"We so enjoyed our CHEF exchange to Canada - beautiful scenery, lovely people, a comfortable home - and of course the Niagara Falls!"

Our first time with CHEF

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Our “Sleep Over” at the home of friends' whom we had never met!

Being the adventurous type, I love new experiences. While I have never parachuted from a plane or bungey jumped from a high level bridge, I have done some things that have been considered by others to be unique. Vacations are an especially important for our family. Having been business owners, our time off has been limited and we always try to achieve the maximum value from any vacation. Several years ago, we had an incredible opportunity to travel with our children with friends to Europe. This was an experience which I had only hoped for in my wildest dreams as the cost appeared far out of our financial abilities. However as these friends had many friends and family scatted across the continent, we were able to have an incredible holiday by staying in the homes of these wonderful people. The experience was further enhanced by the relationships we developed with our hosts. We were pleased in following years to reciprocate the hospitality and entertain some of these folk in our home in Canada.

I am always looking for new ideas on how to spend holidays and thinking back to that European vacation, ideas began to formulate. In my mind, a home swap came to mind as an interesting and cost effective way for a great vacation. I began scouring the internet for websites linking interested parties. In my research, I found a few sites offering this service but my started to question the type of home exchanges available? What kind of people might be coming? Did they have similar lifestyles to us? Would they have a similar value system? So many questions began to surface. I started to wonder if the risk might be greater than the value of the exchange. I was very pleased when my search brought me to the Christian Home Exchange Fellowship. Our comfort level soared and we decided that we were willing to utilize this opportunity and more forward.

We joined the organisation and received the information listing the membership. I scoured the names and addresses looking for someone interested in international travel. I became quite excited at the prospect of home swapping as the descriptions of families, places and homes stimulated my imagination. I was preparing to contact some members in early January, when I received an email from a member in the south of England. He was suggesting an exchange with us. He and his wife were hoping to visit Canada and attend some special meetings at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. I was overjoyed at the prospect! England has always been a place that I love to visit. Through a number of emails, we were able to arrange a suitable time for an exchange. We exchanged photos and ideas as well as tourist information The anticipation further was heightened by a phone call just days before the exchange was to occur.

In preparation for the exchange, our home had a though “going over”! From sparkling clean appliances to empty drawers and closet space, we decluttered and prepared for the arrival of our special guests.

We also prepared the neighbours for the arrival of our visitors. Imagine the expressions when we told them that our home would be occupied by total strangers who we connected with on the internet! Our neighbours have always known us to be quite social and perhaps a little unusual but this was way over the top! This was a perfect opportunity to tell them why we were confident in doing this. We have our “things” for this time and space and will take nothing with us from this world. We reminded ourselves about storing up our treasures in Heaven! (I don’t really like dusting anyway!).

We arrived at British Customs and the Officer required the address that we would be staying at in England. When he understood we were staying at a private home, he asked “Family?” “No, a home exchange” we replied. “For a television program?” was his next question!

We arranged for “overlap” days at each end of our holiday so we might meet our exchange family. When we met our hosts, it was just like greeting long lost friends. They made us feel like family immediately and in truth, we are family! Our Christian bond was so natural and sharing with them was such a blessing and encouragement to us. They entrusted their home to our care as they travelled to Canada to stay in our home. The men even swapped GPS equipment to make getting about that much simpler.

For 18 days we ventured around the south of England, enjoying castles, gardens, museums and even car races! It was a magical time as we discovered new and exciting places all the while with the challenge of driving on the opposite side of the road! The convenience of staying at a home allowed us huge financial savings as we were able to have many meals at home. We packed lunches for our day trips always including a thermos of coffee for the road; there is no Tim Hortons on the M25!

Upon our return to Canada, we were so excited to swap stories with our friends. We loved hearing of their experience in our country and they were astonished at the number of places we had visited in their homeland. They really enjoyed our home and had a lovely time seeing our versions of Dover and Stratford. The best part of all was meeting this wonderful couple and having the pleasure of sharing with them. I keep thinking about..“entertaining angels”?

Oh, on the neighbour front, the folks are wondering how it went and would we do it again? We assure them with a resounding “Yes”!

Wayne and Bonnie - Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Brian and Susan say:This was our third CHEF exchange and even better than our previous ones, particularly as for the first time we met our hosts who we clicked with straight away! Our holiday in Canada was wonderful and we are so grateful to those who had the vision for CHEF and have kept it going for so many years. Keep up the good work!