Last day with the team.

This was our team's last day and we took them to a fun tourist spot. This is called, Janitzio and it is a Purepecha island. They live off of tourism and we helped their economy! This is the team in front of a very famous statue. It is at the top of the island and when you get to the top you can climb up inside of the statue and peek out of his hand. They all enjoyed doing that!

This was at the restaurant where we ate. The three of the boys in the front were dancers that do a typical Purepecha dance. They were the owner's grandsons and they did a dance just for us.

This is the statue of a man named Morelos. I took this when they were in the hand. I will have to post another one where you can actually see Rachael in the hand.

This island is called, Janitzio and it is a Purepecha island. They live off of tourism and we helped their economy!

Do you appreciate your water? Imagine having to carry your bottles of water up to your home. There are a ton of stairs here because the island spirals up to the top and their are no cars, horses, donkeys or anything to help them with this job they rely on good old fashion shoulders!

This little girl was too precious! I took more of her but only had time to download one. She was just standing there by herself and wanted to see her photo after it was taken.

One thing that they sell a lot of is fish. These little fish are just simple minnows. Now for some people eating fried minnows with eyes and a tail is no big deal. For others....like Racheal and I it is tough. However, she arose to the occasion and took the plunge.

"I can't believe I am doing this!"

"Oh it's grose! I mean really grose!" As you can see, Alex was enjoying this!

This was the little guy after Racheal got ahold of him!

"Okay, I am doing it, see!"

"I did it!" I am with Racheal, not exactly something I will willingly do again!

This is how they are sold. Some actually have their mouth open. Yuck! Greg loves them. He is weird!

Please pray for us this week as we will be traveling. Pray all goes well with travels and we have no delays of any kind! Pray also for my sweet friend Fair. I talked to her last night and she is doing well but does need prayer for quick healing. Pray also for a friend of mine named Krista. She lost her father yesterday and I know she and her family are suffering. She is my age and her father was a very well known person among our company. Thanks for praying for us. We always need it. So if you are thinking about us for any reason, pray! Love you! Missy

Okay, so this is out of order. This was of Jim, Annie and me on the boat that takes you to the island.

What happens when we pray.....

This is Juanito and he is precious. When he first met us this is how he looked.

Then as he gets to know you he starts to warm up and he looks like this.

Then after spending some time with him you can get him to do this! Have I mentioned that I love my job?

The team is off... and we are sad!

Well friends..... our house is a lot quieter, not much going on here. The team left for the airport at around 8:30 am and will be heading back to the US. It was a wonderful week full of great times and lots of laughs. We enjoyed the worship and eating together, seeing the smiling faces and watching our people fall in love with our friends. I get emotional watching our people meet and love on our other people. It is like you are seeing what it will be like in heaven. I have never been so happy to call myself a M. This is the job for me. To see people fall in love with Jesus and then grow in their faith. It is just plain fun! Kingston Ave. will always be remembered here and always be talked about by the people with whom they touched. There are more pictures and I will try and pick the best ones to put on here. That is a tough job but I will try.

Before I try and download lots of pictures I need to ask you to pray. Please pray for my sweet friend Fair. Fair has been my friend for many years! Our friendship was birthed in Asheville, NC and has grown stronger ever since. I was fortunate enough to be able to catch up with her while we were in Wake Forest as she now lives near there. While we were there Fair was blessed by God with a horrible ear infection that gave her verdigo and made her extremely ill. Although the Drs. were sure all she had was an inner ear problem, they did an MRI to make sure there were no other problems. Because they did this, they found she had a brain anyurism. Had this not happened I cringe to think what would have happened. However, God is good! He showed them at just the right time what they needed to know. She had brain surgery on Tuesday and is now recovering at home. She shouldn't have any problems now. However, Fair tends to heal slowly from things. So, PLEASE pray for my friend, Fair. She needs prayer that she won't have any ceizures and that the large scar on her head will heal quickly. Pray also for her husband, Tom and their 4 children. They are very close friends of ours and it would mean a lot to me if you prayed! Thank you! Missy

Volcano Paricutin behind them

Lupita giving Rachael a gift.

Rachael with Cesilia, Ani and Lupita

Jamie trying to be a Purepecha woman and make tortillas.

Rachael actually got good at this process. They were showing their tortillas. The big one is our friend, Angelicas.

Enjoying typical soup.

Jim washing his hands in the "faucet."

Lupita, Rachael and Annie at church.

The three of us showing off our outfits.

VBS at the start....

VBS at the end.

Jamie preaching.

An older Christian couple, happy to be a part of the VBS day.

 On our porch having devotions in front of a fire. We are blessed. More pictures to come! Love you all! Missy

Tons of fun

Hi everyone! I missed yesterday because we did soooo much. We have been having a wonderful time and have been able to show the team many different aspects of our people! I am going to explain what most of the pictures above are about but it will not be in order. I also have to do it quickly since we are getting ready to leave to do a service project among our village.

First let me say that the picture of the team and our family is in front of one of the seven natural wonders of the world, called, Paricutin. It was impressive for them to see and they took lots of pictures. Then they enjoyed Monday night with our church. I believe Jamie preached a record for himself and it only lasted about 15-20 minutes. ( that is what Greg suggested) It was fun for the people to hear God's Word in 3 different languages.

Rachael was given a rebozo (shawl) by one of our poorest friends who spent almost all she had just to buy this gift for her. They were so proud to be able to give it to her and then Lupita (15 year old in the family) wanted to dress her for church in her Purepecha clothing. Rachael was honored and wore it to church. They were so proud to see her in their clothing. She looked great!! Of course Annie wanted to dress up too!

Earlier that day Rachael and Jamie tried to make tortillas by hand as one of our close friends tried to teach them. They were rainbow tortillas made from two different types of corn and she was so happy to serve us a very typical meal. Rachael who generally never eats many things different ate all of her soup and then ate a lot of the hominey SP? soup that was given to her that night. Unfortunately this came back to haunt her Tuesday morning and she was sick. ;o(  So Rachael and her dad stayed home on Tuesday morning while we went to a village to do a mini-VBS.

We were told to expect about 50 kids and we planned for about that many. We arrived and started with about 20 kids. We ended with 87! What a day! I have tons of pictures of the sweet children we saw but cannot put them all on here today. Maybe soon. All of the kids as well as adults had a blast. There were about 10-15 new believers there from a larger city and one of them spoke really good English. SOOOO... Jamie was in HOG heaven when he was asked to preach  to them through this translater. He spoke to them for a good hour or more and made up for his short sermon the night before! We all laughed when he told us that they asked him to sing. By himself! We asked him what he sang and he said, " I sang, At The Cross, because that is the only song I knew." We laughed and laughed that the pastor could only come up with one song he knew. There are a ton more stories to tell but everyone is waiting on me, so I will write more later! Please pray for health and safety! Love you all! Missy and friends

More pics

This is the team with our precious landlords, Mada and Adolfo. That is their oven behind them.

This lady was trying so hard to get Jamie to buy something from her. However Jamie seemed to think he wouldn't need this little girls clothing. I think he needed to buy it for the future, what do you think Krista?

Jamie with Jerod and Alex before they ate at a RESTAURANT. I say that for a reason.... next picture please........

This was what they were served at our friend's house after we left the Restaurant. YUM!!

This is Cesilia and she was showing them how it is done! :o) Now look at the next post!

This is  Annie, Jerod, Alex and Rachel playing with the kids. They had a blast and missed out on the food! How sad for them!

This was Terry's reaction to the food!

But... he tried it! Doesn't he look happy?

This was Jim's reaction.... "I can't believe I agreed to come on this trip!"

Then I showed them what that foot was really for!

Love you! More pics later today!

Day One, What Fun!

This is the team after they had been awake for 21 or so hours. They were happy to be close to a bed! They slept great that night and were all happy to be able to have church in our home at a rather late time. :o)

I will tell you, I had 100 more pictures to upload, but since the rest of the house is asleep ( it is 12:24 am) and I am still trying to get this done before I sleep, you will have to wait for the rest. The pics were taking about 10 minutes each to download. Sorry! So, we had a GREAT day and then we visited some friends for a "snack." Jamie was thinking, " You're kidding, right?" As you can see Greg is enjoying this immensely!

Greg decided he would have to show old Jamie what real M's are made of, so he dug right in. He was warned to be careful because the toe nails were sharp! Oh how I wish I had time to show you the rest because they are gooood. I mean REAL goood! :o) You will just have to stay tuned until tomorrow. I will try and do that in the am. Oh, it is the am! I am slap happy about now so I need to go before I type something crazy! Let me just say this team has eaten some good stuff today, seen things they have NEVER seen before, laughed harder than they have laughed in awhile and been blessed I am sure! Not to mention how they have blessed us with being here. It has been so good for all of us to have them here. I don't think I knew how much I needed them until this morning in worship when I felt so full! I guess after being sick I just needed a pick me up. This team has been just that! Until tomorrow! I think I may entitle our blog As the Village Turns! So for all of you soap opera lovers.... Like sands through the hourglass so are the Days of our lives. Love you! Missy

Home safe and secure!

The team has made it here safe and secure. And........EXHAUSTED! They have now been up for about 21 hours and they are soooo tired! So, I am sure that tomorrow when the roosters crow (litterally) they will think they are dreaming. We are very thankful that they all arrived safely and that there were no problems.

Here are a few of their funny stories so far.

As you go through customs you always have to push a button to see if you are going to have your bags checked. Green light means you are home free. Red light means you have to let them go through all of your bags. So, Pastor Jamie, and Jim were home free. However, Rachel and her dad, Terry got the red light and had to have their bags checked. Now keep in mind they had put a lot of our things in their bags so they could use all of the 50 pounds wisely. So they open up his bag and he sees Velveeta cheese and candy and other things and says, " This isn't my bag." Praise God it was in English and they didn't understand him! They were sniffing the Velveeta and checking everything out very closely and he finally made it through and lucky for me, he got to keep my Velveeta!:o)

So they made it to eat some burritios with Greg and he told them that you usually cannot take the glass coke bottles with you. Jamie had already thrown his bottle away and so he started digging through the trash to get his bottle. Greg asked the waitress and she said it was fine to keep them. About that time Jamie came back to them and was cleaning off his bottle that he had retrieved from the garbage can. I am sure that made for a pretty picture!

They continued on their journey home and stopped at a gas station to use the restroom and  while they were there Jamie went into the women's restroom, I think that should be told to the entire church for sure!!

Rachel and Jim haven't had any embarrassing moments yet! I will let you know when they do! We plan on having a semi relaxing Sunday so they can rest up for Monday! I will post pictures as soon as I can! Love you all! Missy

They're Coming!!

Hi friends!! Our team is coming tomorrow!! We have had a crazy good week and it has been filled with all kinds of good things. I took so many great pictures and then our camera broke. Now those of you who know I have a "Nice" camera don't need to worry, it was my cheaper "Nice" camera. However, I was still mad because I lost all of my good pictures in the process. So, I will have to try again this week. I am sure it will be a week full of lots of opportunites for good pictures. Our friends from Indiana are coming and we can't wait! It has been like Christmas here, each day Annie asks how many more days till they come! So, tomorrow will be a VERY long day for one little 6 year old. The team won't arrive at our home until about 9:00 pm our time and that just won't be okay with her, I am sure. So if you could pray for a few things, I, well, we would appreciate it!

Okay, first pray that the team has a safe and uneventful trip here. Pray their luggage all makes it here with them. Pray that they will all have a very HEALTHY week while they are here and that they don't bring home any little bugs with them! Pray that Annie can make it through the very long day until they get here. Pray that Greg will have a safe trip to get them at the airport. Pray that we will be able to accomplish all we have planned and that the weather would cooperate. Pray that we could be a blessing to our village and all the people we come in contact with throughout the week. Pray for the wives, families and children of the team; that they will all handle life without their husbands/fathers and daughter for the week. Lastly please pray for me. Pray that I won't overdo myself as I tend to want to make things perfect and can't do that. I mean even when I am perfectly healthy I am usually poopy at making things anywhere near perfect, so now I know I am doomed! :o) So, just pray I will enjoy our time together and not worry so much about the little things! Love you friends!! Missy

Oh and stay tuned all week, I PLAN on posting something short each day! I will try to post pics each day too!

Time for pictures!

Hi everyone! I am finally almost 100%! If I could make my head and face/eye stop itching, I would be great! So, thank you all for praying!! I haven't added many pictures in awhile so I thought I better get on that. I don't know why but I couldn't add words underneath the pics, so I will have to describe them here.

The first pic is some of the new people we have in our group. We are so excited about the amount of new people that are coming. But the reason they are coming is awesome. They have seen God work through our group and b/c of that they have started coming! Yay God!

Our boss and his family came to visit us yesterday and we had a great time of sharing about what God is doing. They came to our meeting and were able to meet some of the group. This picture is of one of our friends who made corn and salsa for everyone. The next picture is of our boss and his wife. I think he is telling them all what to do. He likes giving orders! Heehee! ;o) Hi Alan!

Jerod has a true passion to work with these kids and help them have an understanding of what the Bible says. He works hard to come up with crafts to do with them and they love to share what they have done. Sometimes it is just a coloring sheet, but usually they do something more than that.

We make it to the "Big City" about once a week to do our shopping and go out to eat. For the past few weeks every time we came into town someone was sick. So... this past Wednesday we made it to town and everyone felt great! We celebrated by eating at Pizza Hut. Now... Pizza Hut in the States is ok, nothing great, but Pizza Hut here is AWESOME!! They use fresh ingredients and the crust is, well, I can't describe how awesome it is. Anyway, you can see we had no trouble eating that day!

One thing I have not gotten the chance to share is that when we arrived we found that our landlord had 2 new little dogs. They aren't quite puppies, but they aren't old yet.  Greg, was well, less than excited. He isn't a fan of dogs unless they don't jump on you and they never bark. Well one of them barks and he hates that one. The other one he has taken a fancy to. His name is Loulou or Louie. He was just bones when we arrived. The other dog always stole his food. So, we are having fun trying to get Louie fat. He LOVES us!

This is Annie with her two friends Ani and Yessica. Yessica is our God daughter and we were there for her graduation from Kindergarten. They go ALL out here for such events. Annie is doing better with playing with friends and her Spanish is trying to return but it is slow. I am more frustrated than she is, I just want her to speak so she can play freely instead of worrying she is saying the wrong thing. Please pray for her.

So that about does it. I am trying to get things done today that have been left for later. With any luck I will write our newsletter. Thanks for keeping up with us! It means so much to our family. Love to you all! Missy