Christian Funeral

 Hi friends! I wanted to share with all of you what has been happening this week. We started the week off seeing The Hunger Games movie as a family. The boys and I have read all 3 books but Greg has not. Of course we wanted him to see the movie with us and we couldn't leave Annie. Babysitters are a little hard to come by so we took her with us. This is how that looked. 

She was happy and so were we! 

Then on Monday we were told that a friend of ours lost his father. His father was one of the founders of the  "B" church in a nearby village. Now when we first arrived here we found many of the churches doing their own thing but not really connecting with each other. It quickly became one of Greg's goals to unify all of the B churches in the area. So when this man died and we went to the viewing/ service it warmed both of our hearts to see every church present and supporting this family. It was an amazing time of worship and really kinda fun. There weren't people crying or whaling as we have seen at many other funerals. It was just a celebration of this man's life. Really neat. I am trying to upload these really cool pictures of the night and of the burial but am not having any luck. I will try again tomorrow. God is definitely using this man's death to encourage us all. I hope that is how it is when I die! (Many years from now!! ;o)) Love you all! 

Had fun in Peru!

Hi friends! It has been a little while since I have written on here and I will tell you why. I took a trip to Peru. It was an awesome trip filled with lots of learning and fun too! I went there for some training on how to help our people with some humanitarian needs and share stories from His Word as well. Usually it is Greg that goes for training, but this time it was training for me. So, he stayed home with the kids, home schooled, cooked, cleaned, and did ministry. He is awesome! I must say a lot of my training was just in the travel. I flew many planes, rode buses, took taxis, and walked a lot. I really did learn a lot about international travel. What fun!

I came home to my precious family and we went back to work. Tonight we showed the Jesus film to one of our groups in a village here. It was so awesome to see the faces on the people there tonight. Some had never come before. We usually have about 10-15 women and children attend on Saturday nights and tonight we had around 40 women, children and MEN too. That was exciting for us to see. Two people made decisions to follow Christ and make Him the boss of their lives. When I say that I don't want it to sound silly or religious. These people are just people who have for whatever reason gone through their lives and never decided to make time for Jesus. They may have been praying to Mary and may have gone to confession occasionally too, but never trusted Jesus with their lives. So, today; they did that! It was an incredible night. So I had fun in Peru, (which is a beautiful country!) but it was so great to get home and do what we love to do!

Oh, and for all of you who wondered about the earthquake, I have seen no evidence of the earthquake since returning. I was in Puebla, Mexico City, Guadalajara, and now home. In all of those areas I saw nothing. I know there was some damage from it, but none that I saw in those areas. In the cities on the coast in the far south I believe there was some destruction. I do appreciate all of your prayers for Mexico. It is a troubled country and needs as many prayers as it can get! Love you all! Missy

Saying good-bye to my little babies! 

Greg and me at the airport before I left for Peru. I really am married to my very best friend!

We arrived in Peru and this was the room in our hotel. We thought it was funny to see 3 twin beds in a room. It was an awesome hotel and those beds were very comfy! 

Although we traveled all day and were extremely tired, arriving at midnight didn't stop us from laughing really hard at this tiny tub! It was like a baby bathtub for adults. 

Peruvian gas station.

Okay, so this was like my favorite place!!

Melissa, Melodie and me in front of a gorgeous sunset over the ocean. What a pretty sight it was to see!

This is Melodie, Melissa and me with our new friends Lily and Kendall. I love making new friends that serve all over the world! Can I say I love my job?

This does not do this sunset justice.  It was just incredible and I was so happy to see it. 

Melissa and I have been friends since the very first day I stepped foot on our companies property. We have been through so much together and have laughed a lot, cried a lot and enjoyed this job a lot; together. It seemed only fitting that we could go to Peru together. I must say on this trip, we laughed a lot!! I am so thankful to God for bringing her into my life! Love you Melissa!

This is a mall that was built right on the water. It was really cool. You can see across the water is another hot spot with the coolest sight of all being the lit up cross on the water. 

This is Jennifer. She used to live in Mexico and helped me so much when Annie had her accident. I truly couldn't have made it through that experience without her. She now lives in Peru and was one of the ones giving the training. She did a great job and I was happy to get to see her again! 

View from our window.

Melissa shopping in the market. 

These two pics are to show the nightlife in Peru. It is very different there. Everyone was out and about very late at night. Very different than here.

I took this from the plane. This is Mexico City.

It goes on forever!

Okay we think this sign is so funny. If you are driving down the road do you think you would be able to figure out where you were supposed to go? 

This was at the start of our movie night. Not many had shown up yet but there were some there and they were ready!

Our movie screen! 

This man here, is one of the ones who accepted Jesus into his heart tonight. It was his first time ever attending.

This sweet girl is another one who made a decision tonight. So happy for her! 

Homeschool made fun!

Hi friends! I know I had a long post yesterday with 100 pictures, but that is what happens when you go lots of cool places and want to share them with all of you. One of the things that happened while being gone was that I got out of my homeschool rut. I have always loved homeschool and am pretty hands on, but lately I had gotten in a rut. SO... while I was encouraging a friend to make homeschool fun for her kids, I talked myself out of the rut I was in. I arrived at home with a newfound energy. Let me tell you.... IT WORKED!!

 I haven't had that much fun with teaching Annie, ever. I had lots of fun when the boys were younger and then I got lazy. Today Annie said the words every mother, every teacher longs to hear, "Do we have to stop school, Mama? I want to do more!" I was so excited. She learned a lot, had fun and we both ended the day H.A. P. P. Y!  I will give any mom a great tip on spelling; we bought the game Scrabble Alphabet Scoop and it made spelling so fun! I just made up my own cards with her spelling words on them and then we played the game with her spelling words. Never seen her so excited about Spelling before!! Loved it!

Annie and me practicing her spelling words using our new game.

This is our new homeschool fort that we built to do our school in today. (and maybe the rest of the week)

We actually can't wait until tomorrow's school day! Just thought I would share! Love you!

Camp, Sun, Fun, Friends, Work, Fun..........

So as you can tell I had to change the blog's look again. I just got tired of it quick. I always think if I am tired of it, you must get tired of it too. I just have to force myself to stay somewhat dull, because other looks just don't do it for me. When I see them on other blogs they are adorable, then when I do them, I fail. SO... hope you are okay with brown. ;o) 

Our past weeks have been sooo busy. Some days we go from sun up to sun down. This past week we had a chance to do a little more relaxing than work and we needed that. Our boys went to camp with 141 other mks and had a blast! It was neat to see them make new friends, have fun and just enjoy being a kid. (We weren't there to actually see that, but we did see pictures.)

While they were at camp we spent the week visiting with friends. We played games, went swimming, ate lots of yummy food and enjoyed just being with friends. It was so awesome. We are so blessed to be able to work with such wonderful people. Greg and I both feel so refreshed as we have now returned to work.

We had a great day today as we had our first day of opening our clothing closet. It was neat to see the youth of the church get involved as well as the women of the church. (the men did some things too!) Everyone had a role and with everyone working together it went very well. We gave away lots of beans and rice to each person that came. We were also able to give out more blankets to those we felt needed them. Many were able to share the gospel with some who were interested in how they could get right with God and many who came asked for prayers for different needs they had in their lives. All in all it was a huge success! I was happy!!

I have a gazillion pictures to upload on here and will try to do that soon. I just don't want to overwhelm you with all of the ones I took. It is always hard for me to pick just a few when I take hundreds. I will post a few now and then maybe I can get some more on here later this week.

Popo in Puebla, so pretty! It was just letting off steam.

Playing in a natural spring. We had a great time!

Our sweet friends, the Conners. 

We worked hard to get this photo. I must say, it is beautiful and so worth our efforts! Pretty cool, huh?

Greg and Annie at the goat farm in the Conner's village.

Me and my Honey!

We went to a very interesting zoo. It wasn't what you would call OSHA approved. (FOR SURE!!) You could pretty much enter into the cages if you really wanted. If you put your fingers in the cage, you would be fingerless. I have never been this close to any of the animals. It was cool, though. 

This leopard didn't like Greg or Ben ( the Conner's son) and decided he would pee on them. It was WAY too funny. He just cocked his leg at them and intentionally sprayed them. We all got a good laugh out of it! Even Greg!

Greg wiping off leopard peepee! 

He quickly took a little bath!

You can't really tell from this picture, but this is a huge bear, taking a chicken from a man's hand for dinner. 

Greg decided he would open this door and show how easy it was for kids or anyone to get into a cage. So he opened it just a crack. 

That tail belongs to a large alligator which was in the cage Greg opened. SO safe, huh?

This is Ben having a conversation with the small bear.

Check out the lock on this cage... there is a lion back there..you just can't see him.

I do believe he would eat my fingers off!

Annie and Micah enjoying each other.

This was the last day of camp and they were all worshipping here. There were a few parents in the back, but most all of those are kids.

Annie was enjoying the singing! She loves her "Uncle Alan!"

The boys with some of their closest friends.

This was the first Annie had seen of her Alex, and I think they both were happy to see each other!

There aren't any restaurants on our drive home so we have a Mexican tailgate party! The kids were happy. 

 I missed my babies!!

This was on our drive home. Mexico is beautiful!

This was all of the women getting ready for our clothing closet today. 

We had a lot of clothing donated and we expect to receive a lot more now. We will open this up once a month as an ongoing ministry. 

The youth were in charge of giving out the rice and bean bags to each person who came.

This is Vero, Elvie and Pastor Isai from the church we have partnered with to reach the villages in this area. 

These are two of the women who received blankets. I love this ministry that allows us to love on the people and meet their physical and spiritual needs. Thank you to Manos Hermanas for allowing us to bless the people in this area! 

This little fella was a little bit shy until.....

he was offered a plate of food! So cute!

This little girl was so cute. She wanted this dress so badly and was wearing it around and then asked how much it was. Well... how can you tell her a high price when she wanted it that badly? It was Annie's old dress that was given to us and it made us happy to be able to give it to her for VERY cheap.   I love the look on their faces. Her mom was happy for her, can you tell?

We ended the day giving thanks to God for allowing us to bless so many and for blessing us with this ministry. I don't don't usually take pictures when people are praying, but I took this one without anyone really knowing. It was just too touching to pass up!

                                                           Love you all!! Missy