Brothers and Sisters of Christ

I never really understood what it meant to be brothers and sister of Christ until I went to Peru on my mission trip. We say treat others with kindness and how you'd want to be treated but it goes so much deeper than just that. It isn't just an act of welcoming and community but a mindset. From the second I walked out of the airport in Piura, Peru I felt an overwhelming sense of comfort and joy of us being there, the people wanted us there. Not only to work alongside them but also because we all share the same faith and love of God. From villages, to the city we all felt like a family, brothers and sisters. When we went to one of the villages to build a house for a beautiful family I remember the joy on the peoples faces and the community that I was surrounded by. Towards the end of the build a huge group of kids and neighbors started to form by the house. Myself and a group of my friends saw the kids and began to play with them, they were just so happy and at peace to be there in that village with what seemed to be like nothing and what some would be ashamed of yet they weren't, they were welcoming. All of us kids were just talking, playing, and enjoying what we were doing. I didn't realize how odd this was until afterwards. If you think about how the culture is here in the US, there's no trust and very shallow welcomes. While I was there random mothers would hand their babies to me and give me their kids to play with, I didn't know those people at all. Yet they trusted me with their precious children. That would never happen here, how often are you just hanging outside with friends and a random person comes up and hands you their baby. Never, but there that was normal, it was normal to trust that you wouldn't do anything to harm one another because at the end of the day we're all brothers and sisters of Christ. Which was extremely obvious there. Every time we'd drive through a village whenever the people would hear the truck coming they'd run out of their houses to great us with "hola", "buenos dias", and the biggest smiles I've ever seen. Did they know us? No we hadn't met any of them, yet they still made a big effort to welcome us and simply say hi. That's the mindset I'm talking about. While I simply walked done the streets, everyone would hi, everyone would smile, everyone would wave, and everyone had the fire of the Lord flowing out of them. The faith was so obvious. I never asked myself if that person had faith or was Catholic because they made it clear by their actions. I hope that we can change our culture here to mimic the one there of welcoming, trust, and family. We are all brothers and sisters of Christ yet some of us here have different mindsets than the ones there in Peru. Challenge yourself to smile at strangers and greet them with love.