thanks for this -- but it is not enough, because what you did is too much for me. I didn't expect to arrive here and find something like this."

Humans of Pilgrim Dinners: Tung from Germany

"I've been working almost 4 months in Tasmania, working at a farm with blueberries, cherries, apples... I've met a lot of good people, good friends.

The scientist who came and talked - that was really nice. It was a different point of view that he gave us. That was really, really good. Even science can't explain how we are created. I want to know how this is possible - how we can be so different from monkeys with only 2% DNA difference.

Most of the people are afraid of letting the Christianity get into their lives. Ok, I'm not so different -- because it's a little bit weird."

Humans of Pilgrim Dinners: Gianluca from Italy

"I heard Tasmania was one of the few places in Australia that was still wild. I thought, I have to do farm work anyway, so I'll go somewhere nice. It seems like an island no one cares about. I don't like [farm work], but I'm happy that I'm doing it. I am a personal trainer and I've been traveling more than 3 years already. Travelling to Australia to work as a personal trainer was my dream.
[I come because] I like to learn. Learn is my mission, my life mission. If I see any occasion that gives me a chance to learn I'm going to grab it. I like to meet new people, see new faces, to get to an environment that seems peaceful and where I feel welcomed."

Humans of Pilgrim Dinners: Caroline from France

I came to Tasmania in November to do my farm job to extend my visa. Tassie is wonderful. The landscape and the people... I did a lot of hitchhiking and 80% of the people [who picked me up] were Tasmanians. I saw a man do a u-turn just to pick me up. In Hobart when I was lost, I didn't ask for anything and a lady came up and asked me if I needed help.
[About Pilgrim Dinners:] At the beginning I was worried because I thought it would be a bit religious, but it's really open. I ask myself more questions about spiritual things. I was living with a family in Geelong and they did a Bible study every week. I come from the Catholic religion but I want to ask questions and believe for myself and not because of my family.
If I can stay in Tassie I want to stay. I'm looking for a sponsor to extend my visa.

Humans of Pilgrim Dinners: Inez from England

Inez from England. Photo by Jon Jarvela.

"I wanted to travel and see the world and life's too short to hang around in my small town and stay in a pointless job. I love to travel and this was the next big country I could disappear into. I've been here 3 months, mostly in Tassie. I've been working at Lucaston Park Orchards and they've been so good to us. They are such a great family. [I attend Pilgrim Dinners] because it's a good opportunity to socialise with people. I was really interested the other week by that video of the woman who converted. I can't imagine doing that. I would have to turn my back on everything in my life. I appreciate that we can discuss things respectfully here and have those probings to think about things we often don't think about. Because what's the point of sitting around and never thinking about anything?"

Humans of Pilgrim Dinners: Alex from the Netherlands

Photo by Jon Jarvela

"Two years ago I was backpacking in Mexico and I thought, I've got to do something bigger. I found out about the opportunity in Australia and I left my house and job. I found a Facebook request of someone asking for help with a job in Tasmania, and I came over.

The untamed wilderness, that's the thing about Tasmania. The main reason [I come to Pilgrim Dinners] is to socialise with people. It's a nice way to get out of my share house. We had this morality discussion. It made me me think about where my values come from. My job is quite boring, especially because I have had the same playlist for months, so I think about things all week."

The night I took my life in my hands

Paul at the Aeropagus

It was a good night for everyone but me. The food was delicious and highly appreciated by the guests. Attendance was up. The travellers were very attentive to Peirce's talk on "New Life".

But for me it was a different kind of evening. It started so well. I was excited to snag a seat at a table with a young Frenchwoman who professed faith in Jesus last week, and a French couple who are very engaged and engaging. Also at the table were two new German guys and a lad from Yorkshire.

As soon as the talk was over the young German guys monopolised my attention, and I never got back to my amiable French friends. 

They started out by "politely" correcting me thus - it is inappropriate, they said, to refer to religious/spiritual claims as "facts". Perhaps it was a language problem, and my husband did not mean to make this embarrassing mistake of speaking of "facts".

A conversation followed in which every relativistic, naturalistic fallacy you can think of showed up in a sort of ghastly, unstoppable parade. There was barely any kind of recognisable train of thought to hold the fallacies together, and if I managed to reasonably confront one of them, they just tag-teamed on to the next one. It was like Cliff's Notes on the last 200 years of German philosophy. 

"Do you know," one of them demanded gravely, "that it has been absolutely scientifically proven that God didn't create the world like the Bible says?" Actually, that was probably my favourite part of the conversation because it gave me a good, honest laugh. Neither of them could tell me how it had been scientifically proven, though they did seem concerned that after hearing this information my faith might instantly crumble, reducing me to quivering mess.

I could give you a blow-by-blow and tell you about the couple of moments that I think I might have actually lodged a tiny doubt in their minds. But that's not the point.

At the end of the evening, while I had not been actually rude or unfriendly to them, I knew that in my heart I had not been really acting out of love for these young men. I let their arrogance and condescension irk me. I wanted to WIN the debate -- for Jesus, yes, but also because I wanted to hang their rotten worldview out to dry. 

While I was busy shadow-boxing a whole education system, I missed the thing. What was the thing? All the truly soul-destroying things they claimed to believe -- it was a smokescreen. The screen dropped for a moment and here's what was said in that moment:

"I don't want it to be that way [i.e I don’t want there to be objective truth]. I want to make my own way. I don't want God to give me a purpose. I will make my own purpose."

And that, my friends, is the reason. Not all that guff about religion being violent, and morality being a social construct, and love being made up of nothing but chemicals. I want to be in charge. I'll give up on love, meaning, and rationality -- I'll give up everything -- if only I can be in charge.

"They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator" Romans 1:25

If you find yourself in a maddening debate with someone - whether it's because you are in over your head philosophically or because your opponent won't face facts - be patient. The Holy Spirit can show you what the real thing is. Not the smokescreen reasons for rejecting God, but the real heart reasons. If you are attentive, they will eventually show up.

Francis Schaeffer, himself a very skilful debunker of rotten worldviews, said that "love is the final apologetic." And any Christian, even if he doesn't know much about German philosophy, should know a good bit about love.

Getting home that night, feeling restless and dissatisfied, I picked up a book from my bedside table and was surprised and comforted by this from C.S. Lewis:

"I have found that nothing is more dangerous to one's own faith than the work of an apologist. No doctrine of that Faith seems to me so spectral, so unreal as one that I have just successfully defended in a public debate. For a moment, you see, it has seemed to rest on oneself: as a result, when you go away from that debate, it seems no stronger than that weak pillar. That is why we apologists take our lives in our own hands and can be saved only by falling back continually from the web of our own arguments...from Christian apologetics into Christ Himself."

So my friends, I give you the story of the night I took my life in my own hands, and escaped to Christ.

Humans of Pilgrim Dinners: Nathan

We're starting a new series here, with a nod towards the hugely influential blog, Humans of New York. We'll be featuring photos and stories of people who attend our free dinners, with their permission (of course!).

First up is Nathan, from Yorkshire, England. Nathan has been sharing Thursday dinner with us since before Christmas.

Photo by Jordan de Hoog.

"I just come here to keep my mind interested. I'm thinking a lot about God, science, philosophy. I've been writing about what I've been thinking. I think I've been thinking more than ever before. I've never been happier, really. I've had a lot of support coming out here [to Australia] -- not financial support but prayer support. Which I guess I appreciate. My brother is an evangelical. When he reads something in the Bible he doesn't like, he has to agree with it anyway. He'd be really happy that I'm coming here."

Highways, Byways, and Bus Stops

'Master,' the slave said, 'what you ordered has been done, and there's still room.'Then the master told the slave, 'Go out into the highways and lanes and make them come in, so that my house may be filled.' - Luke 14:22-23

The second week at Pilgrim Dinners was an instance of God’s sovereign grace. 

At 7 of the clock, when dinner was meant to start, we had zero guests. Seven happy team members doing last minute prep, one happy team member playing lovely live music, but zero guests. ‘It’s ok, it’s only 7,’ thought I. 

Fast-forward all of five minutes, to 7:05, and we had… zero guests. At this point, hope flagged. “Praise God we had people last week,” I thought, “maybe God gave us those folks to encourage us to endure a week with no one?” Not much of a pump up. 

Jump with me forward another five minutes, to 7:10 on the clock, and... zero guests. We had some very tasty food plated and ready, a great vibe to the room, and I’d prepped a talk on Faith which (rarely for me) I was feeling I’d really nailed in the writing, but… we had no guests. We had our posters up across the valley, we’d fliered backpackers, and sent cars to shuttle guests from the two hostels, but… no guests. None, zip, zero. 

“Ok,” thought I, “let’s sit down, and I’ll give the talk to the team. It’ll be good for us too."

And then, out of the nowhere, praise to God, 12 people appeared: 8 Japanese travellers, a couple from Korea, a guy from the Netherlands, and an Aussie youth. And the twenty of us + kids sat down and did Pilgrim Dinners, with a great discussion after. 

Now where did these folks come from? Very much God’s sovereign grace through one tenacious team member, who did not lose hope but like the slave in Luke 14 kept going out asking folks to join us, long after we were meant to start. She even braved the local bus stop and asked some hoodied youths to join us (hence our lone Aussie, who was more scared of us than we of him, considering his friends had to dare him to come, and they kept checking on him to see that he was still alive). 

It was a great night, for which we praise God and have learned a good lesson - keep asking. And so we pray and ask again for guests to come each Thursday to Pilgrim Dinners, so that one day they would fill our Father's house at the Great Banquet.

At the Gates

Enjoy the community artwork on the walls!
Did they have this in OT times?

"Fellowship is having your church friends over, and that's great, but hospitality is inviting the stranger in. ... Hospitality by definition means meeting the stranger at the gates...and bringing the stranger in."
- Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, in this interview

In the world of the Old Testament, the community gathered at the city gates. Elders and judges sat and heard cases. News and current events were shared. Strangers arrived here, looking for hospitality. (In Genesis 19 and Judges 19 you can read two stories of strangers arriving at the gates and being offered hospitality. Things don't go so well from there on, but the horrifying developments of these stories are partly why they were included - hospitality was a very solemn duty and violating it was serious.)

So where or what are the city gates in Huonville, Tasmania? I suppose you might make a case for a local pub, or perhaps the visitor information centre. But for us, it is the public library, where many travellers come to read the newspaper, check email, and glance over community notice boards.

On October 30th, we took ourselves and our hospitality to "the gates". We laid tables, heated up pots of curry and chili con carne, prayed, and waited for the strangers to come.

And they came. 

Yes, those are baby legs on my lap.

On the first night, five of them came, from Taiwan and Hong Kong. They shared a meal with us, they listened attentively to Peirce's talk on God, and they discussed it with us. 

They asked questions. They listened. We asked questions. We listened. I talked with "A" about her fear of the supernatural world and the fact that she hasn't carried on her family's traditional ancestor worship. I shared with her that as Christians we are free to both acknowledge the reality of the spiritual world, and not live in fear of it. Another guest, "M", claimed his only belief was in naturalism, but admitted during our discussion that naturalism offers no explanation for the origin of all things.

So please pray for us every Thursday, as we go to the gates, and welcome the strangers in Jesus' name.