Host Congregations provide accommodations for up to 14 people at a time on-site at their religious facilities, three-four weeks out of the year.  This could include converting Sunday school classrooms into bedrooms or using homes associated with host congregations.  Accommodations should include sleeping rooms, a dining/kitchen area, relaxing area and bathrooms with showers.  These suggestions are flexible; congregations have accommodated guests in a variety of ways.

Sleeping Areas:

This can vary depending on set-up of church.  The likely scenarios are:

• Converting Sunday school classrooms into individual bedrooms for families
• Using partitions to divide a large room into individual, private bedrooms
• Using a house associated with the host church and using its bedrooms

In an effort to create as home-like an environment as possible, we ask that the host church provide the following items for the bedrooms:

• Lamps
• Bedside tables
• Alarm clocks

In addition, we ask that the host church provide linens for the guests.  They come to the host church with their own beds, mattress cover, comforter, and pillows.  We ask the host church to provide:

• Twin sheet sets including fitted sheet, flat sheet, and pillowcase
• Towels

Kitchen/Dining areas:

This area includes a kitchen for preparation/cooking of dinner meals, a refrigerator for storage of leftovers and breakfast/lunch fixings, and tables and chairs in which the families and volunteers can eat together.

Lounge area:

This area should include comfortable chairs for guest lounging, toys and books for the children to play with, and a television and ideally DVD/VCR for entertainment purposes, particularly on the weekends.  Also nice for this area is games such as monopoly, a deck of cards, chutes and ladders, etc.  Games for all ages are preferred since our age group varies.

Volunteers:

In order to make this program work effectively, the following coverage is needed by the host church:

• Sunday of first host weekend: Volunteers to help convert space into bedrooms.  Volunteers to help unload the truck of the beds and bins once the guests arrive to the church at 3:00pm.  Dinner hosts (prepare, serve dinner and clean up), overnight hosts to stay overnight until approximately 7am.
• Monday through Friday: Volunteers to greet guests as they arrive at 5:30.  Dinner hosts to prepare, serve and clean up.  Overnight hosts to stay overnight until 7am.
• Saturday: Volunteers to provide a hot breakfast/brunch.  Volunteers to do an activity with guests, such as movies or picnic or whatever the volunteers/guests would like to do.  Dinner hosts to prepare, serve, and clean up.  Overnight hosts to stay overnight until Sunday morning. 
• Sunday: If Sunday School classrooms are used, volunteers to convert the bedrooms back to classroom for use for Sunday School.  Volunteers to provide breakfast/brunch.  Volunteers to help load up the truck with the guest beds and bins and their belongings.  A volunteer to drive the bus with the guests to the next church. 

**It depends on the commitment of your volunteers and how you want to structure their time.  Most churches have dinner/evening hosts each week, 2+.  Then at 8 or 9, the overnight hosts arrive (2) and spend the night, and are able to leave at the latest 7am.  On weekends, more volunteers are needed due to the fact that they are there for an entire day instead of just 5:30p and beyond.  Guests help with the loading and unloading of their belongings and setting up their own rooms, so a huge set-up and tear-down crew is not necessary. 

Schedule:

• Guests will arrive by 3:00 the first Sunday of your host week.
• Monday through Friday morning, the bus driver will arrive between 6a and 7a to pick up our guests.  Those with cars are expected to be gone from the church no later than 7a.  The guests will be gone all day and will return to the church by 5:30 or later, depending on their work schedule.
• Saturday and Sunday of the second host weekend, guests will remain in your host facility until your church prepares for transition to get them to the next host church by 3:00 Sunday.