Fiesta de cumpleaños! Birthday party!

Sunday...what a huge day!  Sunday morning was church, obviously. We got to church a bit early to share requests and pray together before the start of the service.  One of my new favorite things is hearing people pray in a different language. There is something truly breathtaking about hearing the words of another person, not entirely understanding but having complete confidence that our God understands in full.   It never ceases to amaze me how God created the human brain with the capacity to communicate in different tongues and in unique ways.

Church starts promptly at 10:30, which is really uncharacteristic because most events here start promptly late. When church starts the room is maybe 1/4 full but then at some point during the worship I turned around for a brief moment only to find almost every seat taken! The church is small and maybe has about 60 people there but these people are alive.  They sing at the top of their lungs, even when they are not good singers. No shame, just praising their Lord who set them free from their sin.  

They have been going through the book of Ephesians and this week we had a guest speaker.  He was a seminary student from the seminary in Puebla.  He was vibrant and dynamic speaker and had some good thoughts on the Ephesians 3:14-21.  He challenged the congregation to reflect on the desires of the heart.  If it isn't God then something askew. 

After church was over, we hung out and talked for a bit and then headed to a birthday party! One week in the country and I already got to go to a birthday party! The party was for little Sara, the granddaughter of one of our neighbors, who was turning 4.  

Sarah's birthday cake!

The delicious meal

I'm not the type of person to post pictures of my meal but this one I felt like it was okay to share.  The green sauce is chicken in salsa verde, it was delicious! I even had seconds of that one. To the left of that are the carnitas on tortilla. Above that is cactus! It was like cold cactus salad, not my favorite but I hear cactus is a lot better warm. I guess I'll have to test that theory. And then below that of course, rice.

Sara's princess piñata

At Mexican birthday parties the agenda is this: everyone eats then all of the kids play while the adults watch them and socialize.  Although simple, some parties last hours.  This particular part lasted about 4 hours, which I hear wasn't too bad. 

The kids played musical chairs, and a bunch of other games.  Somehow I found myself involved in a dancing contest with Abigail. Basically they put a balloon between us and we were supposed to keep the balloon between while dancing.  They tried to disqualify us because we weren't dancing enough! Apparently, it was too gringa for them but we lasted until the top 5 pairs! 

                                                    

                                                                  Me and Abigail, dancing

A fun Mexican tradition is that the birthday boy or girl takes the first bit of the cake without their hands!  

Sarah taking the first bite of her cake!

Adorable birthday girl!

After the cake it was time for the piñata! There is actually a song that they sing which determines how long your turn is! They also didn´t blindfold any of the kids, like we sometimes do in the U.S. Personally I think that is a great decision.  There is nothing more terrifying than a small child, hyped-up on sugar running around blindfolded with a solid stick of wood. 

This picture has no real purpose, he was just so cute!
This little guy was chasing the fog from the fog machine!

The tradiational piñata song

This little girl was really goin' at it!