The JOYS of living in Mexico!

The joys of living in another country are sometimes as great as the frustrations! Halloween came and went last night without much thought. We had plans to visit a church last night so we told the kids we would do "Halloween" today. So, we will let them dress up today and do a scavenger hunt for candy around the house, bob for apples in our kitchen and then say, "Happy Halloween!" One year Greg's mom was coming near Christmas time so we changed when we would have Christmas, since no one here celebrates like we do, it is easy to change the day to accomodate our plans. That is the JOY of living here!

I have been trying to upload some pictures but our internet does not want to do that! Sometimes it is faster than other times. So, I will keep trying to upload it throughout the day. It is a picture that will give you a good example of how dark this time really is around here.

Today is the first "Day of the Dead" in our village. I have learned more about this day through our maid. She is 18 and has been married for four years. She had a baby that died when it was about 8 months old of bronchitis. This happened about 3 years ago. The custom is to go to the grave at night and place food on the grave so that the spirit of the dead person will come back and visit with you. They will eat and enjoy fellowship with you. Tonight is the night for those who died as infants. Tomorrow they will have Mass for those who died as adults and they will ask forgiveness for the sins of those who have died. She asked me what I thought about visiting the spirit of her dead baby today. (she is a new Christian and really wants to do the right thing) I asked her if she believed her baby would come back and eat the food and visit with her. She said she didn't believe that but was confused. We talked about how after a person dies it is too late to ask forgiveness for their sins. She said the people here don't believe that babies sin very much and that is why they don't need to have a mass for children. She said she believes the spirit of her baby was in heaven. I assured her that the spirit of her baby wasn't hungry and didn't need to come here to eat! I told her I like to imagine my grandma rocking her baby in Heaven. She said she liked that idea too! So, she said she would go and pray for herself but she didn't think she needed to bring food or pray for her baby. Please pray for Rosa and Chavo today as I am sure they will be pressured to do many things that they no longer believe is necessary.

My life

Ya know, there is one thing about living in Mexico, it is NEVER dull! Two of our friends have needed to go to the doctor for awhile and didn't have the money to do so. It has now gotten to the point we felt it was time we intervened for the sake of their health. So I (Missy) made appointments for them and told them I would take them today. We had to leave about an hour and fifteen minutes early so we could arrive on time. Everything went well on the trip into town and we did some language learning on the trip. We finally arrived at the Dr.'s office and the receptionist says, "Oh, I was just trying to call you, the Dr. had to leave for a little while, can you come back in an hour?" I said, "Sure, why not?" So, we left and went to a store similar to a Wal-mart and were looking around and about ready to return to the Dr. when the receptionist calls me again. "Sorry Mrs. Wood the Dr. will not be returning today, can we reschedule?" I wanted to scream! Actually I wanted to say," Look lady, I just drove an hour to see a Dr. who wasn't even there and now I have waited another hour for you to tell me HE'S just not coming back?"How fair is that? So, we made the most of our time together and God used that time to build these relationships. I would have preferred to not have had that happen, but as the president of our company says, "That is the cost of the call!" So, we will be returning on Tuesday to try again. Please pray that this time, we will actually see the Dr!

Monday went great!

Sorry, I haven't updated you about Monday night's fellowship. It went great! I don't have the picture I took on my computer yet, but I will try and get one up soon. Jerod had complained a few weeks ago about not having many kids to do "kids church" with. We told him it wasn't about numbers but about reaching the few who did come. Usually we only have about 2 or 3. Bless his sweet heart, he does a craft with them and tells a Bible story in Spanish. He does a great job. Well, God rewarded him for this, we had a record breaking number of kids this week.... 11! He was so excited. They memorized the verse, Phil 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I thought that was quite fitting.

Please pray for my sweet boys as they are trying to find their own ministry here in Mexico. I wanted to update you all on Anna Kate, the 18 month old who they thought had diabetes. Praise God, she does not! Continue to pray for her as they still aren't sure what if anything she does have. I love you guys! Missy

Toto we aren't in Kasas anymore!

I took this picture in front of our house. I just thought you would enjoy it. This is definitely when you hear yourself thinking, "Toto, we aren't in Kansas anymore!" Have a great day!

Starting the morning off!

This is Jesus. Not the same Jesus you and I think of, but he is a good friend and neighbor. Greg has been having him translate Bible stories for the last year and a half. He has asked many questions and seems to be seeking truth. I caught a glimpse of him across the street doing what appeared to be, reading his Bible. Now, I can only tell you that the book he read had a black cover and red rimmed pages. ( thanks to my zoom lens on our video camera) Please pray with us that Jesus really is seeking the truth and is indeed reading the Bible.

Barbara and Icho

This is a picture of the woman I talked about that said she wasn't going to come back to our home after Annie's accident. So glad she did. She is one of my very good friends here!

One of our best Monday nights!

We gathered together again this past Monday night for our time of worship. It is always interesting to see who will come and who won't after not meeting for about a month. Well, there were a few missing, but they all had good reasons and the majority of the group was there. We heard the story about the gold, statue of a cow that was built to worship. I wasn't too familiar with this story and found it interesting to learn more about it. The jist of the story is that some followers of God, were waiting on Moses to return from the mountain after he received the 10 commandments, and got tired of waiting. They decided to take all of the women's earrings and mold them into the form of a cow. Then they worshipped the cow instead of God. When Moses returned he fussed at them and told them they were all sinning against God. He then melted the statue. This really hit home with our friends because many of them have different statues in their home. The question was asked if it was okay to have statues if they didn't worship them. We of course said a statue isn't a bad thing, it is what you do with it that makes it bad. So we felt that many of them left with a new understanding of worshipping idols.

Below is a story of how Satan's plan was revealed, but it's kinda long....so you can read it, or not.....I just wanted to warn you!


After the story was over and we were eating, we sat around talking. This was the first time that they weren't in a hurry to leave. There were 5 women who were talking about witchcraft. They explained how real it is and how many people don't understand what they are doing when they put their faith in witchcraft. For those of you who don't understand this culture, it is hard to really grasp what I am talking about. Witchcraft isn't just someone saying they are a witch, it isn't someone on a broomstick or wearing a black hat. Not that any of you unless you are under the age of 13, actually thought that, but.... it doesn't hurt to say it. The witches here have sold their soul to the devil and work for him. They cast spells on the people and believe they have the power to ruin or save lives, whichever they choose to do. It was quite a long conversation, and I heard of MANY instances where they had seen people directly involved in witchcraft and had seen people put their faith in it. I was so happy to hear one of the women say," They don't understand that they are putting their faith in the Devil. You can't put your faith in God and Satan at the same time." They all talked about how dangerous witchcraft was.

I told them of how many people told us about the "evil eye." The evil eye is when someone can cast a spell on you and make you sick or make bad things happen to you. I told them that when we first arrived and Annie was sick from different foods that many said it was because some of the people had put the evil eye on her. I told them I didn't believe that for one minute, but many people may have seen her sick and thought their spells had worked. They then talked about Annie's accident. I can talk about this now without feeling sick. They said many people were saying how wrong it was for others to have put the evil eye on us when we were trying to help the people here. MANY felt (maybe our friends included) that Annie's accident was caused by Satan. I almost said, " No it wasn't" but then said, "I think they are right. I don't think it was because someone in the street put a spell on us, but if Satan doesn't like us here, he will do whatever he can to make us leave."

After Annie's accident, I knew Satan didn't want us to return and unfortunately for him that made me want to return even more. While in Texas we had many people praying for our friends as we knew they may have been struggling with their beliefs. I never knew just how much until this conversation with these women. One of the strongest women said, "After that happened, I said I would never go back to your house again. I said if that is what happens would good people follow Jesus, I don't want any part of it." I asked her what made her change her mind and she didn't know. I told her that there were many people praying for them and that was the reason. She just smiled. I guess when we go through tough times we "know" Satan is at work but not until much later do we find out exactly how or why he was at work. He really did want to destroy what God had started among our people. I sure am glad he didn't succeed in his efforts! Please keep praying for us. Knowing that he doesn't want us here makes it a little more difficult to go about our lives as if there is nothing keeping us from the task at hand.

I know I got winded, but just wanted you to have a better understanding of our people. Love you all!