Rachael's firsts

Hi friends! I thought I would try and live up to my goal of updating this more often. We are doing so much lately that I can barely keep up. I am not going to write much about these pics but they will give you a little idea of what we have been doing.

In a nutshell, we helped out with transportation and some small needs that the high school campers needed last week. It was really a great week for all of the high schoolers to get together one last time before many of them go off to college. We were able to have our wonderful friends from Kingston Ave. B church help out at the camp with some games and devotions. They all seemed to love being there with the high schoolers and I think it meant so much to the high schoolers to have people come and love on them. So, THANK YOU KABC!

We arrived home on Friday around 6 pm and I helped Rachael set up her new blog. You can follow her at rachaelsjourneys.blogspot.com She is doing a great job keeping up with it. It is fun to live life through her eyes. She sees everything so different than we do, we have just forgotten so many things that are interesting or neat or horrible. You just become immune to some things, so it is good to be reminded of what is normal and what isn't.

Saturday we spent all day celebrating the 59th anniversary of a church here. They celebrate every year here. It was great to see 7 different churches come together to support this one. That is one really big change that has happened in the last year. They have all decided to work together for one really great cause; reaching the lost. It seems to be working as each one of their churches is growing. Awesome to see!

Rachael asked what we were going to be doing today and when I told her we wouldn't be going to church today I thought she just might fall over. "What? A 'm' not going to church on Sunday, they must be fake!" I am sure that is what she was saying in her mind! ;o) I told her if we continued at the rate we were going, we wouldn't make it through the week as we have a full week planned. So when she slept in until noon, I think she may have understood a little better why we were taking it easy today! ;o)

Okay, so this is one big nutshell! I wanted to make this brief, but I also have lots to share! Hope all of you had a great day celebrating your daddies and husband/fathers. I know I sure do love my daddy and miss him terribly! Love to all of you! Missy

Sometimes I have a hard time uploading my pictures to my blog. I have no idea why, but I do. So this is  the only one I can show you for now b/c the rest won't upload. This is one of those things that unfortunately we see ALL the time. A drunk man, passed out on the side of the road. This is one of those things that was shocking to Rachael. A few other things that I think shocked her... that the nearest Wal-mart is about 45 minutes away, we have to wash all of our own dishes, use bottled water for ice trays, that we have to make our own pizza b/c we can't order it, and of course that we skip church some Sundays! ;o) I am sure there will be lots more, but for now that is what is shocking her. I will try to upload more pics tomorrow. Bye for now!

Life, Lice, Laughs, and Lots of Love!

Hi friends and family! It has been awhile since I have written on here. I am finding it is harder and harder to find time to update our blog. I am hoping summer will allow me more time to share with you all of the great things we have planned. Over the past month we have had all of the above mentioned; lice, laughs, and lots of love!

The lice was well.... an adventure for sure. I must say it was one of those things I never wanted and now that we have seen them and dealt with them, I hope to never see those little boogers again. It was only Annie who had the pleasure of hosting them. She was a true trooper too! As I picked them out of her head one by one, ( and there were at least 50 live ones) she kept saying, "Those little boogers must really like living in my hair!" FYI: vinegar poured over your head seems to kill them enough that they are easy to wash out FOR THE MOST PART, ( we picked them all out to be sure) then mayonnaise spread all over your hair and covered in a shower cap or saran wrap, and left over night will kill all the nits. (eggs) Then of course you have to remove the nits.  It worked for us, one treatment and they were gone! Hope you never have to experience that!

So after that we had a wonderful prayer retreat with some of our missionary friends on our team. It was an amazing time of prayer, fun, games, and lots of laughs. We are so blessed to have friends here that are as close to us as family. We are also blessed to have an organization that allows us to have prayer retreats like this that blesses our family and our ministry.

I mean it was a prayer retreat, so Anthony had to pray before he went down the slide! ;o)

He calls himself, "The BRONZE BEAST"  You gotta love him!

We needed lots of food to keep up our prayer energy! 

Friends forever!

'Don't use soap in the lake.' I bet you don't see that sign much in the US. ;o)

They had a great time!

Uncle David teaching Micah and Annie to fish.

Celebrating Ben's (he is like a cousin to them, pictured far right) birthday with pizza and cake. 

Greg and I celebrated our 18 anniversary which is why we had sooo much love! We enjoyed a great meal out with the family as that is how we do everything; as a family. I am blessed to have a wonderful husband, wonderful marriage and 3 awesome children! My life is not at all how I pictured it 18 years ago and for that, I am so grateful to the Lord! It is so much better than I could have ever dreamed it to be!

He is MY bronze beast and I love him!!

Right now we are in another part of Mexico as Jerod attends a camp for high school kids. We will leave here with one extra child in our family. We will have a wonderful teen named, Rachael staying with us for awhile. She is here to help us with our work and learn whatever she can throughout her stay. We look forward to sharing our life with her and would appreciate your prayers for all of us as we transition from a family of 5 to a family of 6. (Even if it is just for a short time.)

Rachael eating her first strange food of her trip here. She said she liked it, but I'm not so sure. 

 Thanks for keeping up with us! Love you all! Missy

Happy Day!

Hi friends and family! So much to say. A few weeks ago my mother-in-law came to Mexico to visit us. We always love it when she comes! We had a great time as we took her to each village and introduced her to many of our friends and shared with her all of the awesome things God is doing here. I will try and share that with you through these pictures. We did have 3 days of rest and relaxation at a beach that is about 4 hours away. Hope you enjoy the pictures and I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend remembering all of those who have served our country! Love you! Missy

Boys playing in the creek with some other boys.

Enjoying Mexican Mother's Day at a park.  

This is Grandma with a boy who I teach, his mom and Annie.

Love this sweet lady! Her joy says it all!

This poor grandma was doing all she could to take care of her grandson, but sleep took over. 

I loved this picture. This young lady was reading her Bible while taking care of her son on her back. 

We meet in this couple's home each week, it has blessed us all!

Single mama to 3 young children. Please pray for her, tough life!

This was funny. We always have our study here on this porch. Our friend wanted to show a movie so he brought this flatscreen TV to the village with him and hooked it all up right there on the porch. They hung tarps to make it dark and wala, a movie theater was made. ;o)

Grandma and Alex

Annie loving on her friends.

They made these little tamales out of leaves and mud. So creative!

It was fun having Grandma here to celebrate Mother's Day with us. This was the Mexican Mother's Day. 

We received a wonderful care package from some of the kids at Kingston Ave B Church.  We were extremely blessed by their generosity! Thank you KABC!!

We celebrated a wonderful day of baptism with 4 different churches represented. There were 13 who were baptized. It was awesome.

Some of the youth from one church were in the pool to help the candidates in and out of the pool. That is why you see Jerod and the 2 girls behind them.

He decided at the very last minute that it was time for him to go through the waters of baptism. He was so ready so he just got in at the very end.

Greg was very pleased! 

This was a main walkway. Just plop em down and they sleep. ;o)

This was a close up of her face.

No words.

Such a pretty Grandma!

Time for some R and R!!

Me and my boys! Love them!!

These are too cool, they go diving for them and sell them on the beach.

Like father, like sons.

Greg and his Mama!

We went on this banana boat ride and it was soooo fun! Awesome ride!

Okay... I had to include this. This is one of those find what shouldn't be there photos. This is a baby pool that is about a foot deep. Grandma and I watched in HORROR as this child continued to try and kill himself. No one seemed to even gasp as they saw it. ;o} Only in Mexico!