Annie's therapy

It is always fun to hear what our children want to be when they grow up. Jerod wants to be a farmer and have lots of animals. He also wants to be a missionary. Alex wants to be a professional football player, no surprise there. Lastly, Annie has informed us all that she is going to be a Doctor. She has been playing Dr. with her dolls and I thought this was interesting. If you look at every area on the doll that is bandaged, these are the same places where she was burnt. She is always bringing her babies into the "hospital" and saying, "My baby fell into mole." (That is what she fell into.) So, her accident is definitely still on her mind and she is learning how to deal with all of these hidden emotions. She still talks about the Drs. who cared for her, by name and thinks they were all awesome! Which, they definitely are awesome! Thank you to all of you who donated to Shriners this Christmas on our behalf! God bless all of you!!

Not much to report....

Hellooooo,

Not much to report today. Our Monday night went well, although the priest won, as he was holding some party for the statues of all of the baby Jesus' in the village. Most every family has a statue of baby Jesus that they dress in baby clothes and put on an altar and then they pray to this baby. So on Monday night everyone brought their baby Jesus in his finest clothing to the priest and they had a party in honor of these dolls. Many from our group went. Although this is very frustrating to us, we are trying to be understanding and not be legalistic. Hopefully Friday night we will have more of our group back. Pray that we will have wisdom with this situations.

Praise! The priest, the one who had this party, has now left and gone to another village. He is the one who was waking me up every morning at 6:00am. This is why it is a praise! There is a new one coming and I am hoping that he doesn't follow with this same wake-up call idea! ( He was playing loud hymns at 6 in the morning over a loud speaker for 1/2 an hour so everyone would come to 6:30am mass) Please pray the new one doesn't cause us any problems.

Today we are leaving to celebrate Greg's birthday. The boys and I put our money together and got a hotel room for 2 nights in a nearby city. We plan on enjoying a little get away and eating some good American food! Please pray that we can enjoy this mini-vacation, and get a break from the village for a few days. Thank you all for your continued prayers! I will be writing my news letter in the next few days, so if you aren't on our email list, and want to be, let me know! Love you!

"Compared to what?"

This is a little girl in our village. She doesn't look very happy, and in my eyes I saw her as very poor. But... compared to Milienne who is pictured next, she has a good life. She may be hungry but she isn't starving and her parents may not have much, but her parents are alive. She may have clothes that don't fit very well, but she has clothes.

This is Milienne, she is 4 years old and lives in HAITI. She is 4 years old and weighs ONLY 14 pounds. She needs your prayers! If you would like to follow the ministry who is caring for her you can do so by clicking on this link, http://haitirescuecenter.wordpress.com/

Hello everyone,

I am at a loss for words, really. I have had Milienne's image in my mind since I saw it. The thing that has been going through my mind is something I heard at our annual meeting this summer. It went something like this, " I am so poor." Response, "Compared to what?" "I am so hungry." Response, "Compared to what?" If we look at our lives and our complaints and try to see our situation as cup half full instead of half empty, maybe our problems wouldn't seem so bad. I have been listening to the news a lot and it can get quite depressing. However, then I read how things are in Haiti and I think, we are all a bunch of spoiled brats! Me included! At our bible study last night I shared with our group how things were in Haiti. How this sweet 4 year old girl only weighs 14 pounds. 14 pounds. It is hard to wrap your mind around that. Our group who would probably be considered poor in the eyes of the world, cried out to the Lord to help those in Haiti. They prayed that God would bless those in Haiti and save them from their starvation. They said to us, " We have food and water, we have a shelter over our heads, we aren't poor." So, when I think I am living in a "poor" area, I have to ask myself the question, "Compared to what?" When Annie had her accident, it was made very clear to me that our situation can ALWAYS be worse. We need to praise HIM for all of our blessings. I hope I haven't sounded too "preachy" I just want you all to pray for this little girl and all of the ones like her in Haiti. They need a lot of prayer!

He's 40!

"40! Good grief, I thought I was turning 30, of course, I can't remember much anymore!"




"No way! My dad's a dinosaur!"






"Your kidding, right? That is really OLD!!"






This is Annie saying, " I still love him!"

Alcohol

Hi everyone, our days seem to be getting shorter and our work seems to be getting bigger. That means I am always tired! I woke up this morning and the first words out of my mouth were, "We don't have enough time" Greg said, " For what?" I said, " Everything!" That is how I feel, that no matter how early we start or how late we go, there just isn't enough time to see everyone, encourage them, and disciple them.

The above picture is of Salvador and Angelica. They were our first friends here. Salvador is an alcoholic. He has been fighting this battle for a very long time. However, now that his mom is dying, he blames God for everything and has given up on his faith. He has been drunk for the past 3 days and is causing his poor family a lot of grief. He needs a lot of prayer! Poor Angelica is trying her best to run the household, run her business, take care of her dying mother in law and deal with a nasty drunk. Please pray that God would make himself known to them all! Please also pray for Greg and I as we are running full speed ahead and still don't have enough time for everything. Love you all!

Always needing prayer!

Hello everyone! I haven't posted in a few days. We have had a very busy week. We had 2 visitors come see how our bible storying process was going. It was a good few days with a lot of work! We got some good feedback on how to make or stories better and felt good about the progress we are making in our storying project. Please pray that over the next 5 months we can complete our project.

We have been busy with our Monday and Friday night meetings. We have been so pleased with the turnout we have seen. Each night it is fun to see who will come. We are very encouraged at the interest we have seen and at the peace that Barbara and Icho have about having these meetings in their home. So far they have not received much criticism. We are praising God for that!

Greg will be turning 40 this Thursday. It would be awesome if some of you who know him could email him a special Birthday greeting. Thanks for all of your prayers! We really need them! Love, Missy

I HATE mice!

A little venting! Ya know, before we left the United States, we went through some training. During this training we were taught that during our time on the field we would experience some difficult times. They told us not to be surprised when the things that would bother us the most would be little things. Well, I understand that soooo well now! It isn't eating different animals, or even eating parts of animals that bothers me. It isn't the fact that our village has no running water, or that my house is always cold. None of that bothers me! However, little creatures pooping all in my kitchen, that.... BOTHERS ME!!! We have discovered little mice in our kitchen on several occassions. They have left their little markings everywhere. I am so tired of cleaning out every drawer, shelf, plate, and cup that I am ready to scream! I tried to look at it in a positive way, thinking this is God's way of getting me to do some really deep cleaning. That didn't help either! Annie is the only one who can make me laugh about it! She said, " Well Mama, I guess it's Noah's fault! He shouldn't have put 2 on the ark!" I had to laugh! Hope you are too!