Blogging the Campus Values: HOSPITALITY

This is the fourth in a series (see the first, second, and third) of blog posts with some guest writers. I have asked some of my co-workers from the Campus for Human Development to write some personal reflections on the seven core values that are contained in our mission statement:

“Through the power of spirituality and the practice of love, the Campus for Human Development provides hospitality with a respect that offers hope in a community of non-violence.”

In this post, Rachel Hester talks about the southern hospitality she has experienced in her life. Rachel’s piece is preceded by a reflection on hospitality by the Campus’s founding director, Charlie Strobel.

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Charles Strobel:

This is the initial grace of the Campus for Human Development—what we hope people first experience when they come to the Campus. What people need to not only survive, but to thrive, is a safe environment that contains relationships that are loving, full of learning and provide healing. If I have these kinds of interlocking relationships—that are truly gifts—then I have, at least, a good chance to take care of myself. Maybe I can go into my world and find housing and employment and contribute as a member of society.
This is where the Campus for Human Development begins, with this understanding.

Think about the word hospitality for a minute. When we have everything we need in life, then hospitality conjures up images of someone who entertains us graciously, someone who invites us for a lovely dinner and makes us feel that it would be no trouble at all to spend the night. It is a host who who’s interested in our stories, laughs at our jokes, keeps our secrets.

Hospitality is a skill that we especially pride ourselves on in the south. But the craving for hospitality, the desire for the dignity it brings to the guest, is no less among the poor. The homeless remind us that the root word for graciousness is, indeed, grace.

What we strive for at the Campus is a kind of hospitality that does not become tired. The homeless need listeners, people to hold their secrets. They need a place that is safe enough to find healing and forgiveness so that they can learn how to move on with their lives. Of course, this never happens on our schedule. As one of our oldest staff members says, “People change not in our time, but in God’s time.” We need to offer them that much time, at no cost, just like any gracious host would do.

When someone experiences hospitality and safety and a feeling of belonging, they experience sanctuary. Sanctuary is defined by the people, not the space. Everyone can become an expression of sanctuary. Ultimately, sanctuary offers one an experience of something sacred, something holy.

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Guest Blogger: Rachel Hester

Some of my favorite childhood memories are the times I would spend with my granny in Holt, Alabama. Often times her house was filled with more folks than the dinner table could hold. I can count my times at the “grown up’s table” on one hand. At night the house was so full that I slept in the baby bed until I was 8.

Being a mother of 9 and a grandmother of 23 it wasn’t often that one could steal quiet moments with her alone. I cherish those late nights watching Johnny Carson with a slice of pound cake and milk, getting ready for church and using her Aqua Net hair spray, and swinging on the porch to the cadence of her old sewing machine.

My grandmother has been gone for a little over a year.
As I step back from those moments of loss I realize how grateful I am for the gifts that they gave me. Not gifts of value such as china and jewelry but seeds that were planted and nurtured to help me become the person I am. I realize now that I am growing older that she taught me a lot more to being a southern lady than ice cream socials and hoop skirts.

• She taught me to always be kind to a stranger
• Always smile
• It is nice to wave or say hello to people who cross your paths
• Learn folks names when you can
• Take time to encourage someone going through a difficult time
• Let folks know they are welcome to drop by when they can
• Use your yes mam’s and no mam’s
• There is always room for one more at the dinner table
• Remember, no one has to know the good you do for someone else – you only have what you give away


Hospitality is receiving and entertaining stranger generously and kindly. It has to do with her heart. Granny showed hospitality to her neighbors effortlessly. Not just her geographic neighbors but to all she came in contact with. Whether making her ambrosia for someone going through a difficult time, or always having a fresh pound cake sitting on the dryer in the kitchen as if it were just waiting for the next person who brought their clothes to be altered or a neighbor stopping by to talk.

Hospitality is merely ordinary people who go the extra mile to live life with dignity, style, and class in today’s hustle and bustle world. Hospitality can be difficult and at times tiresome, or even cause others to look at us strangely. There are moments that hospitality isn’t the easiest option. But it gives us an opportunity to practice our faith and experience God in a different way.

Last season, I learned from many volunteers that Room In The Inn was an opportunity of service that they chose because they knew that it was the grace of God that kept them from the streets due to poverty or addiction. Some mentioned that they had members of their own families on the street and hoped that the work they did was equal to the work that someone else had done in order to help that loved one. Some themselves had been homeless – even coming through the Room In The Inn Program and now was their opportunity to give back.

We never know how our efforts will be used.

We will begin our 23rd season of Room In The Inn on November 1st. There will be moment throughout the season that w e will share tears, laughs, joyful news, and some despair, sometimes even questioning ourselves about why we do what we do all awhile hoping that what we do is etched upon their heart, hoping that they know that when in need of refuge, not just from the elements we will be her. A place where they can be accepted for who they are at that moment. A place where volunteers are willing to share in their joys and their sorrows. A place for them to be themselves. A place of hospitality.

Rachel is the executive director of the Campus for Human Development. She took over after Charlie Strobel’s retirement a few years ago. Rachel spends her winter evenings as a Room In The Inn Coordinator. She recently began the adventure of parenting, with the adoption of Austin. Rachel is well respected by everyone at the Campus for her relaxed yet confident style of leadership and her sense of fun.