More back handed compliments!

Hello everyone! Hope you had a nice Friday! I just couldn't wait to share this with you! I just knew you would find humor in it. I need a makeover! I need a new hair do, and all new clothes! Today my maid who is a different person than the one who said I never combed my hair told me some really great news. Here goes, can you guess by the photos? White, blue, teal, yellow, black, lavender,pink,brown and navy. I have other colors too, but I would bore you if I showed you every color of the rainbow! She said, "You know Melissa, even though all of your clothes are ugly, you are still pretty in them. She went on to say,"My husband said that all you ever wear is those ugly shirts in different colors and jeans, but for some reason, you are still really pretty. You are really lucky." Okay, I just am really tired of these kind of compliments! So, I am running away from home! ;o) What do you think?

Good Friday

Here are a few more photos. This one man was bowing to Mary, not Jesus. That is Mary who was following Jesus. In one photo it looks like she is falling. I mentioned that to my friend. I said,"It looks like Mary is falling." I was just making an innocent statement. She said, "They say if she falls it will rain a lot this year." I thought to myself, who comes up with this stuff? If you click on the picture you SHOULD be able to see a larger version of that picture.

These are some pictures I took today during the procession that they do in honor of "Holy Friday." This day is a supposed to be a very sad day where no one smiles or laughs or has any fun. In the past they had a law that you couldn't ride your horse,donkey,car, or anything that made it easy on you or you would be put in jail. One of our believer's relatives was put in jail for 2 days for riding his donkey on this day many years ago.

The picture of Greg was taken during the procession, one of our newest believers, Moises, was explaining everything they were doing to Greg as it was happening.They burn incense which they say is the perfume of God to bring his spirit into their presence. This is what this one woman in burning in front of her home. They take turns carrying the cross as penance for their sins. They wear these crowns as a symbol of the crown of thorns that Jesus wore. Some actually had thorns on them and they say they need to suffer like he did. They carried this statue of Jesus through the entire village and there was preaching along the way. They took off his crown and replaced it with this white blindfold which no one could explain. Many people would run up to the statue bow down to it and pray. They said most of the men who were walking in the precession today would be drinking tomorrow. It was so sad to me to see all of them doing all of this. They think it will somehow help them enter into heaven someday. Carrying a cross all over town, that is what they think it takes to help to get them into heaven. Some of our believers were walking in the procession as well and they know that they don't have to do that. Sometimes I think it makes them feel like they belong. They are scared not to do it for fear of what their family will say. They do it just to keep from being persecuted by their family members. So sad. They are not allowed to play music today or to take baths or to eat meat. They are generally supposed to suffer all day they say. We are showing the "Passion of Christ" tonight to our group. We are hoping we can keep the focus on the resurrection of Christ and not just his death. (which is what they focus on) Please pray for our friends here. It is hard to be a Christian here! It really is!