The Holidays

Okay, we know that it has been a long time since we last posted and we apologize.  We are amazed at how quickly the last couple of months have gone.  We often find ourselves not knowing what day of the week it is. Today is Wednesday, right?

Anyway, the last couple of months have brought with it several holidays - US and Mexican.  We had the opportunity to celebrate the traditional US holiday of Thanksgiving and the shared holidays of Christmas and New Years.  In addition, we witnessed and/or participated in the Mexican holidays of Día de los Muertos (Nov. 1 & 2), Mexican Revolution Day (Nov. 20th), Día de Nuestra Señora Guadalupe (Dec. 12th), and Las Posadas (beginning on Dec. 16th through Jan. 6th).

The first holiday of the season was the Mexican holiday of Día de los Muertos.  This is an important Mexican holiday that merges Pre-Columbian beliefs and modern Catholicism.  Europe's All Saint's Day and the Aztec worship of the dead contribute to these two days that honor Mexico's dead (http://www.mexonline.com/dayofthedead.htm). On these days, Mexican families visit cemeteries where deceased loved ones have been buried.  They beautify the graves and invite their deceased loved ones to have a meal with them at the graveside (a strange concept for most Americans). We should mention that this holiday is not celebrated by most Christian Mexicans. The day after, Lora and I went to the cemetery in Matachi.  Here are some pictures of what the cemetery looked like following the holiday.

The next holiday was  Mexican Revolution Day (http://www.mexonline.com/revolution.htm).  The Mexican Revolution was more like a civil war, but was fought for very different reasons than the US Civil War.  This day was celebrated with a local parade.  However, we did not watch the parade because we were on our way to a remote town to watch a couple of local brothers from Matachi (Fabián and Adrian Contreras) participate in a rodeo.  So, no parade or holiday pictures, but here are a couple of rodeo pictures.

Left to right: Andy, Adrian, Maykon, Fabian, Aleesa, Jevor, and JenJe

Fabian is in the middle and Adrian is on the right.

Next was Thanksgiving.  Because Thanksgiving is a US holiday, most Mexicans do not celebrate it.  However, we were invited to spend Thanksgiving with a couple of families in Creel, Mexico.  These two families are the Kaemingk family and the Parra family.  These families operate a Youth with a Mission (YWAM) base in Creel.  For several years they have been celebrating Thanksgiving and inviting other missionaries to join them.  In addition to us, the Weiand family were also there.  They are involved in missionary work in a very small village called Rio Chico, a couple hours north of where we are in Matachi.  This gathering featured at least five people groups - American, Mexican, Dutch, Honduran, and Tarahumara (and technically Denise Weiand grew up as a missionary child in Papua New Guinea).  There was even a live turkey that was killed and prepared for the feast.  The Pilgrims would have been proud. Here are a couple of pictures.

Maykon's first Thanksgiving

The missionary kids and Maykon playing Apples to Apples

JenJe and Jevor at the YWAM base overlooking Creel.

The next day we drove up to see parts of the Copper Canyon (Barranca del Cobre), which offered amazing views, delicious gorditas (not the kind you get at Taco Bell) and handmade items from the Tarahumara (a Mexican indigenous tribe). Here are some pictures.

Tarahumara girls selling handmade items.

Tarahumara women making baskets.

Real Mexican gorditas

The next holiday was Día de Nuestra Señora Guadalupe or the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe (http://www.mexonline.com/virginofguadalupe.htm).  This day is celebrated with a feast honoring Mexico's patron saint.  Not much to report on this one.    We traveled to Cuauhtémoc on this day and had lunch with the Fehr family whom we met at a church in Chihuahua a few week before.  They are a wonderful family who have missionary experience.  Celia is from Uruguay where John meet her while serving as a missionary.  They have since lived in Brazil and Canada.  They are now in Mexico because John has family ties with the large Mennonite population that lives in the area.  Sorry, no pictures of the holiday, but we do remember all of the Catholic churches being full as we traveled through the small towns on our way to Cuauhtémoc.

Las Pasadas is a neat Mexican tradition.  It celebrates Joseph and Mary's search for shelter in Bethlehem with candlelight processions that end at various nativity scenes.  We were not invited to one of these, but we did hear the loud parties that followed several of them.  It did get us thinking about ways that we could possibly utilize this tradition next year to share the story of Christmas with our neighbors.

We cannot complain about spending Christmas and New Years in Mexico, but it was difficult to be away from family.   Our Christmas celebration began December 22nd with a dinner with the Contreras boys and their mother (including oldest brother Joel visiting from Parral, Mexico) and their cousin, Christian, at their mother's house in Matachi.  Dinner was followed with a lively game of Spoons.  On Saturday, December 24th we had a Christmas Eve service which consisted of reading the Christmas story from the Bible and singing traditional Christmas carols in Spanish.  Little did we know that nearly all of the Christmas carols were unfamiliar to our Hispanic friends from Mexico and Honduras.  Christmas carols are not a traditional part of their Christmas celebration.  However, it was a good service followed by wonderful food and fellowship. One interesting fact, Maykon, our student from Honduras, kept telling us that Christmas was on the 24th, while we insisted that it was on the 25th.  At first we thought that he was just confused, but we were surprised later to find out that it is a Mexican tradition (and Honduran tradition) to actually celebrate Christmas on the 24th.  It is customary to gather on Christmas Eve and have dinner.  Then, around midnight, presents are opened.  As Americans, we typically open presents on Christmas morning.  Therefore a compromise was in order.  On Christmas Eve we opened the stockings that were given to us from Hillside Missions Organization, and on Christmas morning we open the other presents that we had for each other and that came for other people.  Also, an additional Christmas present arrived for us at the Chihuahua airport when Gustavo, our newest student from Honduras, arrived in Mexico.  He is a friend of Maykon's and has been trying to get to the school for nearly four months.  Needless to say, we are all glad that he is finally here - Maykon is especially happy that Gustavo is here.

Christmas Eve gathering

Stockings from Hillside Missions Organization

Trying on our new hats

Goodies from the stockings renamed.

Maykon is adding his name to Jevor's new soccer ball.

New Years was also interesting.  The Vicuña family from Chihauhua came to Matachi to celebrate New Years with us.  Prior to their arrival they arranged for Fabián Contreras to buy a lamb.  I do not know if this is a New Years tradition, or just something that they wanted to do.  Fabián bought the lamb then took it to his father's ranch and with the help of his father they slaughtered the lamb and skinned it.  Gustavo and I got to witness this.  It was difficult for us to watch, but also strangely fascinating. The carcass was brought back to the school where Gustavo and Maykon cut it up so that it could be cooked.  Unfortunately, no one knew how best to prepare and cook the meat so it turned out to be a bit tough, but it was an interesting experience.

Thank you for your prayers during the holidays.  We have no doubt that they were instrumental in getting us through the past couple of months.  We ask for your continued prayer as classes will be starting again soon.  We ask for prayer for Heber, the next student who is preparing to join us soon.  He is from Tampico, Mexico.  Pray for him and Gustavo as they begin this new step in their lives.  Also pray for Maykon as he adjusts to no longer being the only student.  En Cristo!