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

My party on Saturday

They wanted to take my picture. So, there I am!


Eating and talking and enjoying eachother!

Mimica so happy with her little gift, it doesn't take much!

We played the "Missy" trivia game. They were all questions about my life here and in the states to see who knew me best. They loved it! Angelica was thrilled with this bottle of hair gel she won!

They LOVE hot dogs! They were happy, happy, happy!

I don't know if you can tell from this picture but they loved the fun balloon napkins. Most of them saved them and took them home. This woman was looking at it like it was the neatest thing ever!

I love this, because it shows even when there is a bench, they always choose the floor!

My friend Angelica taking charge of making the hot dogs.

Hi everyone! Days are flying by and I still haven't told you how my party went. I wanted to show you the pictures.

This is what happened. I woke up on Saturday morning throwing up and well.... the other and thought... I have to cancel the party. Greg told me to wait because maybe it would pass and I would feel better. So, I waited. I prayed. Then I prayed that someone else would pray. I felt absolutely horrible. I didn't throw up anymore and I was sure it was something I had eaten and not a virus but I had no idea how I could have all these women in my house and have a party. Greg took the kids into the nearest city and told me not to cancel it until I knew for sure I couldn't do the party. Mainly because we didn't have many other days to do the party and we both knew that canceling this party would mean that many would end up not coming and I would have to have a party 3 days before we were going to leave. I did NOT want to do that! So I called the women that had phones to see if they could come one hour later and they said they could. Then I had one friend go and tell the others that didn't have phones. Anyway, I kept thinking of Phillipians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I made up my mind I could do it and I did. I knew if I told my friends I wasn't feeling well, they would take charge and they did. It all went wonderful and little by little I felt better. Not great, but better. We shed many tears as I told them how much I would miss them. We laughed a lot! Watched a movie, painted our nails and generally had a wonderful time together! God is so good to me! I remember 4 years ago just praying that God would send me friends here. I thought if I have some friends, I know everything will be fine no matter what my living conditions are. He has blessed me with wonderful friends! There were 16 in all! I am blessed! Love you! Missy

What a day!

Well a lot has happened since I posted this morning. I just had to tell you the rest of the story. ;o) Salvador was in no mood to listen to anyone today. He was mad that his children hit him. Can you imagine? Of course he said he would never forgive them and Angelica said, "But I am supposed to forgive you?" To which he had no response. He just doesn't see that hitting his wife is wrong, but oh, hitting a parent, now that is wrong. It was so frustrating! He started drinking again about 9:30am and continued all day.

When I posted this morning I forgot to say that one thing that encouraged Greg and I was that when we arrived at their home at 2 this morning, Moises and his mom and his wife were already there. They have been a blessing!

Anyway, Angelica, Lupita (her daughter) and Olivia ( one of her daughters -in-law) all came to church tonight. It was really good for them all. Of course we were hoping her sons would be there but they all were embarrassed by their father's actions and didn't want to come. So after our study a group of us went to their home to encourage them. It was awesome! All I could think was this is what it is all about! There were 13 of us in a tiny room and they were all talking in their languagae and using Bible stories as examples of how Satan will try to tear us down or how God can encourage us or how we are given second chances. We heard them use the story of Jonah, the parable of the seed sower, The Prodigal Son, The story of the demon possessed man, and many more. It was really awesome!!

I was so encouraged! I saw the body of Christ taking care of part of the body that was suffering. They were all doing this without any help from Greg and I. So although I hate that there was hurt, it gave us an opportunity to see that they are going to be just fine without us. I just know it! We prayed for Salvador as we knew he was a lost sheep and sometime while we were praying he climbed into bed and went to sleep. We are now praying that he wakes up with a repentant heart. Please pray with us. God sure can do a lot in just one day, huh? Love to you all! Missy

While you were sleeping.....

Hello friends, sorry it has been a few days! I have been battling a few things. A cold or flu ( oink oink, just kidding) and a stomach infection after that. Needless to say the past few days haven't exactly been fun. However, life must go on and I did have my party on Saturday. It went well. I will tell you more about that tomorrow. Right now I need to tell you what happened while you were sleeping!

Last night about 2 in the morning 3 (EST) I was still awake and didn't know why. I just was lying in my bed waiting to fall asleep when the cell phone rang. I jumped up and saw it was our friend's number and quickly answered it. I found out that our friend, S (alcoholic) pictured above had started drinking and beat his wife, A. A is one of my dearest friends. She is the rock in this family, precious, precious woman. Please pray. I am writing this with tears in my eyes. I love her. It isn't fair that someone has to indure this kind of life. It isn't fair. When will it stop she asked me. What can I say to her? When he kills you. S is a wonderful man when he is sober. However, when he drinks he is evil. All together evil. This not only effected Angelica but her 2 sons, M and C, their 2 wives, R and O and her daughter Lupita. (pictured here with them) They all live together.

We just so happened to have an overnight guest (another m) staying with us for the night and so we left the kids with him and Greg and I headed to their home to see just what had happened. When we get there everything was calm. A's face was all swollen, she probably looks pretty bad today. Sal was in jail, for the night, and C and M were very sad. We went in and found out that S had started beating A, C (21) went in to defend her and then S started fighting him. Then M tried to stop that fight and he was hit too. It was then the 2 of them against him, with A trying to make them all stop.

Then people from the streets came in to break up the fight and it became one big fight. You can just imagine. The police came, took Sal to jail (this is just customary) to sleep it off and he was released this morning.

Now Greg is down at their home trying to talk some sense into S. It is so hard when Greg stands at least 2 feet taller than S and Greg would like to defend A himself. However, he has gone down there to show the love of Christ and try and talk to this man and see if he can somehow change his way of thinking. Knowing that only Christ can really change this man when this man wants to be changed. It is a tough, all of the kids want to leave and live in other places, however they don't want to leave their mama to defend herself. Oh, my heart hurts. Please pray for us. Love to you, Missy