Los Domingos

On Sundays we usually attend church at Iglesia Bautista Monte Abarim.  It isn't close enough for us to walk so we have to take two taxis.  We used to all try to get in one until we found out that this was illegal.  We decided it was probably best to stop asking our taxi drivers to break the law to take us to church. 

With each passing week we are beginning to understand more and more.  Last Sunday we had a guest pastor.  He spoke slower than our regular pastor so we were actually able to follow the basic ideas of most of the sermon.  I am quite certain we missed many details, but it was progress to get the main theme. 

Each Sunday they sing songs that are very familiar.  However they don't have hymnals in the church so we have not been able to sing along.  We noticed that people brought their own hymnals.  Last week we were able to ask, in Spanish, about getting hymnals and were able to buy two.  They had them right there at the church.  It was so nice to be able to join in this part of worship. 

One of our new hymnals

For those of you who grew up Southern Baptist or who currently attend a traditional Southern Baptist church, you might recognize a couple of songs we have sung.

"Victory in Jesus" 

"Faith is the Victory"

Last Sunday we arrived a bit early and were waiting outside.  We were invited to attend Escuela Dominical, otherwise known as Sunday School, the following week.   We told them we would try to attend next Sunday.  We were excited about going and having the opportunity to meet others and practice a bit more Spanish.

However....

It was not to be this week.  Sarah came down with a bit of a stomach bug on Saturday evening.  So we decided it was best not to try and catch two taxis, drive across town, and attend church with a stomach bug. 

Instead we had home church.  This was one of the kids favorite things when we lived in Zimbabwe.  On the Sundays that Vance was on call we would do home church.  Our Sunday School time was done by the children.  They had to take a story from the Bible and act it out.  Then, we would listen together to a sermon that we had. 

So this morning our Sunday School lesson was...

 The parable of the unmerciful servant

and then we listened to a sermon by Ravi Zacharias.

Hopefully next week we will be able to attend Sunday School and worship with other believers, but for this morning we enjoyed our intimate setting and service.

Elizabeth's Visit Part II

Our second excursion included two locations.  First we went to Grutas de Cacahuamilpa and then onto Taxco.



Grutas de Cacahuamilpa are said to be the largest caverns in the world.  We were definitely impressed.  The pictures really don't do them justice.



LuLu survived the caverns.

Next stop, Taxco, Ciudad de Plata or City of Silver

It is called the City of Silver because they do a lot of silver mining here.  Yes, I did get to leave with a little souvenir.

Taxco was a beautiful city with some really neat buildings.

The church in the center of town was one of those buildings.

A good portion of the interior was painted with gold.

A humorous thing happened while our tour guide was telling us about the history of this church.  We were standing at the very front of the church and he looks down the aisle and says, "Oh, we better go.  The body is coming." I turned around to see a casket making its way down the aisle.  They were starting a funeral while people were still touring. 

This painting is of the treasurer of the church when it was first built.  It is one of those painting where the eyes seem to follow you no matter where you stand.  They wanted the people to know that the treasure was always watching.

We have never seen so many Bugs in one place.  The guide explained why...

Because all the streets look like this, very hilly and VERY narrow. It is the only car that they will allow to be a taxi.

A good time was had by all.  Elizabeth is now back at NGU studying away and we will continue studying Spanish for another 10 weeks.   We will miss her until we get to see her in Honduras in May.  Thanks for all they prayers for safe travel!

Elizabeth's Visit Part I

We had a great visit with Elizabeth.  It was great to just hang out as a family and we also got to take a couple of amazing excursions. 

Our clan with Xochicalco in the background. Our first trip was to take Vance and Elizabeth to Xochicalco! This was the place the other kids and I were able to go to earlier.

Mini Olivia and LuLu also got to go to Xochicalco.

This is Arturo, our awesome tour guide!

The Pirkle Gang

We also visited Teopanzolco.  These are Aztec ruins that are 5 minutes from downtown Cuernavaca.

Up

(The steps are so small!)

and down

(Going up was much easier!)

The history around Cuernavaca is amazing!

We also made several trips to downtown Cuernavaca and Elizabeth snapped some shots.

Cortez's Palace

We tried to visit this on Monday, but found out it was closed.