--- id: 20151201_missionary_in_my_home title: BLOG - There is a Missionary in My Home category: Biblical Life Counsel predicted_narrative_arc: hospitality-as-mission-love sentiment: Grateful emotions: - Affectionate - Welcoming - Worshipful keypoints: - Dean married a missionary — Vickie's gift is hosting people of every ethnicity and culture - Her schooling spanned Japan, Germany, the U.S., and Ethiopia before marrying an Indiana farm boy - Neighbors from Nigeria, Cameroon, India, Pakistan, and the U.S. feel welcome through sincere friendship - Love is the real missionary gift; Vickie demonstrates Christ's love without preaching - Romans 13:10 — love does no harm to a neighbor; love fulfills the law summary: > Dean Rush celebrates his wife Vickie as a missionary in their home — educated across cultures and gifted at hosting neighbors of every background. He argues that love is the missionary gift that connects people, citing Romans 13:10: love does no harm to a neighbor and fulfills the law. tags: - blog - human-resources - hospitality - missionary - marriage - vickie - romans-13 - love - neighbors - dean-rush sycophancy: 0 truth_score: 8 entropy: 3 sample: false consent: owner_approved agent: blog created: '2015-12-01' updated: '2026-09-09T00:00:00Z' vault_stage: 07_CODEX headwaters: BLOG prefix: BLOG enrich_status: ok enrich_blockers: [] enrich_method: manual pipeline_filename: BLOG_2015-12-01_there-is-a-missionary-in-my-home.md source_kind: blog_article proposed_topic: Wisdom lane: Wisdom voice: desk active_voice: desk voices: - desk routing_source: carbon corpus_topic: Wisdom content_status: active date: '2015-12-01' share_url: https://deanrush.net/blog/there-is-a-missionary-in-my-home source_url: https://deanrush.net/blog/there-is-a-missionary-in-my-home site_category: Human Resources archive_month: 2015-12 description: > Dean honors Vickie's cross-cultural hospitality as missionary love at home, welcoming neighbors of many nations and fulfilling the law through love (Romans 13:10). --- # There is a Missionary in My Home **Author:** Dean Rush **Original post:** [deanrush.net/blog/there-is-a-missionary-in-my-home](https://deanrush.net/blog/there-is-a-missionary-in-my-home) **Archive month:** December 2015 · **Site category:** Human Resources > Voice note: Everything under **Dean's article** is Dean's original prose (lightly cleaned of HTML/image artifacts only). Sections marked **Biblical foundations**, **Scholar sidebar**, **Takeaways**, and **First-time learner** are enrichment for Asker / first readers — not Dean speaking. --- ## Biblical foundations (preface) Dean names his wife Vickie's hospitality as missionary work — love that welcomes every culture and demonstrates Christ without a sermon — and closes with Romans 13:10. The enrichment below shows the wider biblical frame for hospitality and neighbor-love. | Dean's claim | Scriptural undercarriage | | --- | --- | | Hosting strangers and other cultures is mission | Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers (Hebrews 13:2); practice hospitality (Romans 12:13) | | Guests who worship differently are still to be loved | Love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39); do good to all (Galatians 6:10) | | Love connects across language, dress, and complexion | In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek (Galatians 3:28); God shows no partiality (Acts 10:34–35) | | Love fulfills the law toward the neighbor | Romans 13:8–10; the royal law of love (James 2:8) | --- ## Dean's article ### I Married a Missionary ![Vickie as hostess from Dean's original post](https://deanrush.net/Portals/0/images/article/2_Vickie+Hostess.jpg) I married a missionary. My wife has a gift of hosting people from every ethnicity and culture. Vickie was well educated in learning other cultures from her younger years. She attended grade school in Japan, Junior High in Germany and the United States. Vickie topped off her education by graduating from high school and beginning college in Ethiopia. Somehow, she ended up marrying this farm boy who only dreamt of traveling out of Indiana. I had no idea that her ability to know others would so positively affect my life and lives of others. > **Scholar sidebar — Missionary at the table** > Biblical mission is not only overseas pulpits; it includes open doors. Abraham hosts strangers who turn out to be the Lord's messengers (Genesis 18); Hebrews 13:2 urges the same hospitality. Dean's "I married a missionary" reframes marriage gifts as kingdom tools — Vickie's cross-cultural ease becomes gospel infrastructure for everyone who walks in. ### Missionary Traits are Her Gift to Others Over the last 48 years of marriage, I have learned that her experience in knowing other cultures has payed dividends in so many ways. She is at ease with people speaking other languages, dressed differently, and those with a different complexions.The dividend comes into focus when people walk into our home and we realize they are exactly like us. They love their families and they worship a God but not always our God. The guests who worship their own deity, are also welcome and equally loved. Vickie's missionary traits engage and she is able to share the love of Christ through her example and that makes the difference for everyone who walks in the door. Love provides the connection to all people, all languages, and all cultures. > **Scholar sidebar — Welcome without partiality** > Acts 10 shows Peter learning that God shows no partiality; Galatians 3:28 announces unity in Christ across ethnic lines. Dean's note that guests may "worship a God but not always our God" yet remain "welcome and equally loved" matches the biblical order of neighbor-love that creates space for witness (1 Peter 3:15) without contempt. Example precedes argument — Vickie "shares the love of Christ through her example." ### The Missionary in Our Home On our block we have neighbors from Nigeria, Cameroon, India, Pakistan, even the United States. All those folks feel welcome in our home when they understand they are surrounded by sincere friendship. I have been witness to the fact that love is the real missionary gift to others. I am thankful for Vickie being my wife, but also thankful to have been witness to so many cultures in our home. All those visitors have one thing in common, they are loved and accepted. Yes, I am blessed with a missionary wife. She doesn't preach. She just demonstrates the love Christ. *"Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law"* Romans 13:10 > **Scholar sidebar — Romans 13:10 as the post's seal** > Romans 13:8–10 teaches that love owes no one anything except to love, and that the commandments are summed up in loving the neighbor — "love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Dean's closing line — she doesn't preach; she demonstrates — is Romans 13 lived in a living room. James 2:8 calls this the royal law; 1 Corinthians 13 insists that without love even gifted speech is noise. --- ## Takeaways 1. **Missionary at home.** Dean honors Vickie's hospitality as real mission, not a lesser substitute for overseas work. 2. **Cross-cultural formation.** Japan, Germany, the U.S., and Ethiopia shaped a gift that blesses Indiana and Texas neighbors alike. 3. **Sameness under difference.** Guests of many languages and faiths are "exactly like us" in loving family — and still need Christ's love shown. 4. **Love is the gift.** Friendship and acceptance, not a sermon first, open the door. 5. **Romans 13:10.** Neighbor-love that does no harm fulfills the law — Vickie's demonstrated Christ-love is Dean's living illustration. --- ## First-time learner ### What is Dean saying in one sentence? The missionary in his home is a wife who welcomes every culture with Christ's love — and that love fulfills God's law toward the neighbor. ### Why does he quote Romans 13:10? Because the whole post is about doing good to neighbors across cultures; Paul says that kind of love is not optional sentiment — it is the fulfillment of the law. ### Key verses to read with this post - **Romans 13:8–10** — Love fulfills the law; love does no harm to a neighbor. - **Hebrews 13:2** — Show hospitality to strangers. - **Romans 12:13** — Practice hospitality. - **Galatians 3:28** — One in Christ across ethnic lines. - **Acts 10:34–35** — God shows no partiality. - **1 Peter 3:15** — Ready to give a reason for hope, with gentleness. ### A simple practice (Dean's challenge made concrete) This month: (1) invite or warmly greet one neighbor whose background differs from yours, (2) listen more than you speak, (3) pray Romans 13:10 before they arrive and ask how demonstrating Christ's love (not a lecture) can be your first move. ### How this feeds Ask Dean This post is seed material for questions such as: *How do I practice hospitality across cultures? What does missionary love look like at home? How does Romans 13:10 apply to neighbors of other faiths?* Answers should keep Dean's voice primary and use the scholar notes only as supporting biblical scaffolding.