Blessing of giving!

With the money donated we bought trucks, soccer balls, jewelry boxes, Barbies, baby blankets and dolls.

This was enough for the first party and we have 2 more planned. It is so exciting to see these kids get their gift. For many this is the only gift they will receive this year. Thank you!

Loaded and ready to take to the church down the street.

This is Isai, he is the pastor at the church we have partnered with and does and amazing job!

Most of these kids never have their picture taken so they are not used to smiling for the camera. So... when you see them with their gifts and there is no smile, it isn't because they don't love them, they just don't know you are supposed to do that. 

And then others are just happier, naturally. 

This was during the church service. This little one just crawled around all over the church and every  now and then her mom would look back to see where she was and then she would continue listening to the service! It is childcare at it's best! Love it!

This was a choir who came to sing for us. They did great. Of course the kids only had one thing on their mind. Presents.

As soon as the singing was over, we ate and then we had Jesus' birthday cake. Greg did a short teaching on that being the reason for the season and the reason for the gifts as well. We told them about how some   people in the US decided they wanted to bless them with gifts this Christmas and they were very thankful to you all!

One cake said "Jesus" the other said, "Savior." The kids said, "Yum!"

Even Estella made it to this event. It was her first time going to something like this and she was happy!

Annie was enjoying herself!

These are some of the cards we received and gave out with the gifts.

Jerod being himself.

Here is one of those faces, not used to the camera. Followed by a lot more!

A quick note. Some of you may be wondering why some kids got soccer balls and trucks and Barbies and others just got these colored balls. Well.... we had to make a tough decision. This always happens, every year. We try and bless the kids here, but we can't bless them all. So we bless those who are in the churches or whose parents are trying to learn God's Word and give their kids a better life. (which can be tough here) However, when all of the village kids see or hear about toys being given out, they all come a runnin'. Of  course we didn't have enough toys to give out to the entire village.  So we gave these balls to the kids who came just for toys. Or some of the smaller kids also wanted them, but these were the kids from the village that wondered in. They were happy to get these balls and we were happy to be able to give them something. They also got a meal and cake and heard the Word of God. We hope they will come back for more than just toys. 

This is Nacho. He is in his 30's but is still part of the youth group. Here the "youth" group consists of anyone who is single. So... he got a gift too! He came up when we called the youth up to 18 years old!

When the night was through we had given out more than 100 pieces of cake and 90 presents! It was an awesome night made possible by many of you! Thank you all for giving, praying, and encouraging us in this journey we are on. We pray you all have a very Merry Christmas!  

Love, The Wood Family

Christmas?

It is hard to get in the Christmas mood here. I mean, the tree in our house is up. I have 2 poinsettias in the house, we have a manger scene, and some stockings hung and we have even hung 3 strands of lights on the tree in front of our house. However, that is about it for decorations around here. I haven't seen but one other tree, and you see some lights dotted here or there, but not many. I mean, maybe 10 houses in a 10 mile radius. I know it shouldn't be all of those things that get you in the Christmas spirit, but what does? Is it Christmas shopping? Because, from most of the posts on Facebook that would not be what gets people in the spirit either. ;o) However... when I see little eyes seeing a Christmas tree for the first time, it does do something to my spirit! I am slowing learning that it isn't all about the decorations, the smells or shopping. It is all about Jesus.

This is Dani. He is sooo sweet and really loved our tree. He was in awe over every single ornament. It made it hard not to get excited with him! 

This is the closest thing to a Christmas decoration that I have seen here in the village. 

 I guess going to all of the Christmas services definitely does do it. However, there really aren't any of those here either. There are some things planned here, but not much. So... it can be hard to get in the Christmas spirit, but I am doing all I can to get into the spirit on Navidad!! ;o)

This is the kind of thing you see many doing. Not so many things about Jesus' birth, but... cleaning their statues of Mary. (Guadalupe) I saw this and just felt sad in my heart. Sad. I know people hear about idol worship, and maybe people don't realize it is real. Well... it is. 

One thing we are looking forward to is our gift giving to the kids here. We have been SO blessed by your donations that we are going to be able to have 3 different parties! Our first party is planned for this Sunday. That will probably be what  will really put me in the spirit! We have purchased soccer balls, baby dolls, Barbies, dump trucks, baby blankets and jewelry boxes. We have ordered cake and have goody bags filled with candy. We should have some really happy children! We are excited! I will post pictures of each party after we have them.  Thank you again to all of you who donated money  to help us buy gifts for the kids here! Here are some pictures of the presents we have purchased for one of the parties. Thank you again for helping us to give these kids a very Merry Christmas! I had pictures of the gifts to put on here, but I cannot get them to upload for some reason. SO.. stay tuned! Love you all!

He is at work!

Hi friends! I mean to tell you, God is soooo good! I love this job. I really do. This week we have partnered with a local church to go into different villages everyday and every night and share His Word with those who have shown interest. There is a team from Texas who has come to help us with this endeavor. We have been praying about this week for a while now and have been strategic in which homes we would try to visit. It has proven to be a huge blessing to all of us.

Now this hasn't been just a huge Gospel presentation to a large number of people where you see many put their faith in God. This has been very different. There has been a group of about 20 or so people who have divided into 3 groups each day and gone into different homes where the people were expecting the visit and have shown an interest in things of God. It seems as if the people in these homes have just been waiting for us to come and share. We have seen MANY; ( I will get the exact number soon) more than 10 put their faith in God for the first time in their lives. (And that is just these past 2 days!) This means that some of them have been trying to figure out exactly how to follow God and they just didn't know the correct way. We explained to them  that if you put your faith in Him, accept that you are a sinner, repent of your sins, and believe, you will be saved. ( John 8:12, John 10:9 John 14:6, John 3:16). We have tried to make it so hard. He made it so easy.

I think that has been why so many haven't  understood before, because they were trying to make it a lot harder than it is. They were trying to work their way into heaven. (Titus 3:5, Ephesians 2:9)They were going to church, giving money, helping people, which are all good things, but they just did them because they thought it would help them not go to hell.  They were doing all they could to be good enough. But the Bible says we will never be good enough. (Ecclesiastes 7:20, Roman 3:23) We are sinners. But... the Bible also says that Jesus came to save us. (Romans 6:23, John 3:36) We have been working hard to explain the difference in religion and relationship. God doesn't care about religion, all he wants is a relationship with you, and them! Anyway, it has been a beautiful few days seeing God at work in the lives of many people! Enjoy these pictures and please pray for us as we will continue with these visits over the next 2 days.

This was last week when Annie celebrated her birthday a week late with her best friend here.  Their birthdays are just 2 days apart. 

This is movie night at our house. It was 9:45 and as you can see, most of the family didn't last halfway through Miracle on 34th Street! Jerod and I enjoyed it though!

These are some of the people who are sharing this week. We met at my house one day for lunch. 

This is Estella. She is my precious house helper. She is so poor and just found out that she is 3 months pregnant. She isn't happy about it, but she is trusting God to help her take care of this baby He has blessed her with. 

Estella's daughter, Rosa and her little niece.

Two little kids who love having their pictures taken! 

I could have eaten them up!

This is Miguel. He gave his life to Christ today. He said he was tired of drinking and getting drunk. He wanted God to help him change his life. Right after he prayed a precious prayer and asked God for help, I looked outside and saw his daughter and her cousin pulling beer bottles out of his truck. I told him I thought his daughter knew what he was going to do, because she was throwing away all of his bottles. He loved it and laughed at the idea of his daughter getting rid of all of his beer bottles.

Here is the picture I took of the Miguel's daughter and nephew cleaning house! (Or rather car!)

Another Bible study.

We had a great study on the demon possessed man. (Mark 5:1-20) We talked about how awesome is the power of God that He took many demons out of a man and made him whole again in just an instant. We explained that once you trust God with your entire life, that is what He does. He cleans you up, just like He did with the demon possessed man. One woman asked about different sins. "What if you killed a person, would He still forgive you then?" We explained that to God there are no levels of sin. Just sin. She started crying and said she wanted to trust her life to Christ but didn't think He could ever love her b/c she had killed a person. We talked a long time about this. She confessed that years ago she aborted her baby and has never been able to forgive herself for doing that. We told her that once she gives her life to Christ, she becomes a new creation. She is forgiven of ALL of her sins. (1 John 1:9) She was overwhelmed and said she wanted more than anything to follow Christ with her whole heart. She found out today she is pregnant. Not only did He bless her with forgiveness for aborting her baby, he gave her another one, all in the same day! He is SO good!

This is Carlos. He is a good friend to Alex and Jerod. Tonight Jerod shared with Carlos how he too could give his heart to Christ. (Matthew 19:14) Carlos was so excited about making this decision! He cried and prayed and thanked God the wonderful gift of salvation! So precious to see His children understanding how simple it is to put their faith in Him! What an AWESOME few days! Can't wait to see what else He does this week! Love to you all! Missy