My life

Ya know, there is one thing about living in Mexico, it is NEVER dull! Two of our friends have needed to go to the doctor for awhile and didn't have the money to do so. It has now gotten to the point we felt it was time we intervened for the sake of their health. So I (Missy) made appointments for them and told them I would take them today. We had to leave about an hour and fifteen minutes early so we could arrive on time. Everything went well on the trip into town and we did some language learning on the trip. We finally arrived at the Dr.'s office and the receptionist says, "Oh, I was just trying to call you, the Dr. had to leave for a little while, can you come back in an hour?" I said, "Sure, why not?" So, we left and went to a store similar to a Wal-mart and were looking around and about ready to return to the Dr. when the receptionist calls me again. "Sorry Mrs. Wood the Dr. will not be returning today, can we reschedule?" I wanted to scream! Actually I wanted to say," Look lady, I just drove an hour to see a Dr. who wasn't even there and now I have waited another hour for you to tell me HE'S just not coming back?"How fair is that? So, we made the most of our time together and God used that time to build these relationships. I would have preferred to not have had that happen, but as the president of our company says, "That is the cost of the call!" So, we will be returning on Tuesday to try again. Please pray that this time, we will actually see the Dr!

Monday went great!

Sorry, I haven't updated you about Monday night's fellowship. It went great! I don't have the picture I took on my computer yet, but I will try and get one up soon. Jerod had complained a few weeks ago about not having many kids to do "kids church" with. We told him it wasn't about numbers but about reaching the few who did come. Usually we only have about 2 or 3. Bless his sweet heart, he does a craft with them and tells a Bible story in Spanish. He does a great job. Well, God rewarded him for this, we had a record breaking number of kids this week.... 11! He was so excited. They memorized the verse, Phil 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I thought that was quite fitting.

Please pray for my sweet boys as they are trying to find their own ministry here in Mexico. I wanted to update you all on Anna Kate, the 18 month old who they thought had diabetes. Praise God, she does not! Continue to pray for her as they still aren't sure what if anything she does have. I love you guys! Missy

Toto we aren't in Kasas anymore!

I took this picture in front of our house. I just thought you would enjoy it. This is definitely when you hear yourself thinking, "Toto, we aren't in Kansas anymore!" Have a great day!

Starting the morning off!

This is Jesus. Not the same Jesus you and I think of, but he is a good friend and neighbor. Greg has been having him translate Bible stories for the last year and a half. He has asked many questions and seems to be seeking truth. I caught a glimpse of him across the street doing what appeared to be, reading his Bible. Now, I can only tell you that the book he read had a black cover and red rimmed pages. ( thanks to my zoom lens on our video camera) Please pray with us that Jesus really is seeking the truth and is indeed reading the Bible.

Barbara and Icho

This is a picture of the woman I talked about that said she wasn't going to come back to our home after Annie's accident. So glad she did. She is one of my very good friends here!

One of our best Monday nights!

We gathered together again this past Monday night for our time of worship. It is always interesting to see who will come and who won't after not meeting for about a month. Well, there were a few missing, but they all had good reasons and the majority of the group was there. We heard the story about the gold, statue of a cow that was built to worship. I wasn't too familiar with this story and found it interesting to learn more about it. The jist of the story is that some followers of God, were waiting on Moses to return from the mountain after he received the 10 commandments, and got tired of waiting. They decided to take all of the women's earrings and mold them into the form of a cow. Then they worshipped the cow instead of God. When Moses returned he fussed at them and told them they were all sinning against God. He then melted the statue. This really hit home with our friends because many of them have different statues in their home. The question was asked if it was okay to have statues if they didn't worship them. We of course said a statue isn't a bad thing, it is what you do with it that makes it bad. So we felt that many of them left with a new understanding of worshipping idols.

Below is a story of how Satan's plan was revealed, but it's kinda long....so you can read it, or not.....I just wanted to warn you!


After the story was over and we were eating, we sat around talking. This was the first time that they weren't in a hurry to leave. There were 5 women who were talking about witchcraft. They explained how real it is and how many people don't understand what they are doing when they put their faith in witchcraft. For those of you who don't understand this culture, it is hard to really grasp what I am talking about. Witchcraft isn't just someone saying they are a witch, it isn't someone on a broomstick or wearing a black hat. Not that any of you unless you are under the age of 13, actually thought that, but.... it doesn't hurt to say it. The witches here have sold their soul to the devil and work for him. They cast spells on the people and believe they have the power to ruin or save lives, whichever they choose to do. It was quite a long conversation, and I heard of MANY instances where they had seen people directly involved in witchcraft and had seen people put their faith in it. I was so happy to hear one of the women say," They don't understand that they are putting their faith in the Devil. You can't put your faith in God and Satan at the same time." They all talked about how dangerous witchcraft was.

I told them of how many people told us about the "evil eye." The evil eye is when someone can cast a spell on you and make you sick or make bad things happen to you. I told them that when we first arrived and Annie was sick from different foods that many said it was because some of the people had put the evil eye on her. I told them I didn't believe that for one minute, but many people may have seen her sick and thought their spells had worked. They then talked about Annie's accident. I can talk about this now without feeling sick. They said many people were saying how wrong it was for others to have put the evil eye on us when we were trying to help the people here. MANY felt (maybe our friends included) that Annie's accident was caused by Satan. I almost said, " No it wasn't" but then said, "I think they are right. I don't think it was because someone in the street put a spell on us, but if Satan doesn't like us here, he will do whatever he can to make us leave."

After Annie's accident, I knew Satan didn't want us to return and unfortunately for him that made me want to return even more. While in Texas we had many people praying for our friends as we knew they may have been struggling with their beliefs. I never knew just how much until this conversation with these women. One of the strongest women said, "After that happened, I said I would never go back to your house again. I said if that is what happens would good people follow Jesus, I don't want any part of it." I asked her what made her change her mind and she didn't know. I told her that there were many people praying for them and that was the reason. She just smiled. I guess when we go through tough times we "know" Satan is at work but not until much later do we find out exactly how or why he was at work. He really did want to destroy what God had started among our people. I sure am glad he didn't succeed in his efforts! Please keep praying for us. Knowing that he doesn't want us here makes it a little more difficult to go about our lives as if there is nothing keeping us from the task at hand.

I know I got winded, but just wanted you to have a better understanding of our people. Love you all!

Life's crazy and LOUD!

Just thought I would share what life is like in my house. It is CRAZY!! The noise level is always very high, no carpet, we have tile floors, cement walls, and 3 kids. That equals a very loud house. They aren't doing anything wrong, laughing, singing, talking, and yes arguing, but it can make it seem like there is no place to go that is quiet. Then of course there is the life outside of our home that enters in as well. There are 2 homes on the corner and both have loud juke boxes that they play until about 2-3 in the morning. They play it all day long as well. There are people who make announcements throughout the day on extremely loud speakers. Announcements such as: Lupita has hot bread for sale, or Barbara is selling hamburgers, Juan from California says hello to everyone. These announcements go on all day and night as well. So..... my "quiet time" has taken on a whole new meaning. I have been trying to get up early every morning and read the Bible while it is somewhat quiet. I really struggle with this because I am NOT an early bird. However, that is something I am trying to do better. I really take for granted that we live in a place where we are free to do such a thing. I have been reading a book that is about a prisoner of war. I can't imagine going through what these people go through. Not to be able to read my Bible for any reason would seem like torture. However, I still find it difficult to do that each morning. This prisoner of war tries so hard to remember everything he ever read in the Bible to bring him comfort. It scares me to think of what I would remember if I were in that situation.



I need prayer for discipline. I want to make sure that if for any reason I cannot read my Bible, that I will have a lot of it already firmly implanted in my memory. I really can't live without having His words written across my heart. It really is the life manual that I need in order to make it through this life. So..... please pray that as I get up each morning that I will be more disciplined so that I can download God's word into this tiny part of my body called my brain!



Sorry for rambling, I just thought I would share with each of you a little part of my struggles in this life! Please also pray for those precious people who are putting their life on the line for us as they protect our freedom while serving in the military. Thanks for praying!

Back to school!

Well, we are back to school, something I think only Annie was excited about. We had a good day yesterday but it was hard! We have been to see two of our families and had a welcome home celebration! They have all been so good to us as we try and get re-settled. Our alcoholic friend, Salvador, did great while we were gone and didn't have any drinking spells. We are praising God for that! Everything else seems just about the same as when we left. We will start our Monday night worship again on this Monday coming up. Don't know the date, but please pray it goes well.

During our travels we received news about our supervisor's daughter, Anna Kate. (they live in Puebla, Mexico) She was found one morning in her bed very lethargic with her temperature 95 degrees, so her mom, Jennifer, took her to the hospital. They have been running many tests on her and still do not know what is causing her problems. They are checking her for diabetes. They have had conflicting reports about this and still do not know what is wrong. I feel badly that I haven't put this on here before now, but please pray for little Anna Kate. She is 16 months old and PRECIOUS!!! She is having to undergo many pricks and has her glucose checked several times a day which is traumatic for her, to say the least. Please pray for the whole family as I know they are all worried. Pray that the tests would show that Anna Kate is perfectly healthy and for life to return to normal very soon! We thank you all for praying!

There is no place like home!

Home...... "Mommy, when will we be home?" That was the question we heard oh, about 1,000 times over the past 3 weeks. To Annie, home is where you will be sleeping. Hotel, friend's home, Grandma's home, Aunt's home, it didn't matter where, it was still home to her. I guess that is the life of an MK. She is soooo flexible and after traveling a total of about 65 hours in a car or on a plane over the past 3 weeks I would say she is very happy to say, "WE'RE HOME!!!" Our kids are great travelers and it is a good thing! We had a great time while in the States! We saw a lot of people we had not seen in a long while. We saw old friends and a lot of family! If we didn't get to visit with you, we will do our best to do that next year while we are on Stateside assignment, or furlough. ( We should be back in the States in July 2009)

Ya know as much fun as we had and as much as we love the U.S. it is funny that coming home really is Mexico. I was a little worried about the kids because they did have a great time and I thought they would dread returning to our home here in Mexico. NOPE, they were sad leaving their grandparents and aunts, uncles and cousins, but happy to return to our people here in the village. Please pray that as we try to find our routine again, that the kids would enjoy being home as much as they enjoyed being away. I will add some more pics soon, it just takes some time. That is one thing I don't have right now, as I am still unpacking. Love you all! Missy

Time Flies!

We are heading home. We are all kinda sad, but ready to go home at the same time. We had a great three weeks and saw lots of family and friends. We got great news that the comfy couch house in Texas was unharmed by Ike! Praise GOD! Please pray for us all as we will be flying all day today. We are tired and haven't even started our trip. Love you all, I will write more soon!

Back with my parents in Rock Hill, SC

Hi everyone,
We are now back home in Rock Hill visiting my parents for these last few days before we head back to Mexico. We had a great time with Greg's family and got to visit some old friends from Asheville on our way here as well. We have packed a ton of fun in the past 2 weeks and are excited about the rest of this week too!

We are going to see the movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua tomorrow and hope to play at the park and eat more Chick-fil-a! Thanks for praying for our travels, we have had a wonderful time going from Rock Hill, SC to Asheville, NC to Anderson, IN to Asheville, and back to Rock Hill. That is a lot of miles! Thanks for praying!

More pics soon!

More Pics

Our neighbors in Asheville, visiting with us at church.

Our friend made traditional clothing for this Barbie and was trying to sell them for money. This little girl, Haley, wanted to buy the Barbie and then she wanted us to give it back to the little girl so her mom could could make the money and she could still have her Barbie to play with. How sweet is that?

These are our friends the Twiddys who we stayed with while in Asheville.

This is Annie's new friend Kelly who she got to know quite well!

The BP man

Only in America will the BP man pose for a picture. He would have done anything for us to come back to visit his BP! That's America!

Fun at the fair

The following pictures are of Jerod and Alex eating a cheeseburger on a stick, and jumping on a bungee - trampoline at a local fair. We are having a blast, did I mention that?

38 and looking 50!

October 1st was my 38th birthday and I wanted to thank all of you for your kind emails and warm wishes! I had a great day! Looking at this picture I look like I was turning 50, I don't like that at all! I am trying to add more pictures but it is not letting me so I will add some more in another post. My neice is reading this over my shoulder and says I am not being my "funny" self, so, I will try my best to be goofier! :o)

We have done nothing but have fun, laugh, and eat. Probably in that order. I will add the pictures to show what we have been doing because it will tell the story better than I can! Love you all! Missy

I know, I know, I know

Yes, I know, I haven't posted anything for a week now. I have been so busy having fun that I haven't even looked at email lately. We have been packing as much as possible into our 3 weeks here in the States! I am getting ready to head off to some yard sales with my sister-in-law and mother-in-law. I LOVE yard sales and can't wait to find tons of stuff that I won't be able to bring back with me. :o) I promise to post a longer post tonight along with lots of pics! Love, Miss