Strangers at My Door

by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

What would happen if you moved your young family to a ‘dangerous’ neighborhood and opened the door to everyone who knocked? What if, instead of a homeless drug addict, you saw Jesus standing on the front porch? Jonathan and his wife, Leah, moved to the Walltown neighborhood of Durham, NC, to start a hospitality house where the fatherless, widows, hungry and homeless could become a part of the family.

Jonathan does not preach through this book—he doesn’t tell us all to go out and start our own hospitality houses. Rather, he simply strives to share the lessons he’s learned about Jesus and our broken society through the people he’s met on this journey. There are meals shared, stories told, prayers lifted and struggles overcome. But there are failures among the victories, because no family is without faults. Laptops are stolen, trust is broken and friends disappear.

I devoured the first half of this book in one sitting, and then stretched the rest over the following three or four days, working it in around other commitments. For some of you that may not seem like a huge accomplishment, but it’s been quite some time since I’ve finished a book in less than two weeks. Which, of course, means Strangers at My Door is a fantastic read, and I highly recommend it.

4/5 leaves

(I won this book in a Goodreads first reads giveaway! All opinions expressed above are my own.)