The joy of toys

These girls are some of my favorite! They were soooooo appreciative for their gifts. They kept saying, "Please tell the people in the United States thank you for our toys, we love them!!" I love my job!!

44 people in our home!

We had our Christmas party tonight. It was so wonderful! I have never seen so many laughs and smiles and happiness! We had one family of 6 come for the first time, and we had another man come for the first time as well. We played games and sang songs, we listened to a short story from the Bible and Alex acted it out.

Then we got to do the fun part..... give out presents. It really was something awesome to see! If you have ever made up shoeboxes at Christmas time and wondered what it is like when the children open their presents, I am here to tell you, it is AWESOME!! I have never seen so many children smile and laugh and genuinely be thankful for what they have been given! If I died today, I would count myself as being one of the luckiest people on earth. I have seen a little piece of heaven today! Thank you Katie, Adele, Paula and Ed for making it possible for these children to receive these presents! It really was wonderful! This picture above is about half of the kids who received gifts. God bless you all!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We have had a very busy past few days. Greg's mom and our nephew, Clay are here visiting. We celebrated our Christmas with them. Christmas Eve was celebrated with 2 different families from our village. We all went to a church in another town and heard a message from Greg. We all enjoyed it! Afterward we all went out for a very festive dinner of tacos on the side of the road! ;o)

As you can see from the picture of Annie and her doll house, Santa did come and the kids said he did really good picking out presents this year. He was a little more creative this year. The doll house that he made was a true hit, with all 3 of them! ;o) We are having a wonderful time with Grandma and Clay and we are all excited about our party tomorrow night. ( Monday) We will play games tell the story of Jesus' birth, eat cake and they will all receive their shoeboxes filled with gifts. We are soooo excited about giving these gifts out. I will do my best to upload some pictures of this tomorrow. I am sorry I have been slack about writing on here, I have just been a little occupied with other things. I will do better! Love you all! Please pray that all goes well with our party and that we have enough gifts for all of the kids who come. Love you! Missy

Christmas for a child in Mexico

This is a picture of a Purepecha child as she helps her mom sell something like moss.

They use this with their nativity scenes. She was precious!

Annie and her new doll house

Santa was good to Annie!

Strange Christmas Day!

Hi all! I do hope you all had a fabulous Christmas Day! It was a great day for us although a little strange. It seemed weird to know that everyone was celebrating today and we even though we celebrated, it was without Santa or any presents. We are looking forward to another Christmas Eve tomorrow night and then another Christmas morning on Saturday.
Please pray for my mother-in-law and nephew as they travel to see us tomorrow. We are looking forward to a very fun-filled week!

Please also pray for our Monday night Christmas party. We will be giving out 35 shoeboxes filled with wonderful presents for all of the kids. We will try and post a picture of that as I know it will be a lot of fun! The kids have NO idea that they will receive presents! We were talking to one of the boys' friends, who is actually pretty well off, for here and we asked him if he ever gets presents at Christmas. He said, " NO, but last year I got $5.00 from the Wisemen." They don't do Santa here, they have the 3 Wisemen who come in January and bring them gifts. I actually think this is a better tradition, but.... I still like Santa! Anyway, he then said, he was pretty sure it was his parents and if they don't have money then he doesn't get anything. How sad is that? So, we are all looking forward to the kids getting fun gifts!

I hope you all had a very blessed day! Love you, Missy

Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone! I love this day! Christmas eve was always one of my favorite days as a child. Maybe even better than Christmas day! As an adult and as a missionary our traditions have changed quite a bit. We were looking forward to going to a church tonight and "blending in." However, when Greg told the pastor we would be coming, Greg became the guest speaker. Poor guy, NEVER gets to hear a sermon, he always has to give it. Anyway, we are going to make the most of it and we look forward to taking some of our friends with us tonight.

My mother-in-law and nephew will be coming on Friday and we cannot wait for this! Because of the arrival of family, Santa has delayed his visit to San Lorenzo until Saturday morning. So our "true" Christmas eve won't be until Friday night. That is definitely one of the perks of living in another country! We can plan Christmas day to fit our schedule. (Christmas day here in the village, is really just another day) Annie is beside herself with excitement and cannot wait to see what Santa is going to bring her. This is the first year she has really caught on to the idea of Christmas. Of course I am not sure who she wants to see more, Santa or Grandma! I think Grandma!

I just want you all to know that we wish each of you the very Merriest Christmas!! You are all so precious to us and we feel truly blessed that we have people like you following our ministry, praying for our friends, praying for our family, giving financially and simply being our friends! We would like to thank the International Mission Board for the way they support us. Without the givings of the Southern Baptist Churches, without the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Cooperative Program, we wouldn't have all of the blessings we have. We wouldn't have good insurance, a good car, a nice home, toys under the tree, and many other wonderful blessings. They really do take care of us and this inables us to be able to reach our people group without having to worry about our next paycheck! So if you are a part of any of these givings, you are a part of keeping us on the field, and for that, we will forever be grateful! Thank you all for making this one of the very best Christmases we have ever had! We pray you will find yourselves equally blessed throughout this year and into next! God bless you all!

Long day!

Hello everyone! We started the day off at the funeral of "grandma." We arrived a little late, but it turned out to be for the best. We missed all of the strange rituals they do and got to pray with Barbara at the grave. Barbara was doing well and holding up incredibly considering she didn't sleep all night long. Her sisters ( she is one of 9 and has 1 brother) were all criticizing her and trying to provoke a fight. They are all mad at her because she has forgiven her uncle and they think that is wrong.
Her uncle was soooo sad. He was all alone. No one wanted to even get near him. Greg walked with him for almost a mile, just the two of them. They talked about God and His forgiveness and David (the uncle) told Greg he wanted to start coming to our meetings. He said he used to hang out with some "brothers" (meaning Christians) and he thought he would like to do that again. Please pray for him. He has a long road ahead of him. He has been a very strong alcoholic and for him to leave this behind will take a miracle! The custom here is to mourn the death of a loved one for 7 days. So... he will be faced with drinking for at least the next 7 days.

We had our meeting tonight and bless Barbara's heart, after not sleeping all last night and all day today, she still came tonight to tell everyone how God was working and to ask for prayer for her uncle. She is SO precious! I was so proud of her today, she thought of how God would view every one of her actions! I am sure He was proud of her too!
We had a great Christmas celebration tonight and our numbers continue to grow. God is moving! Please continue to pray for us! We love you!

Please Pray!

Barbara's grandma died yesterday. ( the one who had been beat by her son) The funeral is in a few minutes. Please pray there are no problems! There is a lot of hate toward the son because he ultimately caused her death. He has been very repentant, but we fear their will be a lot of problems. Please pray for Barbara, she feels Satan is attacking her from every corner. (she was the one who was recently baptized) More later!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I am sorry I haven't posted anything for a few days. I have been a little under the weather and really haven't had much to tell. But... I am doing much better and thought I should give all of you faithful readers, something to read! ;o)
Monday night went well. We are still praying for our friend and recovering alcoholic, Salvador. He has stopped coming to our meetings. His wife, Angelica said that he is finding it too hard to leave all of the customs of their people behind. At this time of year there are MANY customs that are against the Bible's teachings. Please pray for this family as they are struggling in many ways.
On the bright side, we are finding that many of our new believers have committed to leave behind these customs. This is an extremely hard thing for them to do and there is a lot of pressure from their family and friends to participate in these rituals. Please pray that God would bless them for leaving behind these different customs to follow Him.
We are trying to offer them other ways to celebrate during this holiday season. So we will be having a special night on December 29th in honor of the birth of Jesus.We are very excited about being able to give each one of the children who have been coming on Monday night, a shoebox filled with gifts. We have about 35 shoeboxes that we will distribute during this celebration! That is one of the perks of living in another country, we don't have to end the celebration on the 25. Please pray that we have enough shoeboxes for everyone and that they will see this as a celebration of the birth of Christ and not just another ritual. We thank you for your prayers! God bless all of you!

Barbara being baptized

Baptism went great!

Hi everyone,

We had a great day yesterday! The baptism went great! It was a little different since the only place we could find to do it was about an hour and a half away. There are places here, but it is sooo cold that it would have been torture! So, we went on a day trip and had a blast. Barbara and Icho shared their hearts with us throughout the day and Icho mentioned that he too felt like he should be baptized but just wasn't ready. We are so thankful to all of you for your continued prayer support! It means the world to us! I will keep trying to upload a picture of the wonderful event!

If you are sending Christmas cards and are looking for our address somewhere, you won't find it. We have no mailing address. However, if you are interested in sending one you can send them to my mother-in-law's address and she can bring them to us when she comes in a few weeks. Just email me for the address and I will send it to you. Thanks again for your prayers! Missy and family

Baptism

Well, just like most things in our life, our plans for the baptism have been changed. Due to a conflict in schedules we had to change the day for the baptism. So... we are heading out tomorrow, Wednesday at 9 am for Barbara's baptism. Please pray everything goes well and we all have a great day. I will do my best to post some photos tomorrow night. Thanks for lifting us up! Missy

Great night!

Hi everyone,
I only have a second to write, but I wanted you all to have an update on our night last night. We are now averaging about 30-35 people each week. Last night we had three new visitors that we have been praying about. Our friends have been inviting many of their friends and family and some are beginning to come! That is a big PRAISE!!

Last night was the first night that we had about an hour where they all shared and talked about one verse in the Bible. There is one man, Prisiliano that has started to take over the role of leader. He is sharing scriptures and praying and even answering the door. God is truly answering our prayers about this because this man needs to be ready to take over in about 6 months. (at which time we will return to the States for 10 months) Please pray that God will equip Prisiliano with every skill needed to become a pastor. We have started our first outreach group! How great is that? Greg, Prisiliano and his wife Petra will be visiting people this week. They will be visiting friends or family members of our group who have either shown interest in coming or are sick and need prayer. We are very excited about this new addition to our Monday night meetings.

Thursday we will have a break from school. In the States the boys had snow days sometimes and here, well... we have baptism days! ;o) Thursday we will take Barbara, her husband, Icho and their 3 children to a town about an hour and a half away, (where it is still hot) where she will be baptized. We are so excited about this and can't wait to see what God is going to do with Barbara! Hope you all have a great day today!

Annie and Mommy

high speed internet and more pics, couldn't resist!

She really is the best present! Well, my 2 boys too, but that shirt would look stupid on them! :o)

2 more pictures

This is Annie at lunch and Alberto looking at us. That is all for now.:o) Thank you all for your prayers! ~Missy~

more pics

This at the bottom is picture is of Annie and her physical therapist, Jenny. She loves Jenny. The one above that one is of Megan who is also a physical therapist. They love Annie and they were the only thing Annie looked forward to all day. She colored them each a picture and was happy when she finally got to give the pictures to them. Last night Annie prayed at dinner, she said, " Dear God, thank you for Jenny, please help her not get tired when she helps all the kids." I was crying before dinner ever started. ;o}

I never told you where the boys were all day. Thankfully they stayed with some other missionaries here in Guadalajara and had a blast! They played all day, ate Krispy Kreme doughnuts and generally were spoiled all day. This is a picture of them with the other missionary kids! (Adrian, Bowden, and Landry)

Pictures of kids at the hospital

I couldn't take too many pictures because many of these people are very protective of their children, for good reason. I asked permission from a few people and took these few pictures of Annie with her friend, Alberto. He was so precious. He had a crush on Annie and said she had eyes like the heavens. He said, " I didn't have any luck, I just got plain old brown eyes." He helped Annie paint a craft. The other picture is of a little girl who had been burnt, but fortunately, like Annie nothing burnt her precious face. Then the last one is of Annie watching a puppet show with some other kids. As you can see, she definitely stands out in the crowd!

Long Day!

We arrived at the hospital at 8:30 am. We took a number, #132 and waited. 8 hours later we were seen. 15 minutes later we were leaving. Needless to say Annie, Greg and I were very tired of being at the hospital. Although it was a long day, it was worth it. The Dr. said she looked great and he thought that in 3-6 months her scar which is still very red would turn skin color. She doesn't have to wear her pressure garments anymore, which is huge! I haven't mentioned her warts, but the way the dermotologist told us to take them off was causing way too much pain. This Dr. told us to use a razor and shave a little off each day and then wrap it in banana peel, so we will see if it works. ;o}

I have lots of pictures to upload and will do that tomorrow. Annie made lots of friends at the hospital and we heard so many heart breaking stories. We saw one little boy without any face. He had a little bit of a mouth, but that was it. Literally no face. Greg and I would just sit there looking at all of these 149 children all around us and couldn't stop thanking God that Annie wasn't hurt worse! We returned home and I had received the following email, prayer request from our friends in Africa. We heard many stories just like this one! Please pray for this family!

Friday morning a family of seven was brought into the hospital with severe burns. They were storing fuel in their home and it exploded when preparing to cook. The have burns anywhere from 15% to 55% of their bodies. Please pray for this family. It is very difficult to treat these types of wounds especially without water and electricity. The next few days will be critical in their chances of survival. Pray for healing and pray for wisdom for the staff as they treat him.

In His hands, The Pirkles

Thank you all for your prayers! Missy

82 and washing clothes

This is our neighbor, Aldolfo, who is around 82 years old. Now how many men do you know wash their own clothes? How many do you know wash them by hand? Poor thing washes his clothes by hand in freezing water every day! He is so precious! Pray for him as he has some health problems that are causing him so pain. Okay, that is all for now, I will try and upload some more tomorrow. ~Missy~

Couldn't resist!

Now, how many of you would wash your clothes with the water that the rooster was taking a bath in? Okay, I couldn't resist adding this one too!

Santa says, " JO JO JO!"

I tried to take a better picture of this but the Wal-mart COPS stopped me. So this will have to do. I thought this sign was funny. It says "Please don't touch me! JO JO JO" The Jo Jo Jo is what seems funny because it translates Ho Ho Ho but, when you read it, it still looks like he is saying Jo Jo Jo! What was even better is that the cops were more concerned about me taking the picture than they were about my kids touching the Santa!

Picture of "Grandma"

I am here at our hotel where we have high-speed internet. So I thought I would upload some photos. This is a picture of Grandma. Barbara and I brought her some food and it was like giving food to a starved animal. She ate and drank as if she had never eaten before. Continue to pray for her as she is very unhealthy.

Our 3 Christmas Angels

Annie's favorite Christmas ornament for the moment!

Alex ready to eat his Cap'n Crunch!

Captain Crunch

Hi everyone,



I wanted you all to know that I sent out our monthly newsletter today and if you didn't receive one and would like to, please email me and let me know and I will add you to our list. We have had a good few days. We go shopping one day a week and buy groceries. Going to the grocery store is a family affair and we all enjoy it together. We separate and Jerod and Annie always go with Greg and Alex always goes with me. If I ever need to find anything Alex can ALWAYS find it! His eyes are amazing! Anyway, each week we look to see if we can find any new items that have been sent from the States. As we were walking down the cereal isle which is usually pretty sad because they don't have much that we like, Alex comes a runnin' and says," Mama, Mama can you believe it?" He was holding up a box of Captain Crunch. You should have seen the look on his face. It was as if he had found gold! As we were leaving he said, " This has been the best day of my life!" So I am going to buy every box they have, wrap them up and wala, Christmas shopping done! I am trying without any luck to upload a priceless picture of him and his box of Captain Crunch! I will keep trying!

Tomorrow we leave for Guadalajara for Annie's Dr. appointment. Please pray it all goes well. She has started to have bad dreams again. I don't know if it has anything to do with this or not, but, please pray anyway! We should have internet at the hotel so I will give you an update on how WE did. Yes WE! I think I am more anxious than she is. Her appt. is at 8 am on Saturday, so if you think about it, please pray for us! Thank you all! We love you, Missy

God still answers prayer!

Hi! I am so excited right now! Greg just got home from taking cookies to Barbara. I felt bad for her and thought some good ole chocolate cookies might make her feel better.
I have been praying on and off all day for grandma and the whole situation and felt so helpless. But, if I am praying to the creator of the world, why do I feel helpless? The answer is because I am a peon of a person and have very little faith. I mean, I'd like to say I prayed and expected everything to turn out perfectly, but in all actuality I prayed and thought, I HOPE it all works out okay.
Well, Greg got to her house and he said she was literally beaming. He said she went to see her grandma today and was met by her uncle. This is the man that has been beating his mother and wanted her dead. Barbara said she met a new man today. It wasn't the old, mean, hate filled man, it was a kind, sweet, remorseful man. She said she couldn't believe at how he had changed, it truly happened overnight! She said he started crying and said he was going to start attending AA and asked her to forgive him and asked his mom to forgive him too! Barbara explained to him that we had been praying and that she had asked God to change his heart! HA!! Well, who says miracles don't happen anymore? Needless to say, Barbara's faith has just increased a ton! I can't tell you what this does for us! So, thank you for praying and for reading and for caring! It really is working! Love you all so much!! Missy

A different kind of Monday

Helllllooooo everyone. Sometimes I feel sorry for all of you because you are reading my boring old entries! So, I will try and make our life seem more interesting! Last night we had about the same amount of people as usual except we had 6 visitors from other villages. This was a first for us. We have never had believers from other places come and join us, but it was awesome! The meeting lasted longer because they all wanted to talk about different things that are happening around them. The story we heard was about the demon possessed man. They started talking about different people they know who are possessed. Ha, shows you how well I know our people. This was the first time I had ever heard anything like that! The meeting went well and we all learned a lot!

We are seeing our friends really take on the role of followers of Jesus. They are all using Bible stories to encourage their friends or family when they have a problem. Last night Barbara was crying so hard. Her grandma, who I have always just called grandma, is soooo bad off. I don't think I have ever mentioned her on this site, but she can't walk, has no food or water and her son beats her. He wants her dead so he can have her house. The police here won't do anything about it. So, she doesn't know how to help her grandma. It is extremely sad and we want to help but don't know how either. SO, please pray for grandma and Barbara too. After she made the decision to get baptized many things have gone wrong. No money, illness, no medicine, and now this with her grandma. Satan just won't let up! I will try and post a picture of grandma! Thanks for all of your prayers!

Annie goes to the Dr.

Hi guys! We had a great weekend! We went to our first real Mexican fair! It was so fun! It was a lot like a fair in the U.S. but with a lot more people and a lot cheaper! We always laugh at some of the things you see that would never happen in the U.S. because of safety reasons! They had a circus that was fun, but I kept waiting for one of the people to seriously get hurt. They do all of these things like you would see on a flying trapeze, without safety nets or harnesses or anything. I couldn't enjoy it, because I was praying the whole time! I tried to take pictures but they didn't turn out too well. Anyway, we took our whole Monday night group with us and had a lot of fun with them all! It was a good way to get out of town and enjoy some family fun!

Please pray 4 Annie! We leave this Friday to got to Guadalajara to see the Drs. from Galveston. They make several trips here to Mexico since the majority of their patients live here. We have been talking about seeing the Drs. again and she seems okay with it. She starts talking about things that happened and things she remembers seeing. She is more worried about seeing all of the other patients again. She keeps talking about one boy who had his hand burned off and that really scares her. So, I guess if you could pray first that the Drs. would say she is doing very well and second that it doesn't cause old emotions to surface and cause her problems. Thanks so much! Love and hugs! Missy