Big Day!

Hi everyone,

I am slowly working on changing the look of our blog from Annie's page to something that has to do with our ministry. The address pray4annie.com will stay the same, but I will be talking less about our miracle child and more about how she has opened doors for us here in Mexico. So, bare with me as we change the look.

I will tell you, Annie is doing better each day, however it still looks pretty bad on her leg. I sometimes wonder if it will ever change back to somewhat normal skin. If it doesn't it will be a shorts bathing suit for her in the future. The rest of her body looks so much better! It is still discolored but it isn't terribly noticeable. If you think about it, could you please pray that the skin on her leg starts to fade? Thanks!

Okay, today is a big day because we have tried for about 8 months to unite the 3 groups we story with, and at 6 :00 tonight, we will have our first united group. This could be a group of around 30 people. We do hope that it is successful! We are pretty sure half of our friends will come, and then we are praying for the other half. So, please pray that we will have great success tonight. I will include a picture and update tomorrow. (Tuesday)

PRAISE! Little baby Allen was born last night at 6:06 pm. We will go visit him this morning and I will post a picture of him as well! I figured that would benefit all of us, but especially his precious grandma who couldn't be here! :o) Love you all!

Having fun in the pool

One more below.

We're back home again!

It seems like we have been traveling a lot since May. I am tired and want to stay home for awhile. So, I think that is what we are going to do. We had a great week at the Convention of Mexican Baptists. We heard how God is moving all over Mexico and many people are accepting Him as the ONLY way. I say that because many people here feel there are more ways to get to heaven than Jesus alone. So, we learned a lot about the things that are happening with the Mexican Baptists and were glad to make new friends. We also had a good time with some of our close American friends. Sorry I have been off the net for the week, but I am back!

The location of the convention was in a place where it is quite a bit warmer than where we live and they had many pools. We had a great time playing in the pool after attending many meetings. We had one day to play and went to a water park nearby and had a fun, family and friends day. We were a little worried about Annie's leg. We were told no chlorine for 6 months. However, I am thinking that was chlorine in the States. I think maybe chlorine in Mexico is a little different! :o) ( the scum at the bottom of some of the pools kinda gave it away) I struggled with what to do for a day or so and then she eased into a baby pool and had little if any pain. She tried the second time and had none. So, by the last day she played at the water park without any problems. We kept her well covered in sunscreen, kept her pressure garments on and then prayed we made the right decision. It was a huge success for her as she had no fear of water and just played and played! That was a PRAISE!!

Please pray for our friends ,Josh and Jenell, who are m's that live in a city near us. They are expecting their second child any minute. Their first child was in the picture with Annie on the 4th of July. Her name is Tiana. Please pray for them as this transition from one baby to two babies will be a big one. Pray that all goes well with the delivery and there are no complications. Tiana had a rough start with some heart problems and Down Syndrome, so we know there may be some anticipation until little baby Allen (last name) arrives. I will let you know how it goes! Thanks for all of your prayers! We love you!

A Good Weekend!

Hi everyone! I know it has been a few days since I posted, sorry! This has been a really good weekend for us. On Friday, we had our normal group of about 16 people over to listen to a Bible story. Everything went well and Annie started to warm up to her Mexican friends again. We talked about changing our Friday night meeting to Monday nights when more people can come. We are praying that Monday will be a better night and our group will continue to grow. Please pray with us that this will be a good decision and soon we will have one big group instead of 3 small groups. This picture was taken while we were singing songs of praise and worship.

Saturday went well too. Greg and a group of 13 boys went to play American football and then they went hiking in the woods. They all had fun and came home FILTHY! Then we went over to a friends for lunch. I was a little worried when I found out what was on the menu. It was mole. That is the stuff that Annie fell into. I wasn't sure what she would say or do when she was offered this again. However, God is good and when she heard it was mole, she looked at us and calmly said, " Hey, that is what I fell into." That was it. She ate it like it was her favorite food. I was thankful because that was one more thing behind us!

We are meeting with Virginia and her family tonight. ( friend with cancer) Just to reply to the past few comments, like they said, I KNOW God is not a God of percentages! He is continually reminding me of that! Through so many prayers that He has answered. Remember, first we were told around 40% was burnt, then 32%, then 22%. He can change things in a matter of seconds if He wants! I know God will either heal our friend or He won't. That is the only thing they worry about here in the village. They aren't told what chance they have of survival. They are content with not knowing. I think that is a good thing. I will be praying for anyone mentioned in the comments! Praying for complete healing! Anyway,we are going to share some stories from the Bible with this family tonight, and hopefully we can encourage them through this tough time in their lives. Please pray God will be with us and they will hear these stories and understand these are God's words and not Greg's words.

We are off on another trip tomorrow. We will be heading to the Mexican National Baptist Convention. We will be visiting with many Mexican Baptists and encouraging them in the work they are doing. We will be there until Friday. Please pray for safe travels, as it is about a 9 hour drive. Thank you for your continued support to us. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read our news!

These pictures were from the past few days up until today. The last pictures were of Annie with another MK , playing together. This is just what Annie needed. She came out of her shell like she hasn't done since the last time she was around her Americans friends. She definitely seems more relaxed around Americans. Please pray that she will get back to herself around her little Mexican friends too. They were all fascinated with the little lizard they found. Thanks for all of your love and support to our family. We can STILL feel it!

Picture of Annie's Quiet Time

I finally got some of the pictures from the past few days put on here. Hope you like them.

It worked!

Yay! I got pictures up! The first picture was taken yesterday when Annie and I took food to this precious lady. Her name is Virginia, so I will start calling her that if I speak of her. Virginia was so happy to see us and ate every bit of the soup I made her. We talked about how we could make her more comfortable and I read them all of the doctor's instructions. They were very grateful and asked if Greg and I could come back on Saturday or Sunday and share some Bible stories with them all. This was a praise! So, on Sunday we plan on filling this little room with family members and tell the stories from the Bible, that we think will touch their hearts. Please pray that this will go well.

After we visited Virginia we went to visit with one of my best friends, Barbara. She is a new believer and we have a lot in common. She made us lunch and we all sat around and talked about the blessings of the past month. She is so easy to be with it makes Annie feel very at ease. Annie is always asking to go to "Nana Barbara's" house. So this second picture is of Barbara and I as we visited. She thought it was fun to do my rebozo ( the shawl thing) like she had hers. I look just like her, huh? It was a good day.

As we walked down the streets Annie is continually greeted by lots of children and adults. She gets very nervous and never says anything to them. She is still overwhelmed with the attention that she receives and really doesn't like to be looked at, spoken to, or touched. Of course that is what they all want to do. Please pray that Annie will overcome this feeling and that soon her life will return to normal. We love you all!