Pics from the past

Hi friends and family! Still typing one handed and getting pretty good at it. I was finally able to upload the pics from our youth camping trip and some of our Easter care package we received, hope you like them! They are not in order but I think you will get the idea. love you all!

This was just a picture I entered in a photo contest. It was for the author of this book, Karen Kingsbury. Don't think I won, but I had fun with this sweet lady taking the picture.

Easter bunny came a day late! Thanks to our dear friends the Twiddy family, we enjoyed some of our favorite Easter candy.

I have been on a no sugar diet so for someone who loves jelly beans this was a true test of my will power. Once the jar was opened I found out I am not the only jelly bean lover. The entire jar was gone in a week. I ate 2 handfuls.

I did eat 2 peeps as well. ;o)

Packed for our camping trip.

We had more tents than I had imagined.

Alex and his best bud, Carlos.

Waiting for a knight in shining armor to put up a tent for them.

love this pic! 

This horse was nothing but bones.

Precious.

Always giving orders. ;o)

With my birthday boy. He turned 13 while we were there.

Eating contest, Alex helped his team eat all their pickles. They hate pickles here.

Drama competition. Alex was the demon possessed man.

Jerod was the same man for his team. They both did a great job!

Campfire time. This always scares me to death!

Slept like a baby and it was about 35 degrees.

Happy Birthday!

Celebrating Alex early in the morning.

Not something you see at most campouts. 

The potty for everyone. ;o)

Where you washed up.

Great group!

This man carried all of our stuff down the hill on his back.

That's about it in a nutshell. Hope you liked them!

Another Amazing Race Challenge

Hi friends! First let me say that camp went amazingly awesome! We were hoping for 50 youth and 65 came! Really neat time in the middle of nowhere with some awesome people!

We celebrated Alex's 13th birthday and it was neat to think back to when we were first leaving America 7 years ago and we celebrated his 6th birthday. At that time I mourned all the things he was going to be missing while serving our Savior. Well....He has never once let me down. It seems as if Alex, Jerod and Annie thrive in any environment, and we couldn't be more blessed.

We returned home and I had an out-patient surgery scheduled for Monday. A few years back I had a cyst removed from my wrist, well; it came back about 8 months ago and became quite painful. So I had it removed again. It was a little more in depth surgery as the cyst was attached to an artery. The Dr. was awesome and it went well. So now you know what my Amazing Race Challenge is: doing everything one handed. (I have a cast on this time) So if my typing isn't that great, you will know why. :o)

Please pray for us as we have a million things going on over the next few months, as well as finishing up school. Thank you to all of you who do continue to follow us on our journey! love, Missy

Please pray!

It's been a few weeks and I could probably write a book about all I see in just a few weeks if only I could find time. It is late now and I am the only one awake but just wanted to ask you all to pray for our weekend. I really don't even know who reads this anymore. Is anyone out there?

Well... just to make myself feel better I am going to ask for prayer! ;o) We are undertaking a very large task this weekend. Very large. A little background first....It has been one of our efforts this past year to unite the "B" works in the area. There are many small churches within in hour or so driving distance but none of them were really meeting together. So we have tried to bring them together. This has been awesome to see and the joy it has brought these churches is priceless. Not too many months ago it was decided that it was time to bring all of the youth from these churches together for a big youth event. Now you know what the prayer request is!

We are leaving to go on a very fun-filled weekend of camping with, oh say 50-60 youth. No water, no plumbing, one outhouse for all to share, probably 2 tents, ( one of which I will be in) and then a bunch of  tarps tied to trees so the kids can sleep under them. It will be roughing it at it's best! I am bringing my camera and expect to take tons of pictures. Please pray for us as we travel, as we play, as we learn what God has to say to us and as we love on these youth who are growing up in an area that is not easy to grow up in! Thank you so much for praying! I truly count it a blessing to be able to serve among these people! Love to you all! Missy

Christian Funeral

 Hi friends! I wanted to share with all of you what has been happening this week. We started the week off seeing The Hunger Games movie as a family. The boys and I have read all 3 books but Greg has not. Of course we wanted him to see the movie with us and we couldn't leave Annie. Babysitters are a little hard to come by so we took her with us. This is how that looked. 

She was happy and so were we! 

Then on Monday we were told that a friend of ours lost his father. His father was one of the founders of the  "B" church in a nearby village. Now when we first arrived here we found many of the churches doing their own thing but not really connecting with each other. It quickly became one of Greg's goals to unify all of the B churches in the area. So when this man died and we went to the viewing/ service it warmed both of our hearts to see every church present and supporting this family. It was an amazing time of worship and really kinda fun. There weren't people crying or whaling as we have seen at many other funerals. It was just a celebration of this man's life. Really neat. I am trying to upload these really cool pictures of the night and of the burial but am not having any luck. I will try again tomorrow. God is definitely using this man's death to encourage us all. I hope that is how it is when I die! (Many years from now!! ;o)) Love you all! 

Had fun in Peru!

Hi friends! It has been a little while since I have written on here and I will tell you why. I took a trip to Peru. It was an awesome trip filled with lots of learning and fun too! I went there for some training on how to help our people with some humanitarian needs and share stories from His Word as well. Usually it is Greg that goes for training, but this time it was training for me. So, he stayed home with the kids, home schooled, cooked, cleaned, and did ministry. He is awesome! I must say a lot of my training was just in the travel. I flew many planes, rode buses, took taxis, and walked a lot. I really did learn a lot about international travel. What fun!

I came home to my precious family and we went back to work. Tonight we showed the Jesus film to one of our groups in a village here. It was so awesome to see the faces on the people there tonight. Some had never come before. We usually have about 10-15 women and children attend on Saturday nights and tonight we had around 40 women, children and MEN too. That was exciting for us to see. Two people made decisions to follow Christ and make Him the boss of their lives. When I say that I don't want it to sound silly or religious. These people are just people who have for whatever reason gone through their lives and never decided to make time for Jesus. They may have been praying to Mary and may have gone to confession occasionally too, but never trusted Jesus with their lives. So, today; they did that! It was an incredible night. So I had fun in Peru, (which is a beautiful country!) but it was so great to get home and do what we love to do!

Oh, and for all of you who wondered about the earthquake, I have seen no evidence of the earthquake since returning. I was in Puebla, Mexico City, Guadalajara, and now home. In all of those areas I saw nothing. I know there was some damage from it, but none that I saw in those areas. In the cities on the coast in the far south I believe there was some destruction. I do appreciate all of your prayers for Mexico. It is a troubled country and needs as many prayers as it can get! Love you all! Missy

Saying good-bye to my little babies! 

Greg and me at the airport before I left for Peru. I really am married to my very best friend!

We arrived in Peru and this was the room in our hotel. We thought it was funny to see 3 twin beds in a room. It was an awesome hotel and those beds were very comfy! 

Although we traveled all day and were extremely tired, arriving at midnight didn't stop us from laughing really hard at this tiny tub! It was like a baby bathtub for adults. 

Peruvian gas station.

Okay, so this was like my favorite place!!

Melissa, Melodie and me in front of a gorgeous sunset over the ocean. What a pretty sight it was to see!

This is Melodie, Melissa and me with our new friends Lily and Kendall. I love making new friends that serve all over the world! Can I say I love my job?

This does not do this sunset justice.  It was just incredible and I was so happy to see it. 

Melissa and I have been friends since the very first day I stepped foot on our companies property. We have been through so much together and have laughed a lot, cried a lot and enjoyed this job a lot; together. It seemed only fitting that we could go to Peru together. I must say on this trip, we laughed a lot!! I am so thankful to God for bringing her into my life! Love you Melissa!

This is a mall that was built right on the water. It was really cool. You can see across the water is another hot spot with the coolest sight of all being the lit up cross on the water. 

This is Jennifer. She used to live in Mexico and helped me so much when Annie had her accident. I truly couldn't have made it through that experience without her. She now lives in Peru and was one of the ones giving the training. She did a great job and I was happy to get to see her again! 

View from our window.

Melissa shopping in the market. 

These two pics are to show the nightlife in Peru. It is very different there. Everyone was out and about very late at night. Very different than here.

I took this from the plane. This is Mexico City.

It goes on forever!

Okay we think this sign is so funny. If you are driving down the road do you think you would be able to figure out where you were supposed to go? 

This was at the start of our movie night. Not many had shown up yet but there were some there and they were ready!

Our movie screen! 

This man here, is one of the ones who accepted Jesus into his heart tonight. It was his first time ever attending.

This sweet girl is another one who made a decision tonight. So happy for her!