Hamlet, North Carolina

I want to start this post by giving the credit for the picture to my friend Alice Hendon. Even though she posted these pictures and gave her permission for anyone to use them, my daughter who is an aspiring photographer, informed me that professionals do not appreciate people just "right clicking" on their work. I guess I can't understand this because no one would want to "right click" on any of MY pictures! Alice takes beautiful pictures, though, and she also has an awesome blog that I think you should check out. www.theshadowofthecross.blogspot.com

Now, on to the point of my post.

Hamlet, North Carolina

This is my hometown. This is where I come from...wait, this is starting to sound like a country song. Okay, let's start over...

I spent the first 22 years of my life in Hamlet, North Carolina. It is a small town. According to a google search I did, the estimated "zip code" population is just over 11,000. I think that is the highest number I have EVER heard in relation to the population. My guess would be more like 6,000. But, what do I know? Either way, it is a small town in Southeastern North Carolina - the Sandhills they call the area.

Hamlet, just the name implies a quaint little town, with a cute Main Street area. Maybe a soda shop and a drug store? (see Alice's blog) Growing up in Hamlet, I sometimes felt trapped and locked in. We had to drive over an hour to get to the mall and our movie theater (which was in the next town) had a choice of two movies. I didn't realize that this was strange until I moved away to go to college. When I left for college I wanted to spread my wings - oh to live in a place with a mall, maybe two malls, plenty of choices for restaurants, and a movie theater with 25 choices! I spread my wings alright and made a lot of bad decisions. I moved back to Hamlet, finished school at a university within driving distance, and then I met my husband.

When I was 22, we moved to Florida. Now, I live in a "small" city of a couple hundred thousand. Within walking distance I have three malls, including a Saks Fifth Avenue. I have world renowned fine dining, and *gasp* our movie theaters have 50 choices for movies - we even have a movie theater that serves fine wine and dinner while you watch your movie from a padded armchair!

But, you know what? A week ago, I helped plan a training event for the Institute for Cultural Communicators at First Baptist Church in Hamlet, North Carolina. My home church. There were over 200 people there from all over the country, many of them my friends from Florida. When it was finalized that this conference would be in Hamlet, I volunteered to be in charge of host housing. I began making phone calls to people I have not seen or spoken to in 15 years, some longer than that. What I found was that the people in Hamlet are just plain nice. Their hospitality is rooted deep in who they are. They eagerly agreed to open their homes to my friends. Strangers to themselves. People that they didn't know to support an organization that they had never heard of.

Were people in Hamlet always this nice? I suppose they were. However, I was a selfish teenager who could not see past my own desire to spread my wings and fly away. An immature child who could only find the worst in people, rather than look a little deeper and see the true character.

Now, I am a woman. Grown up, with four children of my own. If having your own teenagers doesn't humble you, nothing will. Now, I live in an area of the country that, though beautiful, is certainly not known for its people being "nice." In fact, most of the people where I live are not nice at all and I am sorry that my kids will not be able to say that they were raised in an area where "nice" people live. Yes, we have some great, godly friends who we love dearly and who are kind and loving. I have friends that I look up to, and mentors who I deeply admire and I am thankful to God everyday for bringing us here, changing my heart, and giving me such great friends. However, in general, the people here are not "nice."

Working so closely with the people of Hamlet though, I saw the entire area in a different light than I had ever seen as a child. I saw my kids ride off on their bicycles and I felt good about it. I saw my high school friends who heard I was in town, drop by my parents house to give me a hug and ask how my family is doing. I saw the people of my home church open wide their doors and give our organization free reign of the entire facility and then not complain at all when they had to call in the "handy man" crew to unstop toilets, unclog sinks, and even fix a broken window. (oops!) I saw my parents and sister and brother in law host 26 people in their two homes, giving up hot showers, and waking early to make breakfast every morning. I saw the older members of the church walk into a room filled with so much stuff you couldn't move and shake their heads and say, "We love the activity around here." I saw the young people who led the conference interact with "Mr. Gary" who they came to love and it brought tears to my eyes to see this pillar of the congregation, this man now in his 70s who has a nickname for every person he meets, giving nicknames to all of the young people and talking and laughing and helping them set up the church for hours and hours. I saw one man in the church who owns a restaurant, feed the entire staff a hot lunch one day at no cost to us.

I saw my hometown offer up hospitality that went above and beyond anything that I could have imagined. However, to my great shame, I realize now that this is who they are. It is who they have always been. They didn't do this for me, they didn't "suck it up" and make great sacrifices because I asked them to. They did it because it is who they are. They did it and then when it was over, many of them said, "When can we do this again?"

I come from a great little place. A place where people love each other and a place where you can count on your friends. A place where hospitality and "southern" charm are the heart of the people. Your friends are always there for you. They bring you pound cake when you are sick and they stop by to say hello just because they "were out." Things move slower in Hamlet than they do in Florida. When I was a teenager I did not see the value in that, but as an adult I see that slow can be a very good thing. Enjoy life, enjoy friends, enjoy a piece of warm pound cake. Open up your home to others and make new friends. Care about strangers.

This is what the town of Hamlet was busy doing last week, and it made an impact. All over the country people are still talking about the hospitality of a little town in North Carolina that no one had ever heard of. Now, Hamlet is well known to the members of ICC and Masters 2010 has been declared the "best." People opened their hearts, their homes, and their church. God showed up - and I will never look at my hometown the same way again.