Settling in

Hi everyone,

I guess you could say we are settling in. We went to church yesterday and then had a wonderful lunch with our friends. It was nice to be around other people. We were beginning to have that "snowed in" feeling. We headed to the pool today and it was strange to have to search the pool for our family. Usually we stick out like big light bulbs and here we actually blended in.

The heat has been something we are all having to get used to. It is definitely not like this in our village. I don't think I have sweat this much since living in Mexico! We are getting to know our neighbors slowly. It is neat being surrounded by people who are attending the seminary. The apartments we live in are owned by the seminary and in order to live here, someone in the family needs to be taking a certain amount of classes there. They have all been super nice and very welcoming. The boys haven't made any friends yet, but we hope that will change soon. Our good friends, the Mims, live about 40 minutes from here, so we plan on spending the 4th with them and that should make the boys very happy! I promise to post some more pics soon. I have been lazy. I am just a little tired, I guess. I haven't been able to sleep very well..... TOO QUIET!! I miss my chickens and roosters! Oh the differences! I think I will be purchasing a noise machine! (or a rooster) I think my neighbors would probably prefer the noise machine! :o)

We talked to some of our friends today. It made me miss them soooo much! We are getting ready to call all of them in a few minutes because they are all together for their Monday night meeting. We wanted to encourage them all and tell them how much we love and miss them. Please keep praying for them. Angelica moved back in with her husband. I don't know if that is good or not?!?!? Her boys, however stayed at their grandparent's home. It's tough. Okay, I know this is long. Love you!! Missy

Off to church

Sturdy storage boxes! What a deal!


Okay, so I need to hide the cords, but a tv, and 2 of those boxes for only $9? What a bargain!!Love yard sales!! It made going to Target a little less painful!! :o)


Understand my dilemma?

Hello everyone! Yesterday was a good day. We spent most of it at Super Target. They were happy I am sure! We left with 2 carts FULL. Of course I had many close to melt downs in the store. The hardest decisions were which shower curtain to buy, since they were pricey and which cheese to buy, shredded or in a block. ( I am used to shredding it myself) Shredded won! Anyway, we had a good time and definitely bought MOST of what we needed. Our apartment looks lived in and the boys are happy.

ONLY IN AMERICA!!
We did hit our first yard sales. Yes, it is true I hadn't even been here for 24 hours and we were at a yard sale! :o) We met some wonderful men who were in charge of selling their wives things. It was funny. We bought a small tv for the boy's room for $5 and these great wooden boxes for only $2 each!! We were amazed! The boys kept saying the people in our village would go crazy! We think about them a lot. We saw some furniture in front of the dumpster and we were guessing which friend would have grabbed it first. We miss them already.

So we are getting ready to visit an old friend's church today. I am sure we will have a lot of culture shock there! I will let you know how it goes! Love you all, I really do!! Missy

Delight thyself in the Lord!

Greg unpacking.



The boys enjoying their new bunk bed.


Food that BBC blessed us with! How did they know all the foods we missed?

Magnet on fridge....Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord...(the rest of the Psalm says) and he will give you the desires of your heart. HE has definitely done that!!

Yay God! We have been blessed! We arrived at our apartment yesterday and found a wonderful new "comfy couch" house awaiting us! We have many "THANK YOUS" to say ! First we would like to say thank you to our Church, (our home church) who managed to bless us with a bunch of groceries to get us started! Thank you to the Cogdill family who are members at BBC and did the shopping and brought the groceries to us! Thank you to my parents for helping to move us here and thank you to their friends the Grahams for giving them a place to stay for the night. Lastly thank you to all who give. Churches that help support this seminary are the reason that m's are able to live in this seminary housing for free. Thank You!!

Okay, now let me tell you all that our first night was wonderful! Peaceful sleep! We all slept great and everyone is liking their new beds. We are planning on a big Target shopping spree today. Hooray! Love Target! I read one blog and she always puts "Confessions of a Targetaholic" on her page. I think I may end up doing the same. Poor Wal-mart is about to take a very nasty turn for the worse! I think I may try and avoid it at all costs.

I have thought of a few observations to tell you. Yesterday Annie asked us why the people in Mexico throw trash everywhere and the people here in America didn't. Of course we didn't know what to tell her. She is continually amazed when the paper flushes and she looks really scared as she drinks the water out of the faucet. She keeps saying, "Are you SURE Mommy?"

Today we had "Dishwasher Use 101" with Alex. Open door, put bowl and spoon in, close door. He just smiled and said, " I think I've got it!" Jerod hasn't had too many things "new" to him. I will keep you updated. I am sure there will be more to come. Until later, I am going out for some more culture shock! Love you and.....Thank YOU for praying! Missy

On our way to Wake Forest!

Okay, so the few days at my parent's house has been nice but now it is on to reality. We are leaving today to move to our new home. We will be staying in an apartment on campus at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, NC. Annie is very excited about bathtubs! She has had a bath every night since we have been here and LOVES them!! She is happy to know that her "new" home has a bathtub. She still is very confused when we say we are going home, she says, "Home, San Lorenzo?" So, she still had no clue! Please pray that we have a safe trip to our new home and that the transition will go well. No more grandparents around, no more cousins, no more aunts, what will they do? Thanks for continuing to pray for us. I will continue to post as long as you continue to follow!! Love, Missy

Landing... and then....Culture Shock

Friends forever!

The Twiddy family left America with us 4 years ago and they were the perfect family to greet us at the airport!


This is the family that for a few days ministered to the Purepechas in Mexico City with their church.



Thank you so much for praying! We had every possible blessing given to us! We got all of our 10 bags checked under weight and didn't have to pay for any of them! PTL!! That almost never happens for us! Both flights left almost on time and the one that left 10 minutes late arrived 30 minutes EARLY! WHAT??? I mean, that is GOD!! The kids did great, although we were very tired, they all did great!

NEAT, small world story!! There was one Mexican family of 3 that boarded the plane with us in Mexico City. We noticed them because they were sitting right beside us while we waited to board. Then we saw them again when we were buying our pizza in Washington, D.C. and then they ended up sitting behind us on the plane to Charlotte. So, when Greg heard the mother singing praise and worship songs to her little 2 year old girl, he asked her if she was a Christian. She said, "Yes." She then said they had been on a mission trip in Mexico City. Greg explained that we were missionaries and that we worked with an indigenous group called the Purepechas. She said, "Oh, we worked with them for a day or two in Mexico City."

Okay, a little background...now a few weeks back I told you we had an overnight guest passing through. Well, that overnight guest's name is David. He works in Mexico City and has been trying to reach the Purepechas that work in Mexico City. So while he was there Greg gave him a set of our stories in Purepecha on CD.

She said there are some missionaries that have been working with them and the do Bible studies with them in Spanish and they have some Bible stories on CD in Purepecha. At this point Greg and I are smiling and he said, "What is that missionaries name?" She said, "David." That is when we said, "You know those CDs, we gave those to him!" It was really quite wild! It was awesome to hear how this church in Greenville, SC was sending Mexicans back to reach their own people. I know times are tough, but they spent their money to go to a place their families left years ago, to try and reach their people.

Then we landed and were met by our friends the Twiddys and my parents. It was awesome to see family and friends. We ate at Cracker Barrel and enjoyed some good ole SWEET TEA! and home grown veggies. Then we had to stop by CVS and that is when the culture shock hit. All I needed was toothpaste, deodorant and saline solution. There were 800 choices of each. Okay, I may be exaggerating a tiny bit, but I sat there and looked at the isle bewildered trying to figure out what to buy. I closed my eyes grabbed something and left. Then I was out walking in my parents neighborhood this morning and I saw a man watering his flowers with a hose. I had the strangest urge to run and get a big bucket and fill it up for all of my friends. So, I have a lot to get used to! I will try and post more pictures later. My parents Internet is not wanting to allow it. Sorry! Love you ALL! Missy

Chapter 2 begins....

Here we go!! We are sitting in the Mexico City airport waiting for our flight to leave. It is 8:41 am and we have been up since 4. Annie is already acting tired and wanting to sleep again. Could be a VERY long day! Our plane leaves Mexico City for Washington, D.C. at 9:54 am and we will make it to Charlotte, NC at 6:45 pm tonight. Please pray our flights go well with no delays and that we arrive with all of our luggage. I will continue to post regularly. Not sure exactly how exciting it will be, but I am sure I can find something fun to post for all of you faithfuls!! Love you all so much! Missy and family

Having fun with friends!

That's a lot of pizza!


Jerod acting like he is COOL! in his new hat he made.

Annie having her new friend sign her cool painter's hat.

Alex working on his painter's hat.

J and A enjoying their pizza.

Annie enjoying her's too!

Hi everyone! We are hoping that our first Friday night meeting without us went well. We prayed for them all at 7 pm tonight when we knew they would be meeting. We plan on calling tomorrow to find out how it went. We have been having a wonderful time since we have been here! Visiting with old friends is always so refreshing! We always have so much to catch up on and so much in common. It is really nice to share our stories with one another and pray for eachother as well!

Our kids have had a blast! The hotel we are staying in, is right beside a Peter Piper Pizza, which is like Chuckie Cheese but much better! So we all ate lunch there and enjoyed time with our friends. Please continue to pray for us. We have a full day tomorrow and plan on spending a lot of time together with our friends, praying for different people groups. Love to you all! Missy

Last day.... boo hoo!

We made it! The kids had a wonderful time swimming in the pool once we made it to our first destination. We will head to Puebla, Mexico tomorrow.


Ever seen a Purepecha Yard Sale? I hadn't either, until yesterday. It was hilarious!! I told them to come to my house, I would open my door promptly at 5 and they could buy whatever I was selling for a very good price. This was the food we were selling. Everything went for about 5 cents.


I had just opened the door.

A lady grabbing the boys bedspreads. She was HAPPY!!

Fighting over food.

"Whew, this is hard work!"

This is Jerod's "Purepecha" mama, Mimica. He is gonna miss her, and she and her boys will miss him too!

It was hard saying goodbye to Mada and Adolfo. They own the land we live on and their son owns our house. They have been a big part of our lives ever since the first day we arrived here. Sometimes more of a part than I would have liked since Mada is somewhat of a snoop! :o) But today as we said a so so sad goodbye, the tears started flowing. Both of them started and then of course, I started and well, it was just one big pitty party! I just hope and pray they are still there when we return. Will you pray for them?

The lost sheep. He was the last one too! We stopped by on our way out of the village to say goodbye to Salvador. He was all by himself in his house. It was really quite sad. We talked to him and prayed with him. He said he didn't want to leave God, he wants to change, he just can't seem to beat his addiction. His heart is good, his addiction is BAD! Will you pray?

Okay, we are now safely tucked away in a nice, comfy, Holiday Inn Express and are enjoying rest and relaxation. We have eaten a wonderful meal at Chili's and we saw the movie "A Night At the Museum 2." We all loved it! It was a very tough last few days and we are glad that we made it through them in one piece! ;o) Although it was really sad to say goodbye to some of our friends it was nice knowing they were all united as a church and hopefully we will return with a stronger group than we have now! Please continue to pray for us over the next week as we will be meeting with other IMB missionaries and we will have our annual meeting. There will be many traveling from many different areas, please pray for all of our travels! Thank you! Love you!! Missy

Saying good~bye....

I hate saying good~bye I really do! However, I said it a 100 times yesterday and will say it again today. We plan on leaving today hopefully before noon. We are ready! It has been a hard last few days. It is never easy when you are living like this and the stress level is high and your kids are excited and a little crazy. There have been many tears shed and many voices raised and tempers flaired. Oh, did I say that? I bet you guys thought we never did those things since we are missionaries! ;o) Anyway, I am sure they will be glad to be done with this process just so they can have their parents back! We are headed to a larger city today to spend the night in a hotel. So hopefully we can do something fun today once we get out of here. We love our people but we have said enough good~byes to last us at least a year or more.

Please pray for our travels. We will be traveling today and tomorrow. Tomorrow we will head to Puebla, Mexico for our companies' annual meeting and we are all looking forward to that one last time before we leave Mexico next Tuesday. I love you all! Missy

Oh, high speed internet is coming at these hotels, so look for many photos! ;o)

Great night! Sad night! Fun night! Last night! :o}

So happy Miguel, Salvador's son was there, he was happy too!


We gave out plants to remind them of how the seed sower's plant should look when the seed falls on fertile soil.

Greg enjoying his last supper!

Angelica with a big smile, I was very happy to see that!

At the end we prayed for the "Lost sheep" who is Salvador. She cried and we know it is all gonna be just fine!

What an awesome night! We laughed and cried and generally had an incredible time. I really didin't know what to expect. EVERYONE came. That in itself was a miracle. Since yesterday was when they celebrated Corpus Christi (still not sure why) there was a HUGE party right beside our church. It was kinda like the devil was right outside laughing at us. They were litterally on the other side of a brick wall worshipping a statue and almost ALL of them were drunk as they did so. You could hear them hootin' and hollerin' as we were giving thanks to God for all of the many blessings we have been given over the past 3 years together. ( not at us, but just hootin' and hollerin' because they were drunk)

It was precious. Although it is a very idolic festival we knew most all of our friends would attend this party because it is just about the only fun thing that happens in the village all year. Everyone gets dressed up in their best clothes and it is more or less a reason for all of the women to show off their clothing. So we knew that many may not come, however, we had 45 come and we were thrilled to see them all one last time! I will try and add more pics later. However Greg is yellin' "LET'S GO!!" as we are heading into town for a few last errands. I am not a task master obviously! So, gotta go!

Enjoying their last days

Jerod showing his new house he built. This is where you store the wood.


This is the homemade soccer goal, the house is behind it, they are the same size!

Jerod's kitchen.

Little House on the Prarie, eat your heart out! Jerod's living room.

Jerod standing next to his house. Notice above his head to the right they even made something to collect water. How creative! I love this!!

Jerod and Alex love the village life. It just suits them! I am so glad that we are leaving on a good note. Not too long ago Jerod was getting miserable because the older kids were picking on him. They were bulleying him and he just decided he wanted to return to the US because it would be better there. Hopefully it will be better. However, he prayed about his situation and decided he would just start playing with other kids. The only other kids around that aren't married or bad influences are 6 and 8. So..... he chose them to spend his time with. He has loved every minute of it! They see him as a big brother and he has really enjoyed playing with them, creating with them, building with them and generally having fun with them!

Alex never really had a problem, as long as he had a good soccer ball he was happy. He plays with some of the kids who bullied Jerod but they don't seem to mess with Alex. Don't know why? Anyway, we are happy that they are both leaving here, not wanting to leave. That way, hopefully they will both have good memories and want to return after our time in the states. Please pray our transition goes well!

I am not worried about Annie wanting to return here, but I am worried about her transition to the states. She continues to ask me if we are going to live in the comfy couch house. (the house we stayed in when she was burnt) It is the only house she has ever lived in while we were in the states. She has stayed with relatives but she has always known that was Aunt Jenny's house or MamaSay's house, but the comfy couch house was the only one where she thought was our home. So, needless to say, she is confused about where we will live when we get to the US. Pleeeeese pray! Love, Missy

Another Saint

I would say that this cross stitched napkin says a lot, it is of a cup of wine. Don't know why it is on his shoulder, but why?

Okay, I guess this is Corpus Christi on a bed with a friend? Who knows! I will find out!

This was the start of the procession. They were covering the priest to keep the sun off of him.

Then came all of the different saints in their boxes.

These precious feet had to carry those boxes. Don't know how they don't break their ankles.

This man couldn't even make it through the parade without starting his drinking. He would play a note and drink, play another, and drink, it was quite interesting to watch! You actually have to be quite talented to do this!

Okay, this one got me, the red jug is to carry "holy" water in. He had something other than water in his and he was pouring it in his drinking goards. He had one thing on his mind, and it had nothing to do with anything regarding religion.

Hi! Today started a fiesta in our village celebrating yet another saint. Oh how it makes me sad to see. I don't know all of the beliefs regarding this saint but I know it has a lot to do with drinking, spending a LOT of money, and worshiping a saint. Corpus Christi is who they are celebrating and I am not altogether sure why and I know they don't really know either. I will try and find out more tomorrow. I wanted to share these pictures with you today. Tomorrow will be busy for us and I know I won't have much time, so I thought I would try tonight. This is supposed to be a religious "fiesta" but all we see them do is drink. I just don't understand.

Jerod has decided that alcohol is altogether a bad invention. All he sees is that is causes harm to people. Not such a bad thing for him to see. I am a little worried that he will return to the states and think that anyone he sees drinking will just end up on the floor or beating his/her spouse. Please pray we can help him understand that not everyone drinks like they do here. I know drinking is big in the states, but it is different. Here, it seems like it is ALL they do. Not all the people of course but if you drink, you drink until you can't stand up. There are always drunks in the streets during these "fiestas." There are a lot of horseback riders during some of the parades, yesterday the kids saw some men on horseback passed out drunk. It is one of the saddest things we have seen. It ruins lives here. As you have seen with our friends Salvador and Angelica. Things are the same with them as of today. Keep praying! I will post more tomorrow! Love, Missy

The picture

I know, I know this picture above is NOT the one that looks like it won however, after the poll closed I received a few more votes by email and that put this one over the top. Which I must say I was relieved about. I was having a hard time with number 96 because of the hair on my neck. I know that is stupid, but, oh it bugged me! So, now you know why that one is the winner. Thank you all for helping make this all important decision! You are such a huge part of my life and I really count on all of you for so much!

Please pray for us today. We are going to talk to Salvador again today. He hasn't been drinking for 2 days now, we think he his sick. Please pray he will receive us well. Love, Missy

Last Friday night

This is Jerod with his group of the smaller kids. They made cups with a little man sticking out, and filled it with water to show Peter walking on water. Then they drew pictures of Jesus calming the storm. I must say, Jerod had done an EXCELLENT job with teaching these kids!


Greg and Prisiliano showing how Peter had to keep his eyes on Jesus when walking across the water.

Hi all, Last night was our last Friday night meeting. It went really well. The story was on Jesus calming the storm and Peter walking on water and the faith he needed in Jesus to do so. Angelica was there ( I was SO glad) and she related well to this story. They talked about sometimes how even though we have faith we also have doubts. That although Peter had faith, he doubted he could walk on the water, but how when he kept his eyes on Jesus he could do it. It was awesome to see the group encourage her, wrap their arms around her and pray over her. They let her know that Jesus would calm this storm in her life as well, she just needed to keep her eyes on Him. Greg said, "It's so neat how God planned that, I had that story on the calendar 3 weeks ago, and it just worked perfectly for her!" Angelica left encouraged, teary eyed and feeling as though she had just spent 2 hours with family. Can I tell you how proud I am of this group? SO proud! Please continue to pray for Angelica and Salvador. He is walking on a dangerous path. They are going to meet with the "Mayor" today. Pray all goes well. Love to you all!! Missy

My party on Saturday

They wanted to take my picture. So, there I am!


Eating and talking and enjoying eachother!

Mimica so happy with her little gift, it doesn't take much!

We played the "Missy" trivia game. They were all questions about my life here and in the states to see who knew me best. They loved it! Angelica was thrilled with this bottle of hair gel she won!

They LOVE hot dogs! They were happy, happy, happy!

I don't know if you can tell from this picture but they loved the fun balloon napkins. Most of them saved them and took them home. This woman was looking at it like it was the neatest thing ever!

I love this, because it shows even when there is a bench, they always choose the floor!

My friend Angelica taking charge of making the hot dogs.

Hi everyone! Days are flying by and I still haven't told you how my party went. I wanted to show you the pictures.

This is what happened. I woke up on Saturday morning throwing up and well.... the other and thought... I have to cancel the party. Greg told me to wait because maybe it would pass and I would feel better. So, I waited. I prayed. Then I prayed that someone else would pray. I felt absolutely horrible. I didn't throw up anymore and I was sure it was something I had eaten and not a virus but I had no idea how I could have all these women in my house and have a party. Greg took the kids into the nearest city and told me not to cancel it until I knew for sure I couldn't do the party. Mainly because we didn't have many other days to do the party and we both knew that canceling this party would mean that many would end up not coming and I would have to have a party 3 days before we were going to leave. I did NOT want to do that! So I called the women that had phones to see if they could come one hour later and they said they could. Then I had one friend go and tell the others that didn't have phones. Anyway, I kept thinking of Phillipians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I made up my mind I could do it and I did. I knew if I told my friends I wasn't feeling well, they would take charge and they did. It all went wonderful and little by little I felt better. Not great, but better. We shed many tears as I told them how much I would miss them. We laughed a lot! Watched a movie, painted our nails and generally had a wonderful time together! God is so good to me! I remember 4 years ago just praying that God would send me friends here. I thought if I have some friends, I know everything will be fine no matter what my living conditions are. He has blessed me with wonderful friends! There were 16 in all! I am blessed! Love you! Missy