last Sunday

The following pictures are from a couple of different events we went to last Sunday. The first two are a from a celebration service from a church that we visit. They are the church I was telling you all about that were celebrating their anniversary. They had different musical and dance groups there. These two pictures represent both. There was great music and we enjoyed our time there. They had bands that played traditional folklore Christian music.

The following pictures are from another town's fiestas that we went to later the same day. They had a parade and a dance contest. Most of the pictures are from the parade/dance contest. These are just a few of them. I will post more later on. As I close I want to encourage you all to pray for the different towns that are having their fiestas, festivals. In some ways these are interesting cultural events that celebrate the culture through music and dance. However, there's another side of it that involves drunkenness and many other problems. I ask you all to pray for these different towns and the problems they are facing. The sad thing is that many of these festivals are done in the names of different saints, such as St. Peter or St John. You can imagine that these true saints of the Bible would feel dishonored that these things are taking place in their names. As I close, I want to share a couple of passages of Scripture, a couple from 1 Peter.

1 Peter 2:9-10-'But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.'

1 Peter 2:24-'He (Jesus) himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.'