January 6th, three kings day

I found this delightful little treat waiting for me when I got up this morning:there is Herod, off to the side, refusing to worship
and the kings (you know, the magi), doing what they should be doing.
yeah.

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.