This weekend, we were supposed to speak at First Baptist Church of Querétaro, in a city about 2 hours away from where we live. However, the church canceled on us, so we went to Querétaro for a family weekend away. It was relaxing since we didn’t have anything on our schedule, and it’s always nice to get out of the city for a while.
We stayed at an inexpensive bed and breakfast in the historical center of this very historical city, and we spent two whole days just hanging out, walking around, shopping, and enjoying being in a different place as a family. It was well-needed, since it seems like we’ve been going like crazy since we got back in August.
I really like Querétaro for its charm and atmosphere. It’s a safe city, with little crime and it is very tourist friendly. There are shops and gardens and plazas and restaurants all over the place. We had a great time.
Check out our trip photos on Flickr.
Check out our video from the weekend.
Contrary to popular belief, everything is NOT cheap in Mexico. Many things cost a lot more here than they do in the US, at least in our part of town. That doesn’t mean that Mexico does not have some good deals, though. Here are four deals that we are very happy to have here.
Pizza Tuesdays: Every pizza place has two for one pizzas every Tuesday. That means we can fill up on pizza and have enough left over for the rest of the week. We just found out that Little Cesar’s has 3 for one on Tuesdays. Yummy!
Movie Wednesdays: Every Wednesday, you can go to the movies for half price. That means that the movie theaters are packed on Wednesday nights, but it also means you can eat that left over pizza and hit the movies for a cheap date.
Six Flags annual passes: The annual passes at Six Flags are less than $50. Basically, if you go twice in the year, you have more than paid for your annual pass. Plus you get a coupon book that has free passes for your friends. We basically only have to buy one annual pass and then use the coupons for the other person. Plus, the annual pass to Six Flags is good worldwide. So you can buy the pass here and get into any Six Flags in the world.
NFL Sunday Ticket: Watching every single football game all season long costs about $300 in the US. In Mexico, it only costs around $80. That’s quite a deal, especially when you realize you get pre-game coverage, every game, and commercials in English.
We went to the Seminary’s “Noche Mexicana” tonight, and we got introduced to a new, fun, party tradition. They had a bunch of eggs that were filled with confetti. You crack them over each other’s head and the confetti gets everywhere. It’s lots of fun.
I finished up the youth ministry workshop in Monterrey on Saturday. Overall, there were about 35 people in attendance. I had a great time and got to hang out on Friday with one of the guys who is very interested in going to the seminary soon. We had a fun time seeing all the sights of Monterrey and eating “cabrito,” or baby goat.
Rafa told me that the part with the most meat would be the “machito.” So we ordered machito. It did have a lot of meat. He wasn’t sure what part of the goat it was. Afterwards we asked and they told us that it was the lungs, heart, etc. I was not thrilled to know that I had just finished eating that part of a goat.
Overall, the workshop experience was great. I had lots of opportunities to spend time with individuals and answer questions about youth ministry. We also talked with a lot of people interested in formal training for youth ministry. We’ll see what comes of those conversations in the future.
I arrived in Florida yesterday and will be here until June when I go out of town for a ministry trip. Our whole family is in Florida until August.
I’ve uploaded the (Spanish) audio from the conference we had at the seminary about the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
It is entitled, “The appearance of Tepeyac (reality or myth).” It’s a great conference that talks about many historical inconsistencies in the story that is so widely accepted as fact here in Mexico. If you speak Spanish, it is definitely worth listening to. If you’re a missionary in Mexico and listen to it, I’m interested in knowing your thoughts.
I’ll be posting the link to the audio soon on our Spanish youth ministr site, too.
Here’s the direct link to the MP3.
Here’s the link to the Internet Archive page.
Today I went to a little town outside of Mexico City called Tepotzotlan with our friends. It was fun to get out of the house and visit someplace I’d never been to before.
Outside the cathedral there is a market on weekends. It has a little bit of everything, especially the typical art stuff and lots of food. We were pretty hungry, so we ate a lot of different stuff.
Then we went to a place called Los Arcos (NOT the restaurant). It is a place with an aqueduct that was built in the 16th century. We ate lunch, walked across the aqueduct, hiked a lot, flew a kite, and had a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures. Click one to see a larger version. You can also check out all the pictures I took today on flickr.
