Friday, February 16, 2007

my little flame of fire



So, being faithful missionary parents, we have been doing our research on Carnaval, and boy, am I glad we did. It turns out that unique to the carnaval celebration in our area is a personage named Miel-Otxin who, according to the tales told in northern Navarra, was an evil man who sneaked about the town stealing stuff. Miel-Otxin is finally caught by the townspeople and justice is served as his is burned at the stake. SOOO evidentaly all week long, Malachai has been hearing this story; each child at the school has been encouraged to write down the bad things in their life that they want to get rid of. these things are placed at the feet of a life sized, straw stuffed Miel-Otxin and burned at the end of the celebration. oh my . . .
Well, we took Malachai home before the burning, and spent a good amount of time talking to him about God gives us a better hope, and that He tells us that the only way to be pure is to repent of our sins and trust Jesus to forgive us. Malachai was a good sport about it all; sweet boy! Malalchai's teacher was taken aback that we didn't want Malachai to participate in this "beautiful symbolism"; I will try to talk with her on Monday and explain some more to her.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for you! I will try to remember to pray that the teacher will understand your witness. I remember my parents taking me home early from my half day kindergarten when the class was going to do an Easter egg hunt and have a visit from the Easter bunny. I'm sure I would have gone home early if they had know Santa was coming to visit.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the delightful photos and the insightful post.

Mom

Anonymous said...

Dear Naomi,

I am enjoying your pictorial of life in Spain immensely. Of course, I can never get too many pictures of our grandsons. However, we need to somehow get you in more of the pictures. We continue to hold up the work you are doing in Spain. God is in control and His will we ultimately come to pass no matter how grim the circumstances seem.

We love you!

PS The picture of the teapot with your reflection in it was a piece of art! I would love a copy of it.

Ginny