We were adventurous this past month along with thousands of other people and headed to the Cindo de mayo parade that was held here in Puebla. Cinco de mayo is a holiday held on May 5 that commemorates the Mexican army's victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Going against the popular belief, Cinco de mayo is not the Mexican Independence Day as this is September 16. Many schools traveled from all over the state of Puebla to participate in this parade showing off their uniforms, their school band and their school float that, as you will see, they spent quite a bit of time on. Also included are a few short videos of the parade that you may enjoy. Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!
A few weeks ago the girls were out of school for two weeks. One for Holy Week and the other for the actual Spring Break. We continued on as usual with our regular work week but we did have a little extra family time together. At Christmas we had brought back a bag of pretzel sticks and a package of white almond bark that we hadn't used yet. So the girls and Gabrielle made some chocolate covered pretzels and when we ran out of pretzels we used saltine crackers dipped in the chocolate and they were yummy!
Another day we took time to go visit the famous Catholic church built on top of a Mayan pyramid. Below are some facts about this famous church.
With a base of 40 acres and a height of 214 feet, the Great Pyramid of Cholula is the largest in the world, whereas the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, with a base of 13 acres and a height of 480 feet, is the tallest. This immense structure is the result of 5 huge overlapping constructions built over a period of 10 centuries.
Only a tiny part has been excavated, down to the fourth layer, with the rest of the pyramid remaining completely covered by soil and vegetation, which makes it look more like a mountain than a pyramid. On top of this mountain-esque pyramid a Catholic church was built, by the Spanish in honor of the Virgen de los Remedios. This beautiful church is still used to perform mass and other important Catholic services.
There are a total of eight kilometers of tunnels that run from north to south and east to west beneath the Great Pyramid. These tunnels were built in 1931 when the architect/archeologist Ignacio Marquina started exploring the site. He traced the edges of the five bases, the angle of the slopes and the stairs. Nowadays, just two kilometers of tunnel is open to visitors.
http://www.bestday.com/Editorial/Cholula/
We had a wonderful day exploring this pyramid, however we were unable to explore the tunnels as they were shut down for reconstruction after a recent cave in. On the way down from the mountain/pyramid there were vendors selling different kinds of nuts and fried grasshoppers. Gabrielle tried a handful of baby ones because they were tiny compared to the adult ones. Her comment was "they weren't bad at all; a little crunchy and spicy because of the chile powder on them but not bad at all!" We ended up passing on this purchase and bought some pistachios instead.
All in all we had a great two weeks with the girls but they were ready to get back to school to see their friends. Click on the picture below to see pictures of what was talked about in this post. Have a Happy Mothers Day for all the mothers out there!
How time does seem to fly these days. We have been getting busier and busier as the weeks pass as God continues to put different ways to expand His kingdom in our path. One of the most recent ways was Aaron's first opportunity to preach in Spanish. Mount of Olives Baptist Church asked Aaron to teach on Prayer Walking. God gave him the ability to speak with fluidity and clarity. After the service, they used the Sunday School hour to go out and practice what they learned in five neighborhoods. Gabrielle had the opportunity to go out with the pastor's wife and had a wonderful time seeing her heart for the lost.
We have also seen God work in the lives of the members of New Life Baptist church. By God's grace nine people have come to Christ in the past 2 months. Recently we took a day trip to a nearby village to visit one of the member's brother and his wife. Elvira, the cell group leader that we have trained, ended up leading the wife to Christ only 2 weeks after the brother had given his life over to Christ during a visit to his sister's house. We participate in the cell group every Wednesday and have seen this group grow from 5 to the 19 (including children) that attended this past week. It has been real exciting to be a part of what God is doing in Puebla.
Below is a link to pictures of these two events plus a couple of other events like Mylee's Birthday and some of our family time outings. Thank you for your continued prayers that we feel have gone straight from your lips to the Father's ear. We are praying that you and your family have a blessed Easter and will have a chance to celebrate together the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus.
After looking back through pictures we realized we did not tell you about the Cell Church Workshop that our team held in November for Baptist pastors and lay leaders in Puebla. We asked our co-workers Tommy and Beth Larner in Tijuana to come to Puebla to lead a one day workshop explaining what and how the Cell Church structure works. We had about 75 people show up for this event and we were ecstatic! It began at 8:30am and ended at 4pm. The day included a coffee and tea break around 10:30 and then a quick lunch that consisted of typical Mexican lunch (mole poblano, tortillas, rice, beans, sausage and boiled pig skin).
At the end of the day everyone was asked to fill out a questionnaire about the workshop and what kind of interest they had in partnering with us. We received very good feedback with quite a few pastors and leaders interested in starting cell groups in their churches. Since then we have been busy starting work in the different areas that the Lord has led us to work in. Below are the pictures of the workshop plus some pictures taken from our roof of the four volcanoes that surround Puebla. This is our favorite part of the landscape here in Puebla: Waking up every morning and seeing the magnificent handiwork of God! You will not want to miss these or the few pictures of the girls! Have a great week in the Lord.
