Our Week In Photos

 What a week. Sun up to sun down we have seen God at work. It has been lots of fun and lots of work. But... lots of fun! We saw many people open their hearts to the Lord and decide to make the very important decision to make Him their one and only Savior. Our kids have been so involved in our ministry here and as parents we could not be any more proud of them. They have really enjoyed being in this new area and we are seeing all of them thrive in every way. Just check out these pictures to see what we did this week.

Celebrating Jesus at an outdoor worship service. This was in a village that has a few believers, but the group there has a desire to grow. We went there to help them reach others in their village. It was an awesome night!

While we were there we met this family. A mom, and 3 kids, abandoned by their father. They were literally starving and ate 2 bowls of the food that was served and their mom said she wanted to come back and hear more about Jesus. She needs prayer. Her name is Maria.

This is Maria and her other daughter. They were so cold b/c they didn't have enough clothes. (It was probably 60 degrees and that is how they were dressed.

I gave the two smallest ones my rebozo (shawl) and they were happy! Later on that night I took the mamma to the store to buy some food and you would have thought I had given her a million dollars. It was wonderful. I am blessed to have this job!

Another night this week we had anther outdoor service in another village and again my kids helped lead worship. It was a fun night and lasted until 11. So glad we home school and could start late the next day!

This was the taco bar that they offered the people who came. It was some taco bar too! I loved how they had everything heated with these little fire cans and they were all on bricks, so clever. I helped the other "pink lady" serve the some 100 people that were there. It was a long night! The funny part was that every woman was asked to bring something. They didn't think I could make anything Mexican so they asked me to make this Mexican hot drink called "Ponche." Which of course I had never made either! ;o) However, I did my best and made enough for the 100 people and it was a hit.  You can see the picture below!

Look at that food! Umm boy, it was good!

Hungry?

Here I am standing on a stool at my stove, cooking the ponche. Don't you love that pot?

Halfway through the week, Annie and I decided it was time for a break! We wanted to go to the beach, so we did! We made the foods we would eat at the beach, got our bathing suits on and went on our rooftop porch, played songs from The Beachboys and got in our pool. It was a nice break from a busy week! Annie loves to do stuff like this and she made it very special! 

Annie in her pool!

Sweet tea with lemon, book, and Annie even added flower petals for a nice touch!

Okay, even I have to brag about this lunch I fixed for our beach day. It was delicious! We have found that just like inventing the beach, if we miss things from the US, sometimes we just have to learn to make those things too. This is better than anything we have ever eaten at a restaurant in the US! If you want the recipe, just ask, it was to die for! 

Our week continued as we tried be the hands and feet of God and share His love to a sweet little blind lady. Look at her street that she has to walk on, can you imagine? She walks about 35 minutes away to go to church. The church is really only about 5 minutes away but being blind and having to walk on this road to get there, it takes them about 35 minutes to get there. Then of course they have to walk back home when it is over. So, if you ever feel too tired to go to church, think of her! 

Annie, my precious sweet girl on her way to visit.

We continued the week meeting with a new  believer who is extremely sick with diabetes.

We brought him some food and he too was delighted!

Annie playing with a little boy named Isaac while we met with this man.

Yet another meeting this week with a woman we met about a month ago who lost her husband. She is struggling financially as she has no job, no money and now no husband. She could lose her home which would destroy her. Please pray for her; her name is Marielena.

This is our storying group that meets every Tuesday night. We had a special night with them and were excited b/c Marielena came for the first time. We are hoping she will continue to come and hear these stories. Thanks so much for your prayers for all of these people. 

Love to you all! Missy and family 

Birthday Celebrations!

This weekend we celebrated 2 birthdays, Mexico's and Jerod's! We had a wonderful time celebrating Mexico's Independence Day with lots of friends here. It was a blast! There was a short church service outside and then there was food and karaoke. We all had fun and didn't want the night to end. I have to say, when Greg told me about 2 years ago that he thought it would be best to leave our old village and move to a new area after we returned to Mexico, I cried. I did  not want to do that. It has been the very best thing for our family as a whole. Our kids have so many friends here and they fit in so well. We are blessed! 

Jerod's birthday is actually on August 23, however we have been so busy we haven't had time to actually celebrate his special day. We went out to eat on his birthday but as for celebrating with his friends, there just wasn't time to do so, until yesterday. Oh my what a fun day! We invited the whole youth group to a pool not too far away. It turned into a church social which was wonderful. The pictures below say it all! Much more than I can say! 

Please pray for us, it will be a long week as we will be busy every day. There is a team coming to help us work with our people. They aren't coming to stay with us, they are connected through a "B" church here and 4 of the 6 don't speak any Spanish. Since we have partnered with this church (which is in all the pictures) we will be helping them to do some ministry projects with this team throughout the week. We are excited to see what God does this week! Love to you all! Missy 

 

Jerod decorating himself for Mexican Independence Day!

Annie and our good friend, Nacho. We call him Nacho cheese or Nacho Libre!

Our family lost a game we were playing and had to sing a fun Spanish song in front of everyone, hand motions and all! 

Annie and the pastor's daughter, Sara. We LOVE her! I want one!

Her she is again!

Alex was running with the flag.

This is a family we are trying to reach. They are part of our Tuesday night storying group.

J's Day, they started off playing basketball. 

Trying to get up the nerve to get into the ICE water.

They did it together!

SOOOO cold!! 

Annie and Sara again.  God was taking care of Sara for sure! She fell into the pool when no one was around and one person just happened to see it and dove in after her. It was one of those times when you see a great day turning into a tragedy very quickly. She wasn't under for more than a minute and was fine, but sooo scared. Her Mama and the rest of us couldn't help but think of how blessed we all were that God kept things from going in another direction. For sure we will always have someone by the pool the next time we have an event like this. In the US we take our lifeguards for granted! Hug your kids!

This is their tradition, anyone who has a birthday in that month, gets thrown in the pool!

Even the pastor1

He had extra clothes and seemed to have expected it! 

While I was taking the pastor's picture someone pushed Greg, (who was NOT expecting to go in) right in with all his clothes on too! FUNNY!

Annie enjoying friends.

Change of the cultures. This was funny, this little girl, Flor (Flower) came up to me and asked me for some Doritos, then Annie came up and whispered to me that she wanted one of Flor's mom's corundas. Corundas are special bread like things made in the indigenous villages here. So, her mom gave Annie a corunda and I gave Flor Doritos and they were happy!

Our birthday party.

The traditional cake in face. 

He said it was good!

That's all folks! 

Friends united

Hi everyone! Sometimes I feel like I have so much to write that I don't write anything. Tonight I decided I just needed to start writing or I would just never tell you anything anymore due to information overload. So I will pick out the highlight of this past week and tell you about that.

We have been praying for our church in our old village for a while now. Satan has been attacking it in so many areas and it has been hard on many. Greg and I weren't sure what we were able to do from an hour away. So, we prayed. Greg decided that we needed to start doing a night of visitation to the people who have stopped coming for one reason or another. We shared this idea with the few who were present and it wasn't received as well as we had hoped. However, we arrived on Friday night with the intention of just bringing it up again and seeing how they responded. Only 12 of us showed up that night so again, we were discouraged. (5 were our family) But when we got ready to start they asked if we were going to do visitation. Greg looked a little shocked and said, "Sure if you want to!" So we got into groups and went out. Oh how we were blessed by our efforts.

One family said they were worried about how another person in the church was feeling about something that had happened recently and that person happened to be there visiting them. So they cleared up that misunderstanding and prayed and the family said they would return on Monday.

Then we visited one woman who hasn't come in a month. She was a very active participant in the church and cried when we came to visit her. She shared how she felt alienated by another member and that member was there to visit her as well. They shared their feelings and cried and hugged and prayed. It was a wonderful night. I was in awe at how God was moving in the lives of our friends! We are planning on continuing this every other week. Please pray we will see God revive our little church and bind satan from these precious people! Thank you all! Missy

Water Education

Hi friends! Me asking for prayer for water has raised many water questions. Do you have water where you live? Did you have water in your last village? How do people get water if you don't have it? These are some of the questions that have been asked about water. So I thought it would be a good time to explain the water situation to you all. First let me say that when ever I ask for prayers for things like water or electricity or saftey, I am not only asking it for our family; I am asking it for everyone around me, the people I love. They have very tough lives and if we can make their lives any easier, we will. Our purpose is not to make their lives easier but to share the Good News with them, but many times, those go hand in hand.

Now about the questions.... The village we lived in for four years before we lived here, has no water. There are no rivers, lakes, streams or anything like that anywhere near them. The government has not piped in water from the nearest large city which is about a 40 minute drive from the village. Now they have found a little bit of water where they have attached one tube and it is located at the very edge of town. This could be a mile to two mile walk from many of the homes in our old village. That is where they go to do their laundry and fill up their water jugs. They usually line up at 4  in the morning to get water. Then they have to haul the jugs of water home for the day so they can have water to live off of for that day. Now.... is that what I had to do for 4 years? NO. If you have money you can hire someone to drive a water truck (looks like a gas truck)into town and fill it up and bring you water to your home and fill up your home's tank. (if your home has a 'tank' if not some would just purchase water to fill up big barrels) There were times when we went without water then b/c we couldn't find a water truck or the roads were blocked and the water trucks couldn't get to us. So for those reasons, we went without water there. It was just all together different in our old village! I will explain more through these pictures. Click on the pictures and it will make them larger. 

This is how they haul their jugs to their homes, they are extremely HEAVY too!

This is where the women have come to wash their clothes. It is tough because they all have to share the little bit of water that is there and then they have to take all of their WET, HEAVY clothes home to dry!

When it rains, this can fill up with rain water and their is a lot more water for all to enjoy. However, that is only 5 months out of the year.

Here they are waiting to get their jugs filled up.

That little hose is the ONLY water source in the entire village for 5000 people. That tiny little drip.

They fill up those trash cans each day and then everyone has to share that water to wash their clothes; while the other women fill up their jugs with the water hose. It is really amazing there are not a lot of fights during this time!!

Waiting to wash clothes.

Now this is how we collected our water. When it rained we (as well as most everyone in the village) had our home set up to catch every drop of rain.  No one in the villages we live near now have their homes set up like this because there is an abundance of water here. Let me explain. ;o)

Tube we had coming from our roof to gather water.

How we wash our hands in our old village.

This is what runs through every village near us. Rivers, natural springs, you name it there is water. Most of the people here live close enough to a water source that having water has never been an issue. Many homes have it piped into their homes and as Americans are; well... they are spoiled by having water. They have never needed to gather water like the people in our old village. They have never needed to collect rain water off of their roof because again, it has NEVER been an issue. So, when the pipe recently broke and there was no water. Everyone here pretty much went a little crazy wondering what they would do without water. They didn't have the ability to collect water and there are no water trucks because there has never been a necessity for that either. So, there you have it, now you know the difference in this village and our old one. These two villages are only an hour apart but the difference in water is HUGE! So, you can also pray for water for our old village because, they have never had water. Love you all! Missy