Another "YAY God!"

Well, I don't know if any of you were praying during the time we were sharing,(as I mentioned in the post below) but God worked!! We shared with our two friends (pictured above) this afternoon about the plan that God had for them. The plan of salvation. They listened to all of the Bible verses we shared with them, we talked about driving a car and moving over into the driver's seat and letting God take hold of the wheel. Kinda like the country song, "Jesus take the wheel." They grinned and said they would really like it if Jesus was driving for them. They listened with intensity to all of the verses and in the end, they said, "We really want to be born again." They shared with us how they thought there was more than praying to Mary or to Guadalupe, they just didn't know what it was. So, now they know, Mary although she was a great mother, she didn't come to earth to save us from our sins. That was Jesus' job. So with happy hearts, they bowed their heads and gave their hearts, their whole hearts to Jesus. There is nothing better on this earth than seeing someone accept Jesus as their Savior! It is life changing!! (For all involved!)If you have never invited Jesus into your life, maybe today is the day to do it! If you don't understand why you need to do that, or maybe don't understand how to do it, please email me at pray4annie@gmail.com. I would love to explain it in greater detail! Love you ALL!

Finally the picture of the rainbows

Sharing with our friends

Okay, I am about to share the plan of salvation with our 2 friends. (Rosa and Lupita) It is 4:25pm EST, I would like to ask any of you that check this during the next hour, to pray. I don't know how they will respond, but we have been dancing around this conversation for long enough and it is time to share. They are both precious to us and we are hoping that they will understand everything and willingly accept Jesus (NO ONE else) as their Savior! I will let you know how it goes in a few hours! Thank you!

Another GREAT Monday night!

Another Monday night behind us! Well, tonight was a really good night! We were excited after last Monday night's turnout and yet we knew it was something new and maybe this week would be the true test. There were 3 women who did not come that came last week, but they all had good excuses and said they would come again next week. Then there were 3 new women that came, one of which heard through the grapevine about our meeting. So, total we had 23 people this week. (we were also missing 4 kids that came with the 3 women last week) We thought it went great! All the people who came really liked it and they all stayed and talked for about an hour after we were through with our study. They were all talking and laughing and generally having a truly good time! I have tried several times to add pictures and it just isn't working. I will try again later. I love SLOW internet! It always gives me something to do. Anyway, thank you to all of you who were praying, we really can feel it!

I am still trying to make the blog a little more fun. The poll will give me some idea what you think would be fun information to know. One of the questions was cut off and it wouldn't let me correct it. So the 3rd one should say, " What do you think is the hardest thing about living in Mexico?" If you have some suggestions for the next poll, please let me know what they are! Love you all!

Picture of the Rainbows

I have been trying to add the picture of the rainbows and have had no luck. I will try again tomorrow. It really is pretty!

Good day for us, tough day for our friends

Today was a good day. I was mad at myself because I didn't have my camera to capture some special things. We went to a church in a village that is about 40 minutes away and had a great time with other Baptists. It is funny because after we went to the Mexican Baptist Convention, many of you emailed and said how surprised you were that there were Baptists here in Mexico. Well, there aren't a ton, but there are a good many. If I were to compare it to something, I would say that there are as many Baptist churches here as there would be Catholic churches in North Carolina. There are some, but it just isn't something you see on every corner. Anyway, the boys fit right in as they played marbles, (their favorite game to play right now) and Annie actually played with all of the kids. She then got up in front of the church ( about 25 people) and told what her picture that she colored was about. That was a big step for her since she has run from attention lately. So, church was a success today!

Today was a tough day for some friends of ours. Jeff and Angela Adkins were friends of ours in Asheville. Last week their little 9 year old daughter, Claire, passed away suddenly from a freak accident. Her funeral was today. Please pray for Jeff and Angela and their 3 other daughters as the coming weeks/months are sure to be hard. My friend Melanie from Asheville also, is also suffering along with her family as her father passed away yesterday from a long battle with cancer. Please pray for them as they make all of the funeral arrangements this week. There have been so many things to pray about lately that I have found my heart to be truly heavy. I wake up many times during the night and all I can do is pray for the many who are hurting. I feel that is the least I can do. So many of you prayed for us during our time of need and I just want to somehow repay you all! I had just prayed for the families mentioned above when Greg yelled, "Hey everyone, come quick, you gotta see this!" So we all ran to the window and saw these 2 rainbows, one that was the brightest we had ever seen. It was just a little reminder that God is still on the throne, still in control and I thought it was nice that there were 2, one for Claire, and one for Roger.

Sometimes all we need to feel like we are home in the States is a little McDonalds! We go into the nearest town one time a week to buy groceries and eat at a restaurant. Every week we rotate who gets to choose where we eat. Today it was Annie's choice and as is true every 5 weeks, we ate at McDonalds. They have someone in the kiddie area who does face painting and Annie loved it! She wanted to be a kitty cat. Doesn't she look like the cutest kitty cat you have ever seen? I think one thing that has changed since Annie's accident is that my 3 children seem to get along 100 times better than they ever did before! I PRAISE God for that!

Under Construction!

Hi everyone!
I am trying my best to change the look of our page to make it more about all of us. So, with dial-up it is taking me quite a while. I will try little by little to make it look decent. Forgive me if it changes looks multiple times! I will hopefully have it looking a little better by tomorrow. But.....who knows!?!? Love you!

Having Fun!

Hi everyone,

Sorry I missed a few days. Yesterday we spent the day building relationships with two families. We had a picnic with them and played. Of course their idea of picnic and ours is always quite different, but it is fun! Annie had fun playing with Alexis (boy) and the boys had fun playing marbles and American football. I have been teaching my 2 friends some different exercises because they have be trying to lose weight with me. Of course I am no skinny minny, but I do know what exercises can help them. So, we exercised and the men hung out and talked. All in all it was a great day and we are hoping this will help these two men feel more comfortable about coming on Monday night. Last Monday, both of their wives came but the husbands did not. Please pray for Icho and Pedro. Icho is in this picture with Greg, we thought it was funny that he was wearing a T.C. Roberson Basketball shirt. ( High School in Asheville) I guess we gave him that at some point but I don't remember. Anyway, Go T.C!

Annie continues to have some pain on her leg when you touch her. Her little thigh looks like red leather. Please keep praying for this. Whenever someone is hurt now, she automatically thinks they fell in a pot also. I am having a hard time explaining to her that not all accidents happen the same way. She is excited because she is getting some new pressure garments next week and can't wait for a new glove. We started with 3, lost 2 during our travels and now we have the one skin colored one that she wears everyday. Needless to say, it isn't very pretty. So I am sure the new glove will be an exciting present! Who would have ever thought we would get excited about these?

Other than that, we are doing well and are looking forward to next Monday when we can see if our Monday night gathering will go as well as it did this week. We have been told by a few people that more will come this Monday. We will see!

Prayer REALLY works!!

Twenty - seven people were in our home last night! We had a wonderful time of fellowship! God definitely answered prayer and all of our friends (we were only missing 8 of the ones who were invited) got along great. They all said they would come again next Monday night. Needless to say, we were very excited at the outcome! Thank you for praying for us! If the Lord leads you to pray, you can pray every Monday night! :o)

His name is Samuel Austin Allen and he weighed 7lbs. 11oz. and was 21 inches long. He is a healthy little fellow and has a strong cry! Jenell and Josh (our M friends) are both doing great and little Samuel has been a blessing to them all. Tiana is a perfect big sister and has given them no problems! We are rejoicing with them over this little guy and his health. Thank you for praying for his birth.

Big Day!

Hi everyone,

I am slowly working on changing the look of our blog from Annie's page to something that has to do with our ministry. The address pray4annie.com will stay the same, but I will be talking less about our miracle child and more about how she has opened doors for us here in Mexico. So, bare with me as we change the look.

I will tell you, Annie is doing better each day, however it still looks pretty bad on her leg. I sometimes wonder if it will ever change back to somewhat normal skin. If it doesn't it will be a shorts bathing suit for her in the future. The rest of her body looks so much better! It is still discolored but it isn't terribly noticeable. If you think about it, could you please pray that the skin on her leg starts to fade? Thanks!

Okay, today is a big day because we have tried for about 8 months to unite the 3 groups we story with, and at 6 :00 tonight, we will have our first united group. This could be a group of around 30 people. We do hope that it is successful! We are pretty sure half of our friends will come, and then we are praying for the other half. So, please pray that we will have great success tonight. I will include a picture and update tomorrow. (Tuesday)

PRAISE! Little baby Allen was born last night at 6:06 pm. We will go visit him this morning and I will post a picture of him as well! I figured that would benefit all of us, but especially his precious grandma who couldn't be here! :o) Love you all!

Having fun in the pool

One more below.

We're back home again!

It seems like we have been traveling a lot since May. I am tired and want to stay home for awhile. So, I think that is what we are going to do. We had a great week at the Convention of Mexican Baptists. We heard how God is moving all over Mexico and many people are accepting Him as the ONLY way. I say that because many people here feel there are more ways to get to heaven than Jesus alone. So, we learned a lot about the things that are happening with the Mexican Baptists and were glad to make new friends. We also had a good time with some of our close American friends. Sorry I have been off the net for the week, but I am back!

The location of the convention was in a place where it is quite a bit warmer than where we live and they had many pools. We had a great time playing in the pool after attending many meetings. We had one day to play and went to a water park nearby and had a fun, family and friends day. We were a little worried about Annie's leg. We were told no chlorine for 6 months. However, I am thinking that was chlorine in the States. I think maybe chlorine in Mexico is a little different! :o) ( the scum at the bottom of some of the pools kinda gave it away) I struggled with what to do for a day or so and then she eased into a baby pool and had little if any pain. She tried the second time and had none. So, by the last day she played at the water park without any problems. We kept her well covered in sunscreen, kept her pressure garments on and then prayed we made the right decision. It was a huge success for her as she had no fear of water and just played and played! That was a PRAISE!!

Please pray for our friends ,Josh and Jenell, who are m's that live in a city near us. They are expecting their second child any minute. Their first child was in the picture with Annie on the 4th of July. Her name is Tiana. Please pray for them as this transition from one baby to two babies will be a big one. Pray that all goes well with the delivery and there are no complications. Tiana had a rough start with some heart problems and Down Syndrome, so we know there may be some anticipation until little baby Allen (last name) arrives. I will let you know how it goes! Thanks for all of your prayers! We love you!

A Good Weekend!

Hi everyone! I know it has been a few days since I posted, sorry! This has been a really good weekend for us. On Friday, we had our normal group of about 16 people over to listen to a Bible story. Everything went well and Annie started to warm up to her Mexican friends again. We talked about changing our Friday night meeting to Monday nights when more people can come. We are praying that Monday will be a better night and our group will continue to grow. Please pray with us that this will be a good decision and soon we will have one big group instead of 3 small groups. This picture was taken while we were singing songs of praise and worship.

Saturday went well too. Greg and a group of 13 boys went to play American football and then they went hiking in the woods. They all had fun and came home FILTHY! Then we went over to a friends for lunch. I was a little worried when I found out what was on the menu. It was mole. That is the stuff that Annie fell into. I wasn't sure what she would say or do when she was offered this again. However, God is good and when she heard it was mole, she looked at us and calmly said, " Hey, that is what I fell into." That was it. She ate it like it was her favorite food. I was thankful because that was one more thing behind us!

We are meeting with Virginia and her family tonight. ( friend with cancer) Just to reply to the past few comments, like they said, I KNOW God is not a God of percentages! He is continually reminding me of that! Through so many prayers that He has answered. Remember, first we were told around 40% was burnt, then 32%, then 22%. He can change things in a matter of seconds if He wants! I know God will either heal our friend or He won't. That is the only thing they worry about here in the village. They aren't told what chance they have of survival. They are content with not knowing. I think that is a good thing. I will be praying for anyone mentioned in the comments! Praying for complete healing! Anyway,we are going to share some stories from the Bible with this family tonight, and hopefully we can encourage them through this tough time in their lives. Please pray God will be with us and they will hear these stories and understand these are God's words and not Greg's words.

We are off on another trip tomorrow. We will be heading to the Mexican National Baptist Convention. We will be visiting with many Mexican Baptists and encouraging them in the work they are doing. We will be there until Friday. Please pray for safe travels, as it is about a 9 hour drive. Thank you for your continued support to us. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read our news!

These pictures were from the past few days up until today. The last pictures were of Annie with another MK , playing together. This is just what Annie needed. She came out of her shell like she hasn't done since the last time she was around her Americans friends. She definitely seems more relaxed around Americans. Please pray that she will get back to herself around her little Mexican friends too. They were all fascinated with the little lizard they found. Thanks for all of your love and support to our family. We can STILL feel it!

Picture of Annie's Quiet Time

I finally got some of the pictures from the past few days put on here. Hope you like them.

It worked!

Yay! I got pictures up! The first picture was taken yesterday when Annie and I took food to this precious lady. Her name is Virginia, so I will start calling her that if I speak of her. Virginia was so happy to see us and ate every bit of the soup I made her. We talked about how we could make her more comfortable and I read them all of the doctor's instructions. They were very grateful and asked if Greg and I could come back on Saturday or Sunday and share some Bible stories with them all. This was a praise! So, on Sunday we plan on filling this little room with family members and tell the stories from the Bible, that we think will touch their hearts. Please pray that this will go well.

After we visited Virginia we went to visit with one of my best friends, Barbara. She is a new believer and we have a lot in common. She made us lunch and we all sat around and talked about the blessings of the past month. She is so easy to be with it makes Annie feel very at ease. Annie is always asking to go to "Nana Barbara's" house. So this second picture is of Barbara and I as we visited. She thought it was fun to do my rebozo ( the shawl thing) like she had hers. I look just like her, huh? It was a good day.

As we walked down the streets Annie is continually greeted by lots of children and adults. She gets very nervous and never says anything to them. She is still overwhelmed with the attention that she receives and really doesn't like to be looked at, spoken to, or touched. Of course that is what they all want to do. Please pray that Annie will overcome this feeling and that soon her life will return to normal. We love you all!

No pictures

Hi everyone, I am sorry there haven't been anymore pictures added, I have tried many times and I think our internet just isn't strong enough to support them. We will hopefully be getting a new type of internet access on Friday. Then I will continue to add pics. It kinda makes me crazy because for me, telling the story without a picture just isn't the same.



I will let you know that our first week back home has been nothing but RAIN!! I have been praising the Lord for that. Although it has rained everyday since we have been home, I haven't minded one bit. You see, when it rains, people tend to stay in their homes and that means they aren't in the mood for visiting with us. Hiding behind our four walls for a few days has been good. We have gotten a lot of paper work done and things have been marked off of our to "do list."

However, today I am going to make food to take to the woman I mentioned a few days ago who has cancer. She got her first round of chemo yesterday and I know she won't be feeling very well today. I am hoping to pray with her and share with her how she can have a relationship with Christ. Please pray for me to say the right things and that she would understand who can give her the peace that passes all understanding. (Philippians 4:6-7) Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.


So, enough of staying inside, today we will go back out into the land of the living! Annie continues to heal, but I am starting to think that it is going to take a very long time for her new skin color to blend with her old skin color. I guess that will just be a constant reminder of how God healed her! Hope you all have a great day, wherever you are! Love you!

Having alone time

Sometimes being alone is just what the doctor ordered! I found Annie sitting in her bed this morning coloring in her devotional book. She was coloring pictures of what makes her scared. The picture was of screaming. She said that is what scares her most, hearing screams. She is doing well, but I have found that she likes to be alone lately. I think she is trying to sort out a lot of feelings. Please pray she will do just that.

I spent most of the day yesterday alone as well. I was trying to organize Annie's room. I had a lot of time to think about just how big our God is. At one point I was so overwhelmed at His goodness, I just stopped and prayed. Annie found me about that time and asked what I was doing. I told her and she said, "He takes really good care of me, doesn't He?" Ya know, I have said this probably a 100 times in these posts, but He REALLY has taken awesome care of us! I just continue to be amazed at just how much He loves us. We have been praying for a little boy who was diagnosed with cancer at age 5 months, he is now cancer free! We have also been praying for our associate minister of music at our church in Asheville, he needed a double lung transplant, he is now breathing on his own! Prayer really does work!! Thank you, all of you, for being part of blessing us!

Tired of listening to the story!

Okay, this is going to sound bad, but I really don't want to hear how Annie fell one more time. We visited many people today and each person felt led to give their take on how it happened. Annie and I (Missy) don't want to hear it anymore. It is like we are reliving it with vivid detail. I was very thankful that I wasn't there when it happened for the very fact that I didn't want to have to relive it over and over. Each time it was mentioned Annie would crawl up in my lap or cling to Greg's leg and did not want to hear anymore. Our precious friends were probably doing just what I am now. Venting. The problem is that it is just too painful to hear all of the details. However, during the sharing of the story God spoke to me. As painful as it is to hear, I must tell of the miracle He did in the midst of a horrible accident.

From the very first time we saw where her burns were, we wondered, how it happened. How is it that she doesn't have ANY burns on her bottom? She was burned on her back from below her shoulder blades down to her waist. There were spots that were not burnt, and it looks as if it was just splashed onto her back. Then below her bottom on her thighs was burnt and in front on her thighs up to her waist as well. Plus some on her arm and then her hand. So, we kept asking ourselves how can her bottom be completely burn free. We asked our friend, Angelica, who was there, how she kept Annie from falling all the way into the pot. She said, " What do you mean?" We explained that her bottom was burn free. She looked shocked and asked, "Her bottom doesn't have ANY burns on it?" To which we smiled and said, "Nope, not one burned spot." She shook her head and said, "She completely sat in the pot. I turned to help her out when I heard her scream." So, we have all shared that an angel was definitely watching over and protected Annie from burning her bottom. You see, if she had burnt her bottom, the pain of sitting would have been horrible!

So, now you know why I will have to retell this story over and over. Annie truly is part of a very large miracle! However, please pray for Annie and I as we are still healing mentally. We can't tell you how many times we heard of people being physically ill for the week after this happened. One of our close friends shared with us tonight that she had to go to the hospital because she was so sick from worry. If I have ever doubted if we are in the place God wanted us, I will never doubt it again. This is where God wants us to be!

I know I am long winded tonight, but it is a blog and if you want to click off, you can at anytime and I will never know! :o) Today after we visited with Angelica she took us to see her mother in law, whose name is Virginia. While we were gone Virginia was diagnosed with cancer. She is very ill and our family has been praying for her. So, Annie climbs up into the bed with her and gives her a bracelet. She said in English, "Mama, tell her I have been praying for her lots and want her to get better." So I did that and Virginia just cried and smiled and said, "Oh Annie." I have included a picture of the two of them. Annie really has been "our door opener." I think we could say anything to anyone and they would listen. Thank YOU for listening (or reading) to me! Love you all!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th to all of you! We had a great day! This morning Greg and I were trying to do some different things on our "to do" list and couldn't understand why no one was answering the phones in the offices in the United States. Duh..... Greg, it's the 4th of July! Sometimes living in another country really does make you forget life outside of our little village.

We spent the day with other Ms like us in the village nearest us. We had lots of good old American food and fun! The boys played soccer with some other boys and Annie fed cake to her little friend, Tiana. As you can see from the picture Tiana was enjoying it as much as Annie was! It is quite different here, weather wise. We all wore our sweatshirts most of the time. We had a wonderful fireworks display and had many laughs. We are so thankful that God has brought others here to join us on the journey in reaching our people with the Word of God. We even had visitors come and see how Annie was doing. (on horseback)

We have been so touched by how many people have mentioned that they were praying for Annie. Many women said that they couldn't eat anything for a few days after Annie's accident. ( do you think I should feel guilty about eating the Subway and Chick-fil-a?) One lady said her little girl wouldn't eat and was sick for a few days after because she was so sad for Annie. Our friends here really do love us and we really feel it!

Please continue to pray for all of us as we are getting tired quickly. Everyone wants a little of our attention and Annie has really closed up. She won't say anything to anyone except Americans. She comes across as rude, but it really is just because she is overwhelmed with the attention. We hope you all had a very safe and happy, 4th of July. We love you!

Sorry, I had trouble adding the pictures. Our internet is just too slow. I will try again tomorrow.

Annie feeding her friend, Tiana

WE'RE HOME!!

Yay! We made it! After a very long, uneventful day, we finally drove into our village. It was such a great feeling to see little children peeking out of their homes as we passed by. They all began to jump up and down saying, "Annie." We had a few visitors the minute we pulled up, but the one that was the most excited was our dog, Coco. Even Greg, who doesn't exactly LOVE her, felt sorry for her as she was starving! She ate and ate and ate whatever we gave her. Annie's few friends hugged her and were so excited to see that she seemed normal.

We had one of our friends, who we think could be a witch, greet us. Her first words were, "God is protecting your family because of your faith." She couldn't believe how well Annie was doing and kept saying, " It is because of your sacrifices, that God is taking care of your family." We felt that this was an immediate answer to prayer. When this first happened she wanted us to take Annie to a healer and have eggs rubbed on her. (That is what many witches do here.) So we are already seeing God open the eyes of people here. Please pray we will see a lot more answered prayers over the next few days.

We were welcomed with a very colorful sign that some other missionary friends had put on our house. Annie was very excited about this! Thank you Morris' and Rices!

Going Home!

After 5 and a half weeks, 8 different beds, 3 different countries and a lot of prayer, we
are finally headed back home. We are very excited and ready to go home. We are a little anxious about all of the unknowns, however we know that God has walked with us through every minute of the past 5 weeks and He will do the same once we return to the village.

I have just sent out our monthly newsletter and if you would like to be added to our mass email, please let us know and we will add you to our list. I am going to combine our prayers for Annie and the prayers we need for our people and put both on here. This is the end of one chapter in this journey and the start of chapter two.

This first chapter was all about how God will bless you through every difficult day in your life. It was about hurting and healing and God answering prayer.

This second chapter will write itself as we live out every day in our indigenous village. The first part will be about how our people group welcome us back home. I am sure there will be many pictures of all of our friends loving on us. It will be about how Annie has become a way for us to share Christ with many.

So, please continue to pray for Annie as she has a lot of discoloration and that will probably take a while for it to fade. We are just hoping and praying that it will all fade. Until chapter 2, we love you!

Please pray for our return trip home!

Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be our last day here in Puebla before we return home to San Lorenzo. We are very excited about returning to our home and our people group. They have been so worried about Annie and can't wait to see for themselves that she really is okay.

We are going to need your prayers for many aspects of our return. First of all Annie is going to be somewhat overwhelmed by all of the attention. Secondly, we don't know how any of us (mainly Annie and I) will react to going back to the scene of the accident. Greg and the boys have been home since it happened, however Annie and I have not been back home since she fell into the pot. I don't think we will have any negative feelings, but I really don't know. Thirdly, many people in our village believe that you can cast a spell on people and have bad things happen to them as a result. We are preparing ourselves to hear such things about this accident. Things such as, "Someone doesn't like Annie and because of that, they caused this accident. " Please pray that we can show how God was in control of the entire situation from the very moment that it happened. Lastly, please also pray for our 9 hour travel back home on Wednesday.

I took a few pictures of my 3 "toddlers" as they took turns on the little rides at a nearby shopping center. As you can see they were desperate to pass their time today!

I am planning on writing our monthly newsletter tomorrow. This is a mass email we send to all of our prayer warriors. We tell what is happening with our ministry and how you can be a part of that. If you don't receive this and would like to, please let us know and we will add you to the email list. Love you all!