Sunday with friends

This past Sunday was a very special day. A few weeks before we met a brother who was a leader at one of the small churches in Salvador and he invited us to worship with the church there. He also very generously invited our whole group to have lunch with he and his family.

So about 11:30 this past Sunday we met Luciano and took a bus to his house which turned out to be on the other side of the city. So we finally arrived at his house about 12:45 and we shared a meal together with Luciano, his family, and a few other Christians. What a meal they prepared. We had beans and meat, moqueca de peixe (a Bahian fish dish), rice, vegtable salad and plenty of drinks. Then after lunch we all sat around and drank tea or coffee.

What an honor it was to be invited into their home. While the food was great what was truly amazing about that Sunday was the conversations we were able to have with our brothers and sisters in Christ here. Our conversations ranged from the view, to our lives, to the pluralistic nature of religion in much of Salvador. When we had talked long enough he took us on a tour of his neighborhood and down to the beach a couple of blocks away. And all of this time we were welcome guest in his home. It seems like in the States our hospitality ofthen has a time limit largely controled by our watches and nap schedules. Yet when Luciano invited us to come at 12:00 he did so with the expectation that we would stay all day and then go to worship with him at 4:00 and if we desired he would have welcomed us back after worship. From what I understand this is more of the rule rather than the exception in Brazil. I look forward to learning even more about how to do hospitality as an invitiation into life and I think people like Luciano and his wife are good people to learn from.