Cesar called last night to warn us that our landlord and ladies (3 siblings) were on their way over. This was mostly a surprise because we had never spoken to them, despite having a verbal contract on this house (through Cesar) for a year and a half now! It was one of those moments where I'm very grateful that I have a housekeeper come daily to clean.

The visit was entirely pleasant and so very Peruvian-- friendly and 100% relational. There was never any mention of the fact that we have any kind of business deal. They came to see the house they grew up in (and I think hadn't seen for decades). When we told them that we were moving in the near future, as opposed to the original plan for staying one more year, they seemed unphased. There was no indication that this had any bearing on their lives whatsoever.

One of my favorite parts of the evening was how the living-room conversation turned, by their initiative, to spiritual matters. The brother identified himself as an "evangelical" and the sisters as Catholics. I appreciate the sincerity and lack of ambiguity about all of this that I find in Peru. There was no awkwardness in our conversation.

Later when we had moved on to other topics, one of the sisters drew us back to religion. "There are lots of different religions," she said, "but surely only one of them is right. One of them leads to God. I wonder which one it is." Her comment caught me off guard, in part because her presupposition that only one is right is so entirely not American. It seemed inappropriate to delve too deep at the time, but I shared a little about what we believe and gave them all the Alpha booklets "Why Jesus?" that have been helpful for many people in Puerto Supe.

More random and delightful moments that still strike me as odd no matter how frequently they seem to occur. Perhaps that's what cross-cultural ministry is all about.

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