A Word from Greg

I rarely write anything here as Missy is the "blogmaster" and has control but I wanted to share some thoughts of what has happened in my life over the last 2 months to hopefully encourage you.

I was a little discouraged 2 months ago about some things in the ministry and not seeing what I thought I should be seeing in various groups we work with each week.  I have been trying to memorize scripture this year as it is something that I have not done well in the past.  One of the scriptures I memorized was Proverbs 3:5-6:  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."  As I was memorizing this I was sharing it with people and encouraging them to trust God and follow these words in Proverbs.  Well, as I was moping around about lack of leadership in our groups, etc. God decided to take me to the woodshed and said basically, "You have been sharing these words with others but are not following them yourself."  I was leaning on my understanding and plans and timetables and not submitting to him.  How often we think this is our church and our vision and our plans without consulting the real owner of the church.

Anyway, in the last month we have had the priviledge of participating in three large baptismal services in three different areas. Baptism is a huge step in this highly Catholic culture and is always a great time of celebration.  We also attended a service during Easter week geared towards youth and have honestly never been a part of a service, while here in Mexico, where God was moving so strongly.  Many of the youth were broken, crying and praying together.  Six youth trusted in Christ that night and it was a real encouragement.

To finish up, you can probably see where this is heading first with me moping around thinking of my plans and then God revealing my hypocrisy of not trusting in the words I was sharing with others.  Finally, just weeks later God revealed how He was in control and blessed our people group.  This is His church  and I pray that I will continue to remember that.

Group of believers that were baptized at our family camp.

Believers that were baptized from our small group here in our village.

Family who studied God's Word together and then followed through with baptism after learning about it.

Former gang member who was changed by God's Word and was baptized afterward.

Blessings to you all, Greg

The Past Few Weeks In Pics

 Hi friends! I always think that a picture tells a 1000 words, so I will just let the pictures tell you what we have been doing over the past few weeks. Enjoy! Love, Missy

We celebrated Alex's 14th birthday at a nearby pool. It was a great day!

Love my Alex!

I thought I would try to paint his present; a Colts jersey with his favorite number on it. (It happens to be Andrew Luck's number as well!)

We had a resurrection party. It was a lot of fun!

We celebrated some baptisms with our small group that we meet with here in our village. It was awesome to see 6 people follow Jesus through the act of baptism by immersion. 

My best friend, Laura. She was one of the ones who was baptized, it was a great day!

Love this picture. This is a true clash of cultures. She just sat down from cooking over the fire and decided to read a text and listen to music. Too funny! 

Our small group, plus the pastor we partner with and his family. 

We were able to give some shoebox/bags away to some kids. This was awesome. We received shoeboxes from Christmas a little late. We divided them up to make them go further and are now giving them out to needy kids. The little one, wasn't too happy about it!

We have been praying over a lot of sick people lately. This young girl is only 19 and already has a 4 year old and Lupus. She is sick a lot and has a long road ahead of her. Please pray for her. Her name is Lupita.

We have been giving out more shoes. It is always a blessing, for all those who give and receive! 

We had an awesome turnout for our family camp. We had about 170 people in attendance and had a wonderful time together as a body of believers. 

We witnessed 8 people baptized, it was awesome!

Watching the baptism.

These are the 8 that were baptized. 

Played lots of games.

Learned more about the Bible. 

Greg lost at tug of war! ;o)

Annie enjoyed herself!

Some were bored to tears! ;o)

Others played until they couldn't play anymore.

Jerod and Alex had lots of fun with their friends. I love my boys!

We had a boat race. 

I was determined to win, even if it meant cheating. 

Annie had some down time with her friend, Lyz.

We helped put out our neighbors house fire. I took this from my porch. It was close, but with buckets and lots of village helpers, it was out in about 15 minutes. 

This is what it looked like when it was over. 

That is what we have been up to and we have enjoyed every up and down of each day. We have had drunks at our doorstep begging for help and have had sad wives looking for marital advice,  through it all, each day has been a blessing. Thank you all for your prayers!

Another request!

So even though our week of prayer is over we would like to ask you to pray for 2 more people. There are two women who are considering being baptized on April 15th. We are having a baptism that day and we have 3 that have confirmed that they want to be baptized and we have 2 that are struggling. Baptism is a HUGE deal here. It isn't taken lightly and most all believers think about this decision for a while before deciding to make it. Usually it is because it comes with persecution.

These two women are struggling because they feel they need to clean up their lives before they are baptized. They know that scripture clearly teaches that all that is required is faith in Christ, and genuine repentance as shown in this story in Acts 8:36-39.

³⁶ As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” ^{37Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The eunuch answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”38} And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 

Please pray that these two women would realize that God doesn't want their perfection, all He asks for is their obedience. Thanks for praying! Love, Missy

This is how one woman felt after making her decision.

This woman waited 40 years to be baptized as she was trying to clean up her act, she finally realized that only Jesus could clean her up. 

She was so happy with her decision.