Ohio will always be home. So we packed up the car and went to work, thinking about the drive ahead of us and the miles that will fly under our car. As we were leaving Harrisonburg a little guy in the car in front of us took some kind of offense to our appearance as he gave me a dirty look, turned around in his seat and proceeded to give me not just one, but two middle fingers. He must have learned from a pro. I’m glad all of Harrisonburg doesn’t greet me with the same hasty distaste. 

We drove. Through Virginia, West Virginia, across the slow moving Ohio. We were greeted in turn by a drop of 25 degrees and the knowledge that for a moment, just a few hours in fact we would be at home. Driving through southern Ohio brought back memories and memories of memories, as we passed through my birthplace, Washington Court House, through a city where all I can recount from my toddler mind is the smell in Chillicothe, towards Dayton where my family’s old farm is a real estate development and a strip mall. As we passed by the small town turned suburb I nodded in the direction of my grandparent’s graves and kept moving toward life. 

Crossing over into Indiana we laughed and sang Queen at the top of our lungs. “Don’t stop me now, I’m having such a good time, I’m having a ball.” Happiness and love filled the car and we held hands and pretended we were 18 again. We have been doing this for 10 years, my love and I, and it never gets old. We drove through the strip malls of suburban Indianapolis and reached the home of my brother and his wife and the newest addition to the Miller clan. She slept and cried and did the things a newborn was to do. And we smiled together at the miracle that takes a view of hope to even attempt to bring a child into this world. 

To Cincinnati, the Queen City that will soon be our home. We checked in and got dressed to walk down to our annual Christmas tradition. Over the Rhine greeted us with two sets of great music that more than a couple times caused my bride and I to look at each other and blush with the knowledge that we are still in love. 

We left the show and took a left, down to the river front. We walked across a stone bridge to Kentucky. The memory of a New Year’s so many years ago came back, that same bridge that same path, the same wanderings of person years older but still finding hope and love in the same things. My lover and I felt the stiff wind that comes off the river. Welcome it seemed to say, welcome home. We walked into the Irish pub and a face I hadn’t seen in years greeted me with a hug and a smile. We drank, we talked, we laughed. 

Hope has been the theme and continues to be as the trip carries on. My plans have been changed by a snowstorm in Seattle, but all will be well in its own season. Friends will come and offer me the hope of renewed connection and the joy of memories of the past. 

Wishing all an Ohio Christmas, a biting wind to let you know that the season is here. Love, joy and peace friends. But most of all, hope.

It’s for God. I just get mixed up sometimes and I forget that it’s not for me. My brother’s wife just had a baby, little Eloine, and it’s not exciting that she’s here per say, it’s exciting that this little bundle has so many possibilities. And as we live our lives, Dustin and I, we become acutely aware that we cannot do this alone. I was talking to some friends that are on board for this next “chapter” that we are coming to, and there was some fear expressed in the unknown of wether it will work or not work. What happens if it doesn’t work? My answer (and the answer that will hopefully will become my mantra) is that whatever happens doesn’t just happen to you. It happens to all of us. If they go broke or can’t find jobs or whatever, then we all deal with it. If they don’t have clothes or food or even have martial problems, then we all deal with it. I go back to the movie About A Boy. No man is an Island and you can’t do it, you can’t live life alone. So for all of you that don’t understand this crazy community living thing, I hope this explains it better. This is the church. Becoming invested in other people. Money is out (well out as much as we can take it out). Relationships are in. God doesn’t bless me with money to buy a new shirt, God blesses me with good friends and baby nieces. You are my back up plan. I use to think that once I got married that would be all that I would need. Nope. We are still not enough. Two are better than one, but it takes a whole village to raise a child. The Amish really have that concept pretty nailed down. While I depend on health insurance that leaves me left to pay at every corner, the Amish depend on each other and there will always be enough. If there isn’t then they all go without. And I can’t finish this without saying what I always say, “it all comes back to love.” I don’t love my THINGs, my things do nothing for me, but I love my PEOPLE. – Tiffany at the Rolston House

 CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance and facilitate cultural understanding. As a community we strive to do our individual and collective parts to make the world a better place, and we believe that the surfing of couches is a means to accomplish this goal.               

The mission of CouchSurfing is noble. It moves with our historical context that we have ease of travel, money to do it, and the networking capabilities to enable movement around the world. Education happens as people travel and see how others live. And although I believe the concept of tolerance is to be challenged for theological reasons (see Paul Griffiths Proselytizing for Tolerance in First Things), I think that to be interested in and have a concern for ideas, opinions, and practices that are foreign to my own is generally a good thing. So does CouchSurfing really facilitate cultural understanding? In one word (and one experience to base that on): yes. 

If our identity originates in God’s identity, then we are also designed to seek connection with others, even those who are “strange” to us… Because we serve a God who welcomes true “strangers” in humanity, we are called – and are able – to welcome our own strangers as well.

Kenney continues that hospitality is one of the disciplines of the Christian life, right along with other disciplines such as fasting, prayer, and study.