Love and Respect in Bernal Queretaro Mexico

Marcel and I spent our first weekend away, without the kids, in about... four years! The girls were fine and enjoyed their time with a french-canadian young woman who teaches at their international school. Thank you Miss Julie!!
We went to Bernal, Queretaro, Mexico which is about two hours NE of our house. We have spent several months praying and asking/compelling/begging/nagging our church plant contacts to go on a marriage retreat weekend with us. Previous dates never worked out but finally, two couples could go! One wife became sick on the Friday but she and her husband set off from their home on the next morning at 6:30 am and arrived in time to join us for breakfast at 8 am!
The location was beautiful. Bernal is a little colonial town, full of charm and little shops. It is famous for a huge rock formation that Marcel thinks looks like a lava flow formation. It very much reminded me of Devil's Tower in Wyoming, the rock formation in the movie "Close Encounters". It was so hot that we passed on the 2 hour climb up and back down but we hope to return and enjoy the hike on another day.
Our hotel room exterior
and interior.

The theme of the weekend was "Love and Respect" with biblical teachings about men loving their wives and wives respecting their husbands. We also watched the movie "Fireproof" which fit perfectly with our theme. The two ladies that came with us really opened up. They and their husbands enjoyed the weekend and I believe that their marriages will improve as a result of having attended this retreat.
Before driving home on Sunday, we wandered through the little town. We saw a large graffitti mural of a famous former soccer player from Argentina snorting cocaine through a straw. Quite the subject matter but the artisty was impressive none the less.
We also saw a beautiful woven tapestry depicting a scene of Bernal but it cost $4,000 pesos so we admired it and continued on our way. Marcel bought a small bookstand and we bought 4 different crosses for wallart. The buildings' architecture and painted exteriors were beautiful. We also admired some colorful Mexican handcarved dining room chairs that filled a little restaurant.

On the drive back home, we passed a grain elevator complex and some tall green barley fields. For a few minutes, I felt a little at home again. (These pictures are for our grain farmer friends up north.)

Once we got on the main highway, one of the men began to ask questions, wonderful spiritual questions about salvation and various bible stories. He told us his spiritual background and explained his scepticism regarding a large "Christian" church in Mexico City where the pastor had published a book on tithing and seemed to teach nothing else. This experience had, obviously, put him off anything Christian yet God sent another professional Christian coworker into this man's life. Carolyn, Marcel, and I prayed while Moises was used by God to speak the words this man needed to hear. We've known his wife since September and he surprised us by coming to our Valentine's Banquet. We really enjoyed getting to know this man during this weekend and we had many fun times of laughter together.
We again invited him and his wife to our Sunday evening church services in our home. The other couple hugged us goodbye and invited us to their home for a BBQ next weekend. Please keep praying!