Baptism Pics

Annie with some friends, playing in the pool before the baptism began.

Waiting for the baptism to begin.

This is Juan getting ready for his baptism. Icho on the left and Prisciliano on the right have stepped out of their comfort zone to become leaders in our church. This was our first baptismal service where Greg was just there for moral support. It was awesome! 

You have to know Juan to understand that this is just about as much emotion as he ever shows. But to us, it shows... pure PEACE!

This is Oscar, Icho's son. Icho was so happy to be able to be a part of this very special day in his son's life.

They were sooo happy!

This is Juani she thought long and hard about this decision. She knew it could come with a lot of persecution and as we now know, it did. Soon after this day she lost her job b/c her boss didn't want someone who was a "Christian" and not a devout Catholic to work for him. Please pray for her.

This is the peace that is still carrying her through!

This is Annie with her "Aunt" Ann and "Uncle" David, she thinks the world of them!! They made a very long trip to be a part of this day! They are working with our people group in another area. They were a blessing to all of our friends!

Alex and Oscar

Typical Jerod!

And this is how I found Greg. Thinking, " Whew, day is done, gone the sun, no one got hurt, Praise the Lord! I am ready for a nap!" He is precious!

House pics

This is our new home. It ain't fancy, but it's home and we love it!

So, no water at all today coming from our home. We have one faucet outside that had a slow trickle coming out of it and so we let it fill up all day and then we bathed in it. It was cold, but Annie still had fun in it!

I must say, I love my kitchen. It is quaint. Hopefully one day I will be able to wash dishes with water from the faucet and not out of that blue bowl. ;o) If this had happened to me 5 years ago, I would have freaked out. Now, well... it is inconvenient but I can actually live okay.

Max had a tough time adjusting at first but he has seemed to settle in and is enjoying his new home.  

Annie's room still has some work to do on it, but slowly but surely it will all come together.

This is the other half of Annie's room. She isn't too fond of the concrete floors but she still says it is like a hotel. All I can figure is that the floors remind her of the poolside. :o) There is always a bright side!

My room. Lacks some work as well, but little by little it will get done.

The problem with this house is there are NO closets, no storage of any kind in the entire home. So we made this one and put it in our room. Not to designer friendly, but oh well I have a place to put my clothes.

This is the view from upstairs. There are vaulted ceilings and it is very open.

Our bathroom. Usually that big trashcan will not be there but it is filled with water to flush the potty.

Other half of bathroom. 

This is our storage room/study.

Greg is trying to do some work in all the mess.

These are our stairs going up. They haven't been finished yet and we keep waiting on the man to come and finish them. They are quite dangerous and I hope when we get back from our trip they will be completed. Please pray he will come and finish them, I really don't want to have another accident in our family.

I saw this the other day and just had to take it. This is a typical Mexican minivan. Sometimes you will see a mom holding a baby with a toddler sitting between the mom and dad. It is scary!

I left out pictures of the boys room because they weren't happy with how it looked so it will have to wait. We are doing well and are getting ready for a little travel. We are looking forward to seeing some of our old friends and some other parts of Mexico. Please pray for us as we travel. I won't tell you exactly when we will be leaving but it will be sometime in June. So.... you can just pray all through June! :o) Hope you are all well! Love you! Missy 

M fun!

Oh the life of a "M" is always interesting. It never seems to get dull. Yesterday our power went out and was out all day until around dinner time and then we got it back on. Today we found out that the FREE water we have been told all about is free for a reason! We don't have any. We were told that during the dry season, which are the months of November through May, the water pressure isn't very good. It may be okay for some of those months but since it has been dry for so long there isn't enough water to make it to our tank on our roof. Therefore, we have no water. We are hoping that tonight the pressure will be better as less people will be using it and we may have some tomorrow. Please pray.

The high speed internet we were told we would have has turned out to be non-existent at times. We have to have it checked out too. It is always something and poor Greg's blood pressure has gone up again. The first day we were here Jerod had a stomach bug, then the second day Greg had a touch of it, now today, Alex woke up with a mild case of Chicken Pox. He doesn't seem fazed by it all, so that is a blessing. He had the shot but obviously it just helps it not be as bad. We are a little overwhelmed and would really love all of your prayers. We will be traveling soon and it would be great if we were all healthy and non-stressed!

On the bright side, the house is really starting to take on the feel of a home.  Annie says it feels like living in a hotel. I have NO idea why but I am really glad she feels like that! We have met our neighbors on each side of us and they are both sooo nice. We said we are Language Row because we are 3 houses connected. In one house it is all Spanish, then there is us with English and then our other neighbor speaks her heart language Purepecha. She is so neat and I think it will be a lot of fun getting to know her. She makes pottery. She asked me if I wanted to learn how and I told her as soon as we finished traveling I would be over there to learn how. She is probably in her 70's and Annie can't wait for her to teach her how to make pottery! We are excited. Of course we are already learning that the difference in the language that we have been working on for 5 years now is huge and we will have to learn a lot of new vocabulary. That should be fun! ;o)

Hope all of you are enjoying the start of summer and that God is blessing you all in many, many ways! Love you! Missy

New Home

We have made the move. I must say it was one of the longest days of my life, well... ONE of them. Moving to another country does have to go a little higher on the stress list than this move, but it was a long day. I will post some pictures of our "moving truck" soon. That was a hoot. I am just happy that we all have our beds made and we can sleep in them tonight. Greg still has to go back tomorrow for another trip with our truck because we couldn't get everything today. Jerod got sick as soon as we got here, but the blessing was that he waited until  we got here to get sick and he seems to be feeling a little better now. I will write more later but for now all is well here! Oh, and Bryn is doing well too! Keep praying for her, but it is looking like she just might be on the mend! Praise God! Love you all! Missy

Bryn

This is the news that was given today about little Bryn's condition. It is hard to imagine having to make these kind of decisions but I know Mark and Trina are relying heavily on God's guidance through all of this horrible nightmare. Please continue to uplift them all and pray the nightmare will be over soon. Love you all! Missy

I copied this from our friend who is sending out the information on Bryn's progress.

Together, with their medical team, Mark and Trina,  (Bryn's parents) have decided to have Bryn place into a drug induced coma in order to give her little brain some rest. This will require that she be place on a ventilator which has been one of Trina's greatest fears. I believe this is to be done today.


We know that God has precious Bryn and her family wrapped in His loving arms and that He alone can cure whatever it is that is so relentlessly attacking sweet Bryn's brain.

News Update

Hi friends! Just a quick update. The little boy who was hit by a car it stable and seems to be doing okay. He still has a long way to go, but I think he should recover well. Thank you for praying! My friend's daughter, Bryn who has been suffering with seizures is still having them. They have diagnosed her as having encephalitis. They feel she may have some viral infection that is attacking her brain and causing the seizures. Please pray that the Drs. will be able to find the correct medication to fight the infection and that Bryn will respond to the meds quickly. Pray that she has no negative reactions from the meds and that the seizures would stop. Thanks so much!

We are starting our moving process. It is not fun. Ya know moving is never fun, but I think when you are doing it all yourself without even a U-Haul to help it is even less fun! We have asked a friend here to help us and he has a truck that is pretty big, but it will only hold maybe a couch, fridge, stove and a few mattresses. So, it could take us quite a few trips to move everything we need to move. Plus it is an hour there and an hour back. (on a good day)  If you could pray for us over the next week we sure would appreciate it! It could prove to be a long few days! Love you all!! Missy

Time to pray.....

Hi friends,

Please pray for my friend's 7 year old daughter who is having multiple seizures and they don't know why. They are hoping to know more today, but this poor little girl is suffering terribly and so are her parents. Please pray they would get the results today, that it would be from an infection and they could treat it quickly and life could return to normal soon.

Number 2. Yesterday some friends of ours decided to make bread and sell it in a nearby village. So, they took the bread that they had made and were driving it around to the small stores all over this other village. You have to understand that in the villages, you could have 2-5 stores on one block alone so they were just driving their truck slowly and someone would hop out, sell the bread and they would keep going. Well... the someone who was driving was their 13 year old son. In America, this is extremely abnormal, here, very common. If you can reach the pedals, you can start to drive, drink, smoke, marry, just about anything. Anyway...as they were moving ahead a little 5 year old darted out in front of their truck and not knowing what to do very well, the 13 year old didn't stop soon enough and once he did he had already hit the little boy and done damage to his head. HORRIBLE stuff. Now the custom here is that whoever does the crime has to be held in the jail until it is proven they will pay and not try and escape the situation. So the dad was held in jail until 3:30 am when they called.... you know who. Poor exhausted husband who can't think straight past 11:00pm had to make plans at 3:30 am to help out in this situation. So at 6:30 this morning he drove the father of the 13 year old to the hospital where the little 5 year old is. Two hours away and they are going to try and figure out how to help this family. Please pray that this little boy's injuries aren't as bad as they sound and that he can have a complete recovery from this and above all... that God will get all the glory in this situation.

Thank you all for keeping up with us and praying for us and for generally holding us up through prayer. Some days just simply staying above water can be hard here, other days finding water to stay above can be hard b/c there is none, then other days are just simply glorious! Right now with our move just 8 days away, 2 church services to go, a wedding to attend, two more trips to our new village still to be made, curtains to be MADE, a washing machine to purchase, a yard sale to have, school to finish, and a house to pack..... I am a little stressed. So..... pray whenever, however and about whatever and you will be covering something of importance to us!! Love you all!! Missy

Baptismal Blessings!

Today was one of those days that makes every single sacrifice worthwhile. I think God gave me a perfect Mother's Day!The baptism went so well, it was a beautiful day and we had 51 of our people come to join us in this celebration. This was the first baptism where Greg just guided them from outside of the pool. Our leaders did everything. They gave a short teaching on baptism, they got in the water and they did all of the baptisms in their language. It was awesome!

There were a lot of people there who have only been coming for a few months and this was the first water baptism they had ever experienced. One of them just happened to be Lafira, Eto's mom. (I mentioned her a few posts ago) Lafira had some questions about salvation and baptism and was really seeking out the truth about what the Bible had to say on both. So it was explained to her in her language what the Bible says about baptism and salvation. She said she wanted to accept Jesus as her Savior and did so right there. One boy.....I get teary eyed thinking about it. Just a boy asking his mama to come to church and now..... she wants to be baptized too. Cuz....you know why? that is what Jesus did. This made me cry; Greg said he was explaining to her that God had a plan for her and he could use her. She said, "But, I can't even write." Bless her precious heart, she thought she had to be able to write for the creator of our universe to use her. Greg explained that they had just lead her to Christ without using any book or writing anything. All she has to do now is tell people how Jesus changed her life and she will be used. Please pray for her. Her husband is not in agreement with her attending our group and he may cause problems for her. Please just pray for her. I will upload some pictures tomorrow. I love you all! Missy

Happy Mother's Day!

Hi friends! I hope this finds you all celebrating your mamas! For some this day can be sad if your mama has passed away like my grandmothers have, and for some it is sad if your child has passed away like I know some of my friends have experienced. For others it may be sad because you long to be a mama and have not been able to experience that wonderful relationship. However, whoever you are and wherever your emotions may take you today, I do pray God will bless you with a most wonderful day! I am a very fortunate lady in that I still have my wonderful mother as does Greg and I have 3 wonderful children to celebrate with. However..... for me.... IT WON'T be done TODAY! ;o)

My precious husband decided to plan a baptism today. He scheduled this baptism about a month ago and in his defense neither of us even thought about what day it was when he mentioned the date. So... instead of celebrating Mother's Day today we are going to celebrate something even more precious.... 3 people following Jesus in the waters of baptism. We are very excited and hope to have a great day. Please pray all goes well and we have no injuries or problems. I always get a little nervous when we have a lot of people around a pool that don't know how to swim. It will be hot today and I think most of them will be getting into the pool after the baptism. So all of your prayers would be appreciated! I have a house full of guests and our good computers are in the rooms where they are, so all I had was old pictures to put on here of our mamas. But... out mamas are pretty all the time so it doesn't matter when the picture was taken. Now Greg and I could be a different story. I love you all and hope you all have a great day! I will celebrate the Mexican way on Tuesday and we will eat somewhere special. I will let you know how everything goes! Love to you all!! Missy

Me and my parents at the airport in October of 2008

Greg and his mama at the airport in Jan of 2009

Pictures

This was Easter Sunday coloring with the kids.

Wearing our Easter best! ;o)

We did not come prepared to teach the kids, there is usually someone else who teaches them. However, she wasn't there so they asked me to do it. Annie had a coloring book and crayons and we used that to pass the time. The service was 2 and a half hours long so I was glad we had something to keep their attention.

I am so proud of him! Not too many 14 year olds would be willing to help tell a Bible story to the kids and then color with them too.

Proud of him too! He just goes with the flow! Whatever we need him to do, he does! Love my kids!

This is  a precious woman! I would say she is in her 90s and she just lost her husband a few weeks ago. Her bed is pictured below and she is still all smiles. I can only hope to be more like her; praising Him no matter what!

This is her bed/ bedroom, it is partially outdoors, all it has over it is a leaky roof, and it has 3 walls around it. (one of which is mainly cardboard) 

So I am embarrassed to show you pictures of my beautiful kitchen! I am in love with it!

This is the den/living room.

We have been moving some things over slowly but surely. This is the school room/ play room.

This house has been a true blessing but I know Greg will be glad when the building part is all over. We are still waiting on a few last minute things before we can move in completely. It has been a true headache but I do think it will be a blessing once it is all over. Please pray for a smooth transition for all of us. Moving, making new friends, starting new works, finding friends for the kids, all of that can be quite the challenge. Please pray! Love you all! Missy