Weddings

Two of our friends from church - Ivan and Selene - got married the other week.  We are SO happy for them!

Weddings in Mexico generally have a LOT more festive mood than those in the United States (at least the U.S. weddings I've been to!)  After the wedding ceremony there is a party with FOOD - a WHOLE meal, usually catered.  And cake too, of course!  There's generally either live music or a DJ.  And after everyone has eaten their fill, the real party begins! 

At some weddings they play what is called "La Vibora del Mar" (the sea snake).  The bride and groom each stand up on chairs (which area usually rented plastic collapsable chairs - real sturdy, hehe!) and hold hands with a big space between them.  In the picture below they used part of the bride's dress instead of holding hands.  Then, all the women (who want to participate) at the wedding hold hands in a chain and start running through the room, between all the tables and people sitting down, and eventually go underneath the bride and groom. 

Then it's the guys' turn.  They hold hands in a chain and do the same thing.  At some point during La Vibora del Mar, the groom will likely get knocked off his chair, and we may see the demise of a flower arrangement, centerpiece, or other decoration. 

I'm not making this up!  And it's not the kids who do this, it's the adults!  It's kind of hard to run through a room filled with tables, chairs, and people,  holding hands with other ladies in HIGH HEELS.  But it was fun!  But I'm NOT upset that we didn't do the Vibora at our wedding...  :)

Another aspect of a wedding party that is different from in the U.S. is that many times the bride and groom go from table to table collecting money for their honeymoon.  The bride has a little bag (traditionally she'd use her shoe, but most brides use sandals these days!) that people put coins in, and the groom gets bills pinned onto his suit.  I TOTALLY wish we would've remembered to do this at our wedding!!  :)

And then there's lots of music and fun until late at night.  And that's a traditional wedding in Mexico (in my experience)!

Our Stash

We just got more ministry resources!  When we invite our ministry contacts out to dinner we like to be able to give them something.  So how about a Bible!  Or a book that explains salvation by grace!  Yeah!  :)  We have a friend who gets super cheap ministry resources/Bible/etc, so we went and stocked up with her yesterday, as we were down to almost no Bibles to give away. 

JP has been sharing Christ with several of his work friends as they carpool home from the airport each day.  A couple of them have a Bible now - JP asked one guy if he'd read any of his new Bible (I believe JP recommended reading the book of John), and he said that he'd read a little bit, but his mom saw the Bible and took it with her to work to read!  So probably one of these Bibles will go to him!  :)

Done!

I FINALLY have all my documents to be able to leave the country and to go to the U.S.  I'm all set on my documents now for TEN years!  Yay!!!  (With the exception of my driver's license... which I probably need to get a Queretaro one but won't yet because it's another expense and we'll just wait to get it until we get back from the States.)

El Bajío

El Bajío (bah-HEE-oh) is the region of Mexico that we live in.  It includes the states of Queretaro, Guanajuato, and part of Michoacan.  This statistic was just shared with us in church on Sunday: this region - along with neighboring states of Aguascalientes and Zacatecas - is the region in LATIN AMERICA that is least evangelized.  And we live here.
 

Below is a map of Mexico with these states colored:

Queretaro is blue

Guanajuato is purple

Aguascalientes is red

Zacatecas is green

Michoacan is brown (the eastern-most part of Michoacan is considered part of the Bajio)

We've actually met a LOT of people who had never heard about salvation in Christ!  So many of the people we come in contact with (with the exception of those at our church!) believe that by being good, participating in the sacraments (baptism as a baby, eucharist, confession, confirmation, etc.), and praying to the saint of their church or city, they will be saved and go to heaven.  It has been sad to see so many people believe that, even though they don't have a relationship with Christ that they will go to heaven.  And we know that Jesus says: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."  John 14:6

God has been giving us some amazing opportunities to share the Message of Salvation with those around us (these testimonies will be in our upcoming newsletter).  Please pray that God will open the hearts of those we share with, that they will come to know Christ as their Savior.  And pray for us too, that we may have the boldness to speak the Truth to others!

View of Queretaro at night