Testimonies from You

The Hospitality of Need is all about caring for one another and seeing our needs, not as barriers or burdens, but as tools to grow deeper in fellowship with one another and with God.

We would love to hear from you! If you have read the book, please take some time to consider how you have experienced the hospitality of need in your own life and community. Then share your story with us here in the comments, and see what others have said as well. If you haven’t read the book yet, we would love for you to pick up a copy and join the conversation. In the meantime, please feel free to read through the comments below. We hope you are encouraged by these testimonies.

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Thank you for being a part of the story!

From your friends,

Kevan Chandler and Tommy Shelton
Authors of The Hospitality of Need

34 responses to “Testimonies from You”

Joey

May 23, 2025

Standing in the middle of the Central Davidson football field, I was paralyzed with fear yet also having an overwhelming desire to engage those around me. As a high school senior in the spring of 1992, I had been asked to help with the Special Olympics softball toss by my high school wrestling coach. I was standing there, surrounded by young boys and girls with Down syndrome, and feeling this incredible sense that these individuals with special needs were somehow connected to my life, but I did not understand how and was too shy to know how to be part of their lives.
Fast forward 30 years and I am standing on the sidelines of that same field with exceeding joy, as the father of a 16-year-old son with Down syndrome who is trying to fit in with his typical peers as a part of his High School football team. Our family’s life revolves around meeting the needs of an individual with non-typical needs. God has given us joy in caring for and doing life with our son. A joy that somehow exists in both the amazing hugs and love as well as the cleaning up bathroom accidents that one would associate with a toddler, not a young adult. That high school senior could have never imagined how his life would turn out with the birth of his youngest son, and how much better his life would be because of it.

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Through engaging real-life stories, Kevan Chandler and Tommy Shelton share what can happen when we invite others into our lives—hardships and all. Ultimately, this is a book about friendship . . . the kind that God has called us to live in . . . friendship that goes deep and flourishes, not in spite of our needs but actually through them.

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