Culture, but which one

Recently we were the recipients of Asian hospitality. This is the stuff of legends for some. We were in Singapore for a long weekend.

In preparation for our trip, we had asked a friend of ours who is from there if she had any recommendations for a cheap, safe and family-friendly place to stay. That set the wheels of Asian hospitality in motion.

A series of emails back and forth between friends of friends resulted in a chain of things being done for us that was so totally above what we expected (or deserved). The net result was an incredible 5 days, being spoiled rotten with home cooked meals, outings to restaurants, being driven all over the island, and having gifts given to us and our kids, etc. All of this by people we have basically never met before. Asian hospitality is truly amazing.

After thinking about it some, though, I was faced with a question. It is definitely an Asian culture thing to show incredible hospitality. But, what we were shown was so incredible. Some of it, we realized, was due to who we knew. Most of the people were doing these things because they knew someone we knew, and were doing these things as much for their friend as for us. All of these friends were like-minded in terms of faith. So, the question – was this an Asian culture thing, or a Christian culture thing? After some reflection, I tend to lean toward it being a combo of the two, with a strong portion of it being the latter, but don’t know for sure.