Pictures from Lupita's wedding

Lupita before her wedding with the justice of the peace, or the city judge.

Lupita and Annie

The judge waiting for Lupita, she wasn't quite ready!

 

Listening to the judge say what marriage meant.

 

So happy.

Pretty feet!

Signing the marriage certificates.

As soon as the documents were signed, the confetti was thrown and the party began!

Even the dog was covered!

Outside of their home the people waited for food and alcohol to be brought to them.

Don't they look happy? This is how everyone always looks at weddings. Bored. But.. they get free food and drink.

Jerod and Alex with our good friend Icho.

Annie with her plate of food. She loves this stuff! She is so indigenous!

Me and my sweetie!

As soon as they signed the papers, the people start tying these ribbons on them and putting these flags in their hair and hats and anything else. This is the groom.

Greg and the bride's father.

This is Max's mama, she ain't the prettiest dog, but... she gave us our sweet Max!

Here is the "happy" couple! Lupita is smiling b/c I am taking the picture and she really was trying to be a good sport about everything, her husband, not so much.

This is the bride's mama and some random man, dancing. This is how they dance in the village. Step, step, shift, step, step shift. DRINK GUZZLE, step, step, shift.Repeat.

This is the band. They just block the roads and set up their party.

 

This is out of order a bit, but this is the confetti being thrown after the papers were signed.

Here they were putting the ribbons in her hair.

The judge looks thrilled with this custom, doesn't he?

This is Salvador, the bride's father and I.

Hope you enjoyed these and it gave you an idea of what it is like here. Sorry it took a while for me to upload them, our internet wasn't doing well. Love you all! Missy

Married

Hi friends! I have been meaning to post on here a few times and have run out of time. This weekend was quite busy. On Saturday I had a friend come over to help me do some deep cleaning. We have had a problem with mice living in a closet and I needed her to help me clean out the closet and all of the poop that was there. She loves to kill mice and I am NOT a fan of them so she  was there to help clean and to kill them in case there were any spottings. We didn't see any alive, only their poop. :o)

 Anyway, as I was putting everything back I put more rat poison in the closet and just before I told Alex to close the door Max got in there. He gobbled up the rat poison in  a heart beat. Greg was gone, so I had no car. Everything on the internet said take him to the vet NOW....hmmmm... not exactly easy when I was 45 minutes away without a car. So, I called the vet and he told me what to do. IF this ever happens to your pet... fix them half a cup of water with a ton of salt in it. Almost a 1/4 of a cup was salt. Then take a medicine dropper and force it down them. Within minutes he threw up just about everything! i was still worried since he is just a puppy so we got one of the 2 taxis we could find and I left all my kids with friends and went to the vet. He gave him 3 shots and said he would need 3 more the next day. He is fine now!! Never skipped a beat! Anyway, just a little FYI in case this happens to you!

On Sunday Lupita's wedding was planned. It was quite an event and it was really sad for us to see. Poor Lupita had NO desire to do this. She doesn't even like this guy and now she is married to him. My heart aches for her. She said, " In  our culture, if our parents say this is what we have to do, we have to do it." I just wanted to scream at them all, but it is their culture and if I have learned one thing in this job, it is we MUST respect their culture.

I took over 400 pictures at the wedding. I was the official photographer, which gave me permission to take pictures which I normally could never take in a setting like this. I will post them later today. For now, I need to go do school. I just wanted to tell you ONE praise in this situation. This is VERY rare, however we found out that in this situation Lupita will not leave her home and go live with her husband until they are married in the church. They were married by a judge on Sunday, so that it was legal, but for some reason that we still aren't sure of, she will not be moving out until they are married in the church. Now for some this is very soon afterwards, like within a few weeks to a month; and then others may wait months or even years before they have their "church wedding" a lot of it depends on money. So, please pray with me that God will intervene in this situation and somehow if it is HIS will she will be spared from living with this guy for awhile! love you all!! Missy

pictures to come later today!!

Happy Valentines Day!!

Just thought I wouls show you just how dusty it is around here! I sweep this off and then the next day it is just like it was the day before. Hope you all have a great day! Mine will be spent with the 4 loves of my life! We don't have anything special planned except for making a cake. I have always hated this day because as a teen I always gave my friends gifts and got nothing in return. However, my parents always made this day special; so...Happy Valentines Day Mama and Honey!! Love you all!! Missy 

New look

Hi  everyone! I have to ask you to forgive me for the many changes on our blog. I just couldn't find a look that I really liked. I guess ADD has something to do with that. I think this look will stay for awhile. My mama always said less is more. So, I am gonna go with this one. It is a little more calming. I tried to find something Mexicany but had no luck. Anyway, I hope you are all enjoying a relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Lupita

Many of you have asked about Lupita. Well we got word the other day that her wedding will be on Sunday. So she has one more week to be either freed from this marriage or we will accept that this is the plan that God has for her. She knows many of you have been praying for her and is very touched by this! She is still very sad by this and does not want to go through with it but we have assured her that we will be there to support her and we will pray that God's plan is made clear to her. So if you have a few minutes this week we would appreciate it if you would remember her in your prayers. She is very scared. Thank you! love to all!! Missy

Still I Will Praise You!

                                  
                                              " Still I Will Praise You!"

I had to post this picture on here so that you could see just why Susana has become my inspiration. This picture will forever be embedded in my mind. no matter what may come in my life,  I will think of this picture. She was worshipping Jesus with a song by Matt Redman called,  “Never Let Go”, here are the words to the song:

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I’m caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won’t turn back
I know You are near

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We’ll live to know You here on the earth


Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on

And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
Still I will praise You, still I will praise You”



 It is amazing how much we can learn from children. they teach us far more than we could ever hope to teach them. i am so happy for her, she isn't having to look up to him anymore, she is looking at him face to face while sitting on his lap! or at least that is how i like to think of her! please continue to remember this family!

today was spent making a meal for some people in our village. it is a custom here that when someone is getting married, there are God parents that help to pay for the wedding expenses. i am sure my parents would have appreciated this custom! well it is the duty of the family of the couple getting married to make food for the family of the god parents. Which could easily be 200 people. Well, i was expected to help prepare this meal today. it was an all day affair, which just now ended at 9:30pm. i did take some fun pictures so you could see what it is like to cook such a meal and i was given some really wonderful compliments! you know the kind that make you want to slap someone across the face? ;o) okay, so if i were in the united states and heard these kind of compliments you can bet there would be a cat fight! however, i looooove  my people and try to overlook their kindness!

So this is how it went, this precious woman asks me if i have a fake butt. You heard right, a fake butt. Now I don't know if that is the fad in the old US of A but here in Mexico people want to look like Jaylo, so they sell these pillows that give you a little lift. I laughed so hard and then I thought, that isn't really funny. I said, "Uh, nope, all natural!" then she asked me if i was all natural everywhere else. I mean, are you kidding me? i have to lose some weight. I really do. So the big joke here is that my nick name is pumpkin butt. i have grown fond of this little name until today when they changed it and said, it should be...... wait for it.....






WATERMELON BUTT!!!

Can you believe that? I mean, how rude!!! So as you can see, I am having to work on taking these compliments with a smile!  Can you imagine one of your friends saying that to you and still wanting to be your friend afterwards? Oh well, i am still smiling! I must say I did laugh when someone said to Greg, you are looking older now that you have grey in your beard. He hasn't shaved in a few weeks and he definitely has a little grey there, of course he hasn't cared about that grey until today. After that comment he said, I think I will shave tomorrow! :o) Anyway, we had a good day, compliments and all! Hope you like the pictures. Love to you all!! Watermelon Butt! (oh, sorry about the no caps, our computer is on the brink and sometimes the caps don't work.)

It hasn't rained here in many months and probably won't for a few more. So as you can see our backyard is nothing but dust. This makes it incredibly hard to do anything except wash clothes over and over and over again! Those are not rays of sun, it is dust flying up in the air!

It is still pretty cold here at night, but during the day it is getting a lot warmer. These women were cooking by the fire with 3 layers of clothing on, in the heat. Talk about suffrin'!

This little boy was scared to death of Annie and me when we first arrived. He didn't want anything to do with us! He just ran to his mama and hid his face. However, after a few minutes of peek-a-boo, I was able to do this.....

After a few minutes, he was the one taking the pictures and was completely content sitting in my lap!

This is what Annie was doing while I was "helping" cook. She was playing with her friends. This may look like a bad quality picture, but that is actually smoke from the kitchen. I  am amazed that these women don't have black lung disease!

This actually made me a little queasy at first. This is exactly what the pot looked like that Annie fell into when she was burnt. This was the exact stuff she fell into as well. I haven't really been around the making of this since that day and it was a little bit of a flashback for me. We made it through the day without any problems though! Praise God!

Mole  and rice, this is a popular salsa that they put over rice. We actually like it a lot!

This is the meat that they put into the salsa.

At any one point today there were between 10 and 15 people in this teeniny  little kitchen. They all knew what they were supposed to do. This girl here was washing the dishes. I am betting you are appreciating your dishwasher about now, huh?

They do all of that while wearing crazy shoes like this! Makes me hurt just looking at her!

Here is Annie with her friends. She fits in so well here. She has fun no matter where we go or what we do. She is just happy to be with friends.

pray for susana's family

hi friends! as you all know little susana has touched my heart and the hearts of everyone in my family. she was a precious child who God chose to use in many ways in her 4 years on earth. she will not be forgotten!She ran into the arms of the Lord today at 12:15pm,  please be in prayer for her family! you can read their latest entry on their website http://www.howcantheyhear.org/ 

love to you all! missy

Heavy Heart

Hi friends! I hope you are all doing well. I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. I was driving down our dirt roads last night going to pick someone up for church and thought to myself, " I never would have dreamed this would be my life."

We have recently read a biography on a woman named, Gladys Aylward. She was a wonderful woman who worked in China long ago. She has a very inspiring story and has made me think long and hard about how I spend my days. If I was back in the states and read this book I would have thought, "Man, what a wonderful woman, what courage, how brave, what purpose she had throughout her life. I want to be more like her." Then I would have thought, " Oh, but I could never do anything like that, I could never live out of the country, I could never learn another language or do anything great like she did."That is what I would have thought if I had read this then. I now think, "Why am I not doing more to reach the lost here? Why am I not spending more of my days telling stories? Why am I waisting so much time? I have been given one of the most wonderful opportunities of a lifetime... to share His Word. Why am I not doing it with more zeal?" These are my thoughts. I am mad at myself. I am busy, don't get me wrong, but I just feel like I could or should be doing more.

 I have been touched by another person lately as well. Her name is Susana Whittaker. She is 4 years old and has been battling cancer. She and her family lived in Haiti and worked with the people there sharing His Word. They are in the states now as she is getting ready to make her grand entrance into heaven. My heart is broken for this family. I mean, really broken. Annie has prayed for her EVERY day and now wonders why her prayers didn't work. We had to explain that sometimes God has different plans than ours. He wants Susana in heaven with him. He wants her to be an angel. She understood this and said, "Okay, if God says it is best, it is." I don't know how her parents are holding up. I just can't imagine and don't really want to, to be honest. I just am asking all of you to pray for them, without ceasing, that His WILL will be done. You can go to their website and see their latest blog entries at http://www.howcantheyhear.org/  I say she has touched me lately b/c I don't want to waste my time on earth when I am sure she would do anything to have another day to do what she wants to do. I need to get busy living! I will do it for Susana. I will do it b/c there are people who want to and can't and I will do it b/c cause I can and I never wanted to when I was living in the US, but now that I am here, I can't think of anything I would rather do with my life than give it to Him. Man, I am deep today, huh? Not depressed, mind you, just deep in thought and not wanting to waste another minute of my life on stupid things. I have to go, got things to do! :o) love to all! Missy

2nd Anniversary

hi friends! my computer is definitely not cooperating and i can't get it to use any caps. so you will have to bare with me. any way, we have had another busy week. we celebrated our church's 2 year anniversary on monday. it was a wonderful time and were so excited to see how much we had grown in 2 years. we looked back at the beginning of our time here and realized we started with just about 6 people and today we have around 40 regulars and we can have up to about 60 if everyone comes. god has definitely done a work in our area. praise him!!

we visted a church in our new area just last night. it is like our church was in the beginning; just a few families meeting together. it was a precious time and we enjoyed getting to know these new believers. we look forward to helping them grow this body of believers in a few months when we move there. please pray that this transition will go well.

on a personal note, we have enjoyed our new puppy! he is so cute and fun and it proving to be quite the smartie! his name is max but we often call him hoodini. when we leave our home to go into town for our weekly shopping we put him in our kitchen. our kitchen doesn't have a door so we have had to find a way to block off the doorway. we have only succeeded to keep him in the kitchen one time out of about 10. everytime we walk in the door he just smiles at us like," yep, i got out again!" the best part of it is he never does anything bad in the house while we are gone. he doesn't chew on things or mess up the house in any way. i keep saying we just need to let him free in the house but greg says it is part of the challenge. of course it is one we are losing! enjoy the pics! love to all! missy

max having some quiet time

he is a little skiddish so learning about haunted hotels kept him up all night!

celebrating our 2 year anniversary

we even had some guest come to celebrate with us! they gave us a wonderful puppet performance!

some of our group

enjoying the puppet performance

how we have to barricade our door for max, he is a smartie!