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Hospitality Reset
Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Albania to participate in some medical training and hiking. During my visit, I received the precious gift of Albanian hospitality. Approximately 58% of Albanians are Muslim, 17% are Christian, and 25% are other[1]. Each group works well with the other groups and beautifully offers hospitality. I felt welcomed, accepted, and cared for. Their hospitality level left me eager to offer the same to those around me in the United States. Just as the perspective from the mountains we hiked allowed me to see and appreciate the Albanian terrain, the Albanians allowed me to see hospitality in a deeper and bigger way. The…
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Did Jesus Have Women Disciples…and other questions
Were any of Jesus’s disciples women? Yes. Dorcas (Greek), also called Tabitha (Aramaic), lived in Joppa, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. We find Dorcas’s story beginning in Acts 9:36. And the author introduces her as “a disciple.” This reference to Tabitha is the only time in the NT that we find the feminine form of the Greek word, μαθήτρια. The plural masculine form of the word, “disciples,” appears many times in the NT, including in contexts where women are included in a group. So Tabitha is certainly not the only woman disciple in the NT. But in this case she is singled out. She lived with widows, ministered to widows, and clothed them with lovely…
