My Trip To Salamanca, Mexico

Two weeks ago I made a trip to Salamanca, Mexico. It was a first time visit. Abel and Misaela Rodriguez are working at our H.I.M. church there and doing an awesome job! My flight had a short lay-over in Mexico City. As I flew in over the world's eighth largest city, I was challenged by the thought that there is no known holiness church there. None at least that I know about. Oh that the Lord would send somebody to pioneer a work here. If I knew it was God's will for us to go, I would be on the next plane.

Leaving Mexico City there was a beautiful sunset, what a reminder of God's beauty and power.

The church that was started by a tract. Back in the early 2000's John Dykes was taking tract teams into Mexico City. One of those tracts landed in the hands of a man from Salamanca, who would later contact Philip Burch about the possibility of starting a church. The church was started, lots of hard work was done and today there stands a beautiful building where God's work continues on.

 After close to ten years of service, Philip and Collete Burch returned to the states and now Abel and Misaela Rodriguez are pastoring the church.

My breakfast on my first day in town consisted of "sweaty tacos". They get the name from the way they are made; steamed. Soooo delicious. I must have ate about seven of them.

Every morning they open the church from 8-9 for prayer. Abel carries a real burden for the ministry and I know God is going to reward his efforts. We definitely felt God's help during our services.

Abel has several cell groups where he holds services at during the week. The first group was in a place called "Los Duros". God really blessed this service.

I tried a new fruit while in Mexico, it's called Tuna. You can eat them or blend them and make juice. It was very good.

Some of the typical desert scenery of Mexico.

I had several invites to supper. Here is one of the church families that had me over for a meal. The Mexicans are very hospitable people.

Salamanca has some beautiful architecture. I loved it.

Downtown Central Park.

Inside the cathedral that was founded in 1615.

Some more of the interesting architecture around town.

 Faustino and Guadalupe invited us over for supper and then later that evening they had a cell group meeting in their home. God helped in every service.

One day we hit the streets with the Prayer Station. They had never used one before so I explained to them how to use to make new contacts.

They were quick to catch on and before long Abel was making new contacts and praying with people.

Antonio is one of the young men that attend the church. He was saved from the worship of "La Santa Muerte", Saint Death. A very Satanic twist to Catholicism. This was his first time to evangelize on the street and he did a fantastic job.

We held a cell group meeting at a place called "La Cuarta Brigada". God really moved in this service and several came forward to receive Christ as their Savior. It was a wonderful service.

One of the men from the church donated one of his turkeys for our Sunday dinner. This was taken just a few minutes after its beheading.

 The famous Mexican mole. It's a sauce made out of "101" different ingredients. I don't know all that goes in it, just that chocolate is on the list. This was poured over our turkey. It was actually pretty good.

Part of the Sunday morning crowd.

Getting ready to eat the turkey, mole, tacos, salad and other goodies.

I forgot to take a picture of everybody that was there on Sunday morning, this was taken Sunday night, several of the people weren't there. The lady holding the boy on the right was brand new. She came for the first time on Wednesday and kept coming back. 

The day I was to fly out. The pastor and his wife and a couple from the church took me to Guanajuato. This old town was so neat. They have turned old mining tunnels into roads that go beneath the city and the town itself is very historical. I really enjoyed my visit there.

--Viewer Discretion Advised--

The following pictures are of the dead. Please be advised.

They took me to the museum of mummies. There was a cholera outbreak in 1833 that quickly wiped out a large percent of the population. Years later a law was passed stating that families had to pay a tax to keep their relatives buried in the cemetery, if they did not pay the tax the dead relative would be exhumed. Many of the families didn't pay the tax. There are over 108 corpses in the museum. This one was the very first body to be exhumed. He was a french doctor who was exhumed in 1865!! Still with his clothes!

Who were they? What were their stories?

This is the world's smallest mummy. A five month old baby that died with its mother when she gave birth.

Beautiful Guanajuato at night.

On my return to Honduras, I had an overnight lay-over in Mexico City. Since I was traveling alone I decided to try out something I have wanted to do for a long time, stay at a hostel. For twenty bucks I stayed at the Airport Hostel (the house that looks like a jungle). There was only one other person staying there, some guy from Russia. It was like staying over at a friends house. Everybody shares the bathroom. You come and go from the kitchen as you please. Very unique.

Trinidad runs the hostel. I listened intently to her tales of people who had stayed there, some of them had been traveling for over year. She told of earthquakes, planes wrecks and a rat that came in her window. haha I loved it.

What a splendid surprise to see KrispyKreme doughnuts at the airport. I had a bite of heaven to top off a really great trip!