October 31st

Normally, I like to have pictures with our posts, but I wanted to share the special time that we had this past week.
Our day started out normal. Church, lunch, check football scores.
Then we went up to the Open Arms Daycare. They were having a 'harvest' party since it was October 31st. They had kids and families come and make bags for candy, and then Erin and I played worship and we heard a sermon on the evils of Halloween.
Here in Mexico, this time of the year is rich with death. November 1st is Day of the Dead and people take meals and flowers to cemeteries and spend the night. One friend told me that they used to bring tequila to the grave of his father for that night, (because the father liked tequila) and then drink it the next day.
After the sermon, the kids were treated to carnival games and were given tons of candy and food. It was fun.
Erin helped make a cake and a pie for the cake walk!
She also made a cake for our friend Griselda. It was her birthday. We decided to surprise her and bring a cake.
We got to her house and knocked on the door. No one home. As we started to turn to leave, we heard a women's voice yelling at us to come! We only realized it was her once we saw her and her three children running down the steep dirt hill to come and get us.
We gave her the cake and she invited us up to the house of her mother. They were having a party. Her mother was a wrinkly Catholic woman with a scarf on her head. She instantly introduced us to her son (Griselda's brother) and then offered us a tortilla until the tamales were ready. We weren't intending to eat there, but there was no way we were going to leave without it. Kids were everywhere. Griselda's brother had 5 and they were trying to find costumes to go trick or treating.
It was a tense moment, as I look back. They weren't sure if we were going to be offended by the costumes. They made sure that we were not.
Soon, we shared the room with a scary bride, a duck, a pumpkin, and a couple of princesses.
No one spoke English, and Erin and I sat around the table and had a great talk with the adults as the high energy of the kids were around us.
Erin was smart enough to bring a gift and Griselda opened it up before we left. It was the only gift she got.
It's moments like these that make me so grateful to live where we do.