Me and Carlos my landlord.
As we live here longer and longer you are often invited places. For the past year my landlord has been inviting me to come visit his ranch that he has outside the city. I went and paid the rent and decided that it was finally time to go visit especially with the offer of fresh cows milk. We haven't gone to drink milk in a while and I thought this would be a great chance to see what my landlord was describing to me as we have talked about in the past. So at 7 in the morning, he picked me up. On the way we talked about various things. We arrived after 15 minutes to his ranch. If I had to describe it to someone, it is like (for those of you in Minnesota) having a day cabin at the lake. There is everything you would need to spend the day there even a bedroom to sleep if they wanted to stay the night. They have parties and thing other there. They even have a pool for the hot summer days. As an older gentleman, he was proud to show me various thing that he had as decorations, like two stone water troffs that were used back 100 years ago. He showed a photo of the original owner of the property that gave him all the land when he past away in 1990. The photo was taken over 60 years ago. The sombrero that they man wore was hanging on the wall as well. Then we started towards the cows. He only had about 10 cows right now which were purebred. He at one time had up to 50 but being that this is just a hobby farm, he sold them all and has wanted to keep it small. Then we drank some milk together. I am not sure where the tradition began but they will drink cow's milk with a little bit of alcohol with some chocolate milk. I drank my first glass that way. The two afterwards was just straight milk. It is warm and frothy tasty milk. It sometimes gives you diarrhea, but this Norwegian stomach of mine is strong and has no problems with straight cows milk. After this, he took me to see his sons cattle ranch. It was much larger and well kept with over 200 head of cattle. The name of our landlord is Carlos Barbon. He is well known in this city. His son once tried to run for president of Autlan but didn't win. There is even a street named after the family that is right downtown. The family heritage they have here is longstanding.
After this we headed back to Autlan. It was here that the conversation started to get interesting. Actually this is what I felt was clear why God had arranged this day to happen. The conversation started on him praying to the virgin of Talpa. He stated that she has helped in many ways after he prayed to her. What do you say to this? What do you say to someone who has been living this way for so many years? He also said that all religions are good. The only thing I could think of to ask him was who taught him about this virgin. He didn't really answer my question. He just responded by saying that he saw the faith of so many people who prayed to her as well. The virgin of talpa is known all over Mexico. People come from all over Mexico to pray and pay homage to her. Depending on what they are praying for they will walk to the city of Talpa without shoes or even on their knees to prostrate themselves. Carlos said that he had never done that but that he drives there at least once a month. I may not have been able to say anything to him that would have a lasting impact on him, but for me personally, it gave me a clear picture of what we are fighting against. Paul said in Ephesians 6:12 "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." (NKJV)
If you want to read about Virgin of Talpa, I read this page about the legend:
http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1589-legend-of-the-virgin-of-talpa
If you want to see videos, there are lots of videos on youtube but this one shows you what I am talking about.
After this we headed back to Autlan. It was here that the conversation started to get interesting. Actually this is what I felt was clear why God had arranged this day to happen. The conversation started on him praying to the virgin of Talpa. He stated that she has helped in many ways after he prayed to her. What do you say to this? What do you say to someone who has been living this way for so many years? He also said that all religions are good. The only thing I could think of to ask him was who taught him about this virgin. He didn't really answer my question. He just responded by saying that he saw the faith of so many people who prayed to her as well. The virgin of talpa is known all over Mexico. People come from all over Mexico to pray and pay homage to her. Depending on what they are praying for they will walk to the city of Talpa without shoes or even on their knees to prostrate themselves. Carlos said that he had never done that but that he drives there at least once a month. I may not have been able to say anything to him that would have a lasting impact on him, but for me personally, it gave me a clear picture of what we are fighting against. Paul said in Ephesians 6:12 "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." (NKJV)
If you want to read about Virgin of Talpa, I read this page about the legend:
http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1589-legend-of-the-virgin-of-talpa
If you want to see videos, there are lots of videos on youtube but this one shows you what I am talking about.
