Last day.... boo hoo!

We made it! The kids had a wonderful time swimming in the pool once we made it to our first destination. We will head to Puebla, Mexico tomorrow.


Ever seen a Purepecha Yard Sale? I hadn't either, until yesterday. It was hilarious!! I told them to come to my house, I would open my door promptly at 5 and they could buy whatever I was selling for a very good price. This was the food we were selling. Everything went for about 5 cents.


I had just opened the door.

A lady grabbing the boys bedspreads. She was HAPPY!!

Fighting over food.

"Whew, this is hard work!"

This is Jerod's "Purepecha" mama, Mimica. He is gonna miss her, and she and her boys will miss him too!

It was hard saying goodbye to Mada and Adolfo. They own the land we live on and their son owns our house. They have been a big part of our lives ever since the first day we arrived here. Sometimes more of a part than I would have liked since Mada is somewhat of a snoop! :o) But today as we said a so so sad goodbye, the tears started flowing. Both of them started and then of course, I started and well, it was just one big pitty party! I just hope and pray they are still there when we return. Will you pray for them?

The lost sheep. He was the last one too! We stopped by on our way out of the village to say goodbye to Salvador. He was all by himself in his house. It was really quite sad. We talked to him and prayed with him. He said he didn't want to leave God, he wants to change, he just can't seem to beat his addiction. His heart is good, his addiction is BAD! Will you pray?

Okay, we are now safely tucked away in a nice, comfy, Holiday Inn Express and are enjoying rest and relaxation. We have eaten a wonderful meal at Chili's and we saw the movie "A Night At the Museum 2." We all loved it! It was a very tough last few days and we are glad that we made it through them in one piece! ;o) Although it was really sad to say goodbye to some of our friends it was nice knowing they were all united as a church and hopefully we will return with a stronger group than we have now! Please continue to pray for us over the next week as we will be meeting with other IMB missionaries and we will have our annual meeting. There will be many traveling from many different areas, please pray for all of our travels! Thank you! Love you!! Missy

Saying good~bye....

I hate saying good~bye I really do! However, I said it a 100 times yesterday and will say it again today. We plan on leaving today hopefully before noon. We are ready! It has been a hard last few days. It is never easy when you are living like this and the stress level is high and your kids are excited and a little crazy. There have been many tears shed and many voices raised and tempers flaired. Oh, did I say that? I bet you guys thought we never did those things since we are missionaries! ;o) Anyway, I am sure they will be glad to be done with this process just so they can have their parents back! We are headed to a larger city today to spend the night in a hotel. So hopefully we can do something fun today once we get out of here. We love our people but we have said enough good~byes to last us at least a year or more.

Please pray for our travels. We will be traveling today and tomorrow. Tomorrow we will head to Puebla, Mexico for our companies' annual meeting and we are all looking forward to that one last time before we leave Mexico next Tuesday. I love you all! Missy

Oh, high speed internet is coming at these hotels, so look for many photos! ;o)

Great night! Sad night! Fun night! Last night! :o}

So happy Miguel, Salvador's son was there, he was happy too!


We gave out plants to remind them of how the seed sower's plant should look when the seed falls on fertile soil.

Greg enjoying his last supper!

Angelica with a big smile, I was very happy to see that!

At the end we prayed for the "Lost sheep" who is Salvador. She cried and we know it is all gonna be just fine!

What an awesome night! We laughed and cried and generally had an incredible time. I really didin't know what to expect. EVERYONE came. That in itself was a miracle. Since yesterday was when they celebrated Corpus Christi (still not sure why) there was a HUGE party right beside our church. It was kinda like the devil was right outside laughing at us. They were litterally on the other side of a brick wall worshipping a statue and almost ALL of them were drunk as they did so. You could hear them hootin' and hollerin' as we were giving thanks to God for all of the many blessings we have been given over the past 3 years together. ( not at us, but just hootin' and hollerin' because they were drunk)

It was precious. Although it is a very idolic festival we knew most all of our friends would attend this party because it is just about the only fun thing that happens in the village all year. Everyone gets dressed up in their best clothes and it is more or less a reason for all of the women to show off their clothing. So we knew that many may not come, however, we had 45 come and we were thrilled to see them all one last time! I will try and add more pics later. However Greg is yellin' "LET'S GO!!" as we are heading into town for a few last errands. I am not a task master obviously! So, gotta go!

Enjoying their last days

Jerod showing his new house he built. This is where you store the wood.


This is the homemade soccer goal, the house is behind it, they are the same size!

Jerod's kitchen.

Little House on the Prarie, eat your heart out! Jerod's living room.

Jerod standing next to his house. Notice above his head to the right they even made something to collect water. How creative! I love this!!

Jerod and Alex love the village life. It just suits them! I am so glad that we are leaving on a good note. Not too long ago Jerod was getting miserable because the older kids were picking on him. They were bulleying him and he just decided he wanted to return to the US because it would be better there. Hopefully it will be better. However, he prayed about his situation and decided he would just start playing with other kids. The only other kids around that aren't married or bad influences are 6 and 8. So..... he chose them to spend his time with. He has loved every minute of it! They see him as a big brother and he has really enjoyed playing with them, creating with them, building with them and generally having fun with them!

Alex never really had a problem, as long as he had a good soccer ball he was happy. He plays with some of the kids who bullied Jerod but they don't seem to mess with Alex. Don't know why? Anyway, we are happy that they are both leaving here, not wanting to leave. That way, hopefully they will both have good memories and want to return after our time in the states. Please pray our transition goes well!

I am not worried about Annie wanting to return here, but I am worried about her transition to the states. She continues to ask me if we are going to live in the comfy couch house. (the house we stayed in when she was burnt) It is the only house she has ever lived in while we were in the states. She has stayed with relatives but she has always known that was Aunt Jenny's house or MamaSay's house, but the comfy couch house was the only one where she thought was our home. So, needless to say, she is confused about where we will live when we get to the US. Pleeeeese pray! Love, Missy

Another Saint

I would say that this cross stitched napkin says a lot, it is of a cup of wine. Don't know why it is on his shoulder, but why?

Okay, I guess this is Corpus Christi on a bed with a friend? Who knows! I will find out!

This was the start of the procession. They were covering the priest to keep the sun off of him.

Then came all of the different saints in their boxes.

These precious feet had to carry those boxes. Don't know how they don't break their ankles.

This man couldn't even make it through the parade without starting his drinking. He would play a note and drink, play another, and drink, it was quite interesting to watch! You actually have to be quite talented to do this!

Okay, this one got me, the red jug is to carry "holy" water in. He had something other than water in his and he was pouring it in his drinking goards. He had one thing on his mind, and it had nothing to do with anything regarding religion.

Hi! Today started a fiesta in our village celebrating yet another saint. Oh how it makes me sad to see. I don't know all of the beliefs regarding this saint but I know it has a lot to do with drinking, spending a LOT of money, and worshiping a saint. Corpus Christi is who they are celebrating and I am not altogether sure why and I know they don't really know either. I will try and find out more tomorrow. I wanted to share these pictures with you today. Tomorrow will be busy for us and I know I won't have much time, so I thought I would try tonight. This is supposed to be a religious "fiesta" but all we see them do is drink. I just don't understand.

Jerod has decided that alcohol is altogether a bad invention. All he sees is that is causes harm to people. Not such a bad thing for him to see. I am a little worried that he will return to the states and think that anyone he sees drinking will just end up on the floor or beating his/her spouse. Please pray we can help him understand that not everyone drinks like they do here. I know drinking is big in the states, but it is different. Here, it seems like it is ALL they do. Not all the people of course but if you drink, you drink until you can't stand up. There are always drunks in the streets during these "fiestas." There are a lot of horseback riders during some of the parades, yesterday the kids saw some men on horseback passed out drunk. It is one of the saddest things we have seen. It ruins lives here. As you have seen with our friends Salvador and Angelica. Things are the same with them as of today. Keep praying! I will post more tomorrow! Love, Missy

The picture

I know, I know this picture above is NOT the one that looks like it won however, after the poll closed I received a few more votes by email and that put this one over the top. Which I must say I was relieved about. I was having a hard time with number 96 because of the hair on my neck. I know that is stupid, but, oh it bugged me! So, now you know why that one is the winner. Thank you all for helping make this all important decision! You are such a huge part of my life and I really count on all of you for so much!

Please pray for us today. We are going to talk to Salvador again today. He hasn't been drinking for 2 days now, we think he his sick. Please pray he will receive us well. Love, Missy

Last Friday night

This is Jerod with his group of the smaller kids. They made cups with a little man sticking out, and filled it with water to show Peter walking on water. Then they drew pictures of Jesus calming the storm. I must say, Jerod had done an EXCELLENT job with teaching these kids!


Greg and Prisiliano showing how Peter had to keep his eyes on Jesus when walking across the water.

Hi all, Last night was our last Friday night meeting. It went really well. The story was on Jesus calming the storm and Peter walking on water and the faith he needed in Jesus to do so. Angelica was there ( I was SO glad) and she related well to this story. They talked about sometimes how even though we have faith we also have doubts. That although Peter had faith, he doubted he could walk on the water, but how when he kept his eyes on Jesus he could do it. It was awesome to see the group encourage her, wrap their arms around her and pray over her. They let her know that Jesus would calm this storm in her life as well, she just needed to keep her eyes on Him. Greg said, "It's so neat how God planned that, I had that story on the calendar 3 weeks ago, and it just worked perfectly for her!" Angelica left encouraged, teary eyed and feeling as though she had just spent 2 hours with family. Can I tell you how proud I am of this group? SO proud! Please continue to pray for Angelica and Salvador. He is walking on a dangerous path. They are going to meet with the "Mayor" today. Pray all goes well. Love to you all!! Missy