Happy Birthday!

Hi friends! Please wish my precious husband a happy birthday today! He turned 42 today! We had his meal of request for lunch, which was meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob and rolls. We are going to go bowling in town and then we will be back home for the first night of American Idol. I have no idea when it started there, but it starts here, tonight! Then we will eat the cake that he requested which is carrot cake. I don't know if any of you watch Everybody Loves Raymond. However, if you have ever seen one of Deborah's cakes, that is what his looks like. For some reason... and I will blame the altitude. ( above 7,000 feet) the cake looks so pathetic! I know he is wishing he married Martha Stewart about now. However, I doubt she would live with him here in the village! Then again, I do know some who do! :o) Just ain't me!!

Anyway... I received a call from my parents last night. They said,"So... we read your blog and it sounds like you are depressed." I had to laugh, parents are funny.. they seem to pick up on things that many never will. I am NOT depressed, however I was getting extremely tired when I wrote that post. Which probably made it seem like I was depressed. I do think that sometimes living here and hearing all of their problems and seeing all of their problems can become overwhelming. That added to a lack of sleep was doing me in.

I am still having pain due to my stupid Shingles and this doesn't help matters any. So.. last night I decided to stay home from church and rest with Annie. HAAAA! I have to laugh even as I type that. If you only knew what I had planned. I mean I was all bundled up, cozy as can be on my couch playing Crazy 8s with Annie when the phone rang. "NOOOOOOOOO!" It was Greg. He said that the people who own the home where we have church weren't home yet. It was an hour after the time we say church starts. People don't generally come until then anyway but no one was there, not even the owner of the house. He said, " So I am going to wait about 20 more minutes and if no one shows up, I will come home. However, IF someone shows up, can we come there?" Like I am going to say no. Oh how I wanted to . So.... about 10 minutes later (after I had done a tornado clean up in the house) about 10 people showed up. By the end of our study... there were about 45 people in my house. LOVELY!!  ;o) So I promised Greg I would never not go to church! He just laughed. It wasn't horrible but after we swept and mopped and disinfected the bathroom, I slept like a baby! So... I guess I will try and snuggle with Annie tonight! Or... maybe not.. who knows!

I love you all!! Missy

Tired

Hi friends! I am sorry I haven't been on here in a while. I just get so tired lately. It seems like we are going all the time. Greg is gone one day a week as he is trying to prepare for us a new home to live in. We are looking forward to moving to our new village in then next 4 or 5 months. Our new home has proven to be quite a challenge to get it livable; but Greg is doing a wonderful job of finding the people and buying the supplies to finish this house. Please pray for him as he travels each week to and from our new village.

I have also started a women's prayer group each week and it is going wonderfully! Once a week some of the women gather together and we pray over just about everything. From drugs in the village, to financial burdens, to health issues, to unruly teens. Just about the same things you pray for in the states. Well... all except for the drugs in the village part. ;o) Recently we have had to pray over a new issue. There have been some prostitutes being brought in from the larger city and they are creating a brothel. It makes me sick to my stomach for the village and for these women. They are truly slaves. Please pray for them.

Many of you have asked about Lupita. She is still at her home and she is still praying for a miracle. She is truly begging God for a way out of this situation. She still has no desire to get married. The guy I mentioned who is addicted to drugs is her brother and he is doing ok, I think. However, their father who was a recovering alcoholic and hadn't had anything to drink for almost 2 years; drank all weekend long. This family is being hit at every angle possible. Please pray for them. They are all suffering miserably.

The believer who was baptized a few months back, who is blind needs your prayers as well. Her daughter (who was also baptized) has run away. We know where she is and she is safe. The problem is that she was the main caretaker of her mother. Now there is no one to cook for her and wash the clothes and generally take care of her. She receives dialysis 4 times a day and she helped with that as well. So... her sister and I have been called on to help. I have now learned how to administer dialysis and if I need to do so, I will. It is amazing the things you learn in this profession. We are also rotating on who makes her meals.

Greg and I are getting tired. Everywhere we turn someone needs us. We need you to pray for us; for energy, for rest and just in general! Thank you, thank you! Without you, we just simply couldn't do this job! love to all! Missy

Village life

Okay so some days I have so many things to write on here I don't know where to begin. I see some of the saddest things here. Women who work their fingers to the bone all to be smacked in the face for not having dinner ready when their husband gets home from work.

 I watched this woman walk down the dirt street today. She was pushing her wheelbarrow that had about 3 loads of dirty clothes in it, her laundry detergent and her little 2 year old daughter in it. Now I have tried to push a wheelbarrow down our streets and I can get about a block without my hands and arms killing me. They just work so hard and my heart really goes out to them. This precious little woman who was probably no more than 18 years old not only had to walk down the street about a mile, once she got to the end of the street she had to wash all of those clothes by hand while keeping her daughter occupied. Then she had to put all of those WET clothes back into the wheelbarrow and walk home again.

 I did 3 loads of laundry today, I did them while I was watching tv, sitting on my couch and eating a snack all at the same time. Somehow I just feel so sick when I think of how easy I have it and how hard they have it. Please pray for my friends. Their lives are TOUGH!!

I know many of you ask how things are here. Well.... it isn't like it is on the border, but we do have our problems. We have problems with drugs. It seems to be a growing problem and we are seeing that it is affecting many of our young people in the village. One of our friend's sons came by the other night and was asking us for help. He said he was addicted to a certain drug and had been for 5 years. He is only 20. He mentioned to us that he was unable to go one day without smoking this drug. This is a very hardcore drug and from my research is almost impossible to get off of it without professional help.

We asked him if he was open to receiving professional help and he said he was. We were encouraged by this and prayed with he and his wife and  they left. He said he was going to talk with his mother the next day and see how she thought his father would react to this news. His father has a very explosive temper and he was afraid of what he might do.

The next day his wife came by the house and said he decided not to tell his family. He said it would only bring heartache to his mother and he knew his father would kill him. He said he was more fearful of his father killing him than of the drug. He has been having chest pains due to the continuous use of this drug. He is trying to stop using this drug on his own. Please pray for him.

As you can see my heart is heavy as there are always people close to my heart that weigh heavy on  my heart. All of your prayers are needed and appreciated! Love to you all! Missy

Culture Shock!

Arranged marriages. I have now been with our people for almost 4 years. I have learned a lot from them. I thought I knew most of the big things that were important in their culture. Well, I am learning that I will NEVER really know their culture. There are certain parts of it that are kept secret from many people.


Now…..it has taken me almost these entire four years to build a very close relationship with a young girl named Lupita. When we arrived here she was 13 years old and Annie was 2. She loved to play with Annie and Annie grew up thinking of her as one of her best friends. When we returned from our time in the states, things were a little different b/c Annie was now almost 7 and she had just turned 17. However there was still this very strong bond between them and they once again started playing when they were together. You see, Lupita still loved to play with dolls and Barbies and was still very much a little girl at heart. I tell you all of this so you will understand that she is a very young minded 17 year old and also very close to our family.

Saturday night Lupita’s parents came by our home to invite us to come to their home on Sunday for a big ceremony to announce the engagement of Lupita to a boy/man (he is 23) named Edwardo. I was so confused because Lupita never seemed interested in boys and always said she wasn’t ready to get married as deems the culture. The culture says you need to get married between the ages of 13 and 18 or you are too old. We arrived at their home with a group from our church, just in time to see this ceremony taking place. They were asking her if she wanted to marry him and him if he wanted to marry her. They both looked very sad, but said, “ Yes.” Then they all shook hands with the family members who were in a large circle and all of a sudden Lupita spotted me, darted away from the circle and ran to me.

I was thinking, “ Oh, this is a nice welcome.” She fell into my arms sobbing and said, “ I don’t want to please don’t make me, please help me.” I looked at my friend and said, “ HELP!” We took her to her bedroom and she sobbed for about 15 minutes as she told us that her mom and dad had picked him for her. They said he was a good guy, well educated, had a lot of potential and she needed to marry him. He liked her and wanted to marry her and if she didn’t accept he would find someone else and her time would be passed up. She said, I don’t have ANY feelings for him at all. I am scared and don’t want to get married yet, I am not ready. I don’t know how to cook or wash clothes or do ANYTHING. My heart broke for her. She is locked into this unless God intervenes. I promised I would pray daily for a miracle. She is still at her home until they have the wedding in the church. They seem to think this will happen in 2-3 months. I am asking you to PLEASE pray for her. She has recently put her faith in God and trusts Him completely. She is asking Him for a miracle and we have to pray for one for her. Her family has no idea that anyone knows about her feelings. She was told she BETTER keep her mouth shut and act as if she is completely fine with it all. Of course she didn’t, but it is in God’s hands now.

Thank you for taking things like this to heart and praying about them when you think about them. I know you don’t know her, but, this is a real person with real feelings and a real problem. I will keep you all up to date on everything as it all unfolds. Love to you all! Missy

Shoebox Success!

Hi friends! I have to tell you it has been a crazy few weeks! We are doing our best to try and get back into some kind of routine after the holidays and are finding this to be quite a challenge. As many of you may remember we mentioned earlier that we were going to give out shoeboxes filled with gifts for the children in our church here. We thought about doing this during the month of December, however our friends here told us that it would be more appropriate if we could give the gifts out around Dia de los Reyes. Which means Day of the Kings. They have this tradition of the 3 Kings coming and leaving children gifts on January 7th. We think this is a really neat tradition! Anyway, many of the kids here don't get anything on this day due to lack of money. So, we decided to have our party on January 8th and had a huge party with cake and food and piñatas and presents!

Now, keep in mind when kids around here, hear that there are gifts being given they come from everywhere. We did our best to keep the crowd down to our usual church children, however we did have a few party crashers. I  was getting really worried. I was counting kids and then counting presents and counting kids again, and more would come and I finally went into a room and said, " Lord, remember that story about fishes and loaves? Well, I really need you to multiply these presents so that each child gets one." Well, if He isn't the PERFECT provider, we had just enough boy presents, (22) and just enough girl presents (15) to allow each child to receive a gift.

These were the gifts we purchased waiting to be put into boxes.

These were the 3 pinatas we purchased and all the candy that went in them.

This was a typical boy's box.

Here is a typical baby box.

Here is a typical girl box.

Here is the great cake we had made, it was yummy!

This was the last chair in musical chairs. As you can see Alex was playing ref.

Here are some of the kids listening to Greg tell a story from the Bible.

This is a fun game they play when they see which team can cover their mummy best with 2 rolls of tp. Of course the funny part comes at the end when you see which mother fights over the toilet paper. :o)

This was at the start of the night when they were playing Pedro Says, like Simon Says but with a touch of Mexican influence!

Here are all of the boxes wrapped and ready to go.

The unvieling. The delight cannot be hidden!

I tried to get picture of these kids with their gifts and the pictures but it just didn't work.

If you see a boy with a hat on, it is a new hat!

Some of them don't look happy, the only thing they weren't happy about was me bothering them with taking a bunch of pictures! But.... other than that, they were extremely happy!!

Ready for battle!

He did get a box, he wasn't in one as a gift! Although, I would take him!!

This was all made possible by a few of you who chose to bless these children! Let me say, " Thank You!" on their behalf! You made them all very happy children! I hope you all get as much joy from these pictures as we did watching them open their gifts! You may notice in these pictures that the children are holding up handmade cards or pictures of people. Well, these are pictures that were sent to them from churches in the US to help personalize these boxes. I took these pictures so that the people who made the cards or sent the pictures could see who they touched. They may be hard to tell who the people in the pictures are, but hopefully they will know who they are! This party was a ton of work and we are glad it is over! However, it was soooo worth it! It was a joy to see these children completely happy. Thank you all for your prayers and for your support of us! We need you! love to you all! Missy

Happy New Year!

New Year's tradition has been born! We decided to end the year with eating a Thanksgiving meal at around 10 pm on New Year's Eve. It was so much fun and this turkey was the best we had ever eaten! Yummy!

As you can see we cleaned that turkey good!

 Oh, how it was delicious!

We took it over to our friend's home, sat around a fire, drank hot cider and then got ready for our meal.

Our menu consisted of Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole and corn. We served it up for some of our friends to taste for the first time. It was funny to see their expressions when they saw our food. They immediately added tortillas and salsa to the meal which we thought was funny. It seemed to go over pretty well. 

Here are Alex, Clay, and their friend Eto as they got ready for fireworks.

They also hit pinatas in the middle of the street, this is something our kids look forward to ever year! (This was Clay's turn up to whack it)

He was happy with his success! Of course what he got from inside of the pinata he couldn't even pronounce! He is holding it in his hand. It is a kind of vegitable that they cut up and eat with salsa. It looks like a root.

It was a wonderful way to bring in the new year! We love our people and their traditions and we love sharing some of our traditions with them! We hope you all had a great time bringing in the new year with your family and friends! Love to you all!