“We just look for people to have into our home, sit around our table. It blesses the person, it blesses the stranger, but you’re also blessed by welcoming someone in and learning from them and growing together,” Meredith Snell explained as she described how she and her husband, retired Colonel Matt Snell, established a Cadence House at Fort Drum, New York, formerly called theNorth Country HospitalityHouse.
Cadence is a Christian-based organization that reaches outto military communitiesworldwide, primarily the American military, but about thirty years ago it began serving foreign militaries as well.
The forty Cadence Houses offer group dinners, Bible studies, devotionals, and open discussion to help military personnel and their families cope with the unique stresses of military life and recovery from war.
On their website, Cadence describes its mission: “Cadence Internationalexists to be there for military people and their families in these crucial moments of life-change. We are delighted to share with them the gospel and our lives.”
That combination of family and service drove the Snells and their five children to dedicate their lives to serving the spiritual needs of soldiers.
Meredith said that as they kept knocking on doors and seeking where God wanted them, it felt as if the Lord was saying, “I have you where I want you. Stay. The Army is your mission field.”
She said they needed the Army to be a schoolhouse to learn how to walk out their faith through difficult bosses, deployments, frequent moves, long separations, and raising children in that environment.
Through those experiences, they learned to walk with the Lord through hard things and find community.
She described how her children grew up in the Cadence House, particularly her daughter, Grace. “She spent a lot of time sitting around our table listening to the stories of people from all around the world, and I think that helped give her a picture of the world and of the ways that the Lord is at work around the world.”
“That’s a smaller picture of what hospitality ministry does,” she concluded.
Source: The Gateway Pundit
