Different Day

Is this precious, or what?

Okay, so Halloween isn't celebrated here. They celebrate The Day of the Dead tomorrow. Many believe that the spirits of the dead return to visit their loved ones. This was a display in Wal-Mart. Fun, huh? Please pray for our people as they can become very confused about what to believe. Many sit and wait for the spirit of their deceased loved ones to return and eat a special meal that they prepare for them. It is hard to see.  

This makes you really want to buy some pumpkins. Which, no one buys here except to eat. :o)

 It is definitely a different day here. Hopefully we can have our fun on Wednesday. Love you all! Missy

Hungry

Okay, not me, well, me too but that is not who I am talking about. Tonight we had a wonderful discussion with our group about baptism. They asked a million questions and we were there for 3 hours discussing different aspects of it. They are sooo hungry to know what the Word of God says about everything. Even if it goes against what they have been taught all of their life. We have a baptism scheduled for November 14th. Before tonight we weren't sure how many we were going to have being baptized but we just scheduled it and hoped for the best. After our talk two women came forward and said they wanted to give their hearts to the Lord and be baptized. One of the women is blind so getting her into a pool with her native clothing on could prove to be a challenge. She isn't exactly healthy right now so please pray that she will be well on the 14th for the baptism. We are excited!

So, earlier I posted that when God closes one door He opens another one. Well, on the way home Greg decided to stop in another village to get a coke. He started talking to the owner of the store and found out he was a Christian. He is going to ask the leaders of his village if we could live there in his village. He also mentioned that his brother is a pastor in the US and has a home there that he was building but never finished. Hmmm.... he said he would ask his brother if he would be interested in renting us his home. So, the door wasn't shut very long before He opened another one. That is just like Him. I just fall in love with Him more and more everyday! I don't know if this door will end up shut as well, but I just love that He always gives us hope for tomorrow. So, for now we are praying about living in what we will call Saint Tommy. So we didn't "catch wind", maybe we will catch" Saint Tommy!" I know that sounds corny but it is late and we didn't get home from church until 10:30pm and I am slap happy and well.... just go with it! Hope you are as happy as I am! Love you! Missy

So the answer is "No"

Well... Greg drove to Icatchwind today and spoke to the leader of the village and he was sad to have to tell him that the other leaders didn't think it was a good idea to have foreigners living among them. We are disappointed but we know that where God closes one door, He always opens another. So we will just have to wait patiently and see what other village He may want us to move to. We know it is in that area that He is guiding us we just don't know exactly where. So, please pray for us that we will be given some guidance as to where and when this move will take place. Thanks!

Okay, so one of my favorite holidays growing up was Halloween. I loved dressing up in costumes. It is probably because I love drama and I loved becoming someone else for a night. My mother is very creative and she always helped my sister and me have the very best costumes on the block. So, when my kids were younger and we lived in the states I loved coming up with fun costumes and seeing if they could be the cutest kids on the block. Of course my challenge was always to do this with anything homemade and without being able to sew. We came up with some good ones too! Anyway, this time of year makes me a little sad because I am not in the US and can't celebrate like I used to with Jerod and Alex. Well, at least I didn't think I could. My friend, Jenell (another M who lives nearby in a larger city) and I were talking and decided we would have a Halloween party for our kids. This THRILLED Annie, actually I think it thrilled Jerod and Alex too. Oh, me too! :o) So I just spent 2 hours trying to make a wig for Jessie. That is who Annie is going to be. We decided to make her birthday party theme; Toy Story 3, as well and that way she could wear her costume for her birthday too! We are all about costumes. Did I mention that? Anyway, it turned out, okay, not great, but okay. She looks adorable anyway. I will make sure I post pictures of our Halloween experience here. The great thing about it is, the 31st just doesn't fit our schedule so we are doing it on November 3rd! Nothing like having flexibility!

Okay, so on the 4th we would like to ask for your prayers for Annie again. She has had a cyst on her lip since sometime in April or May. We took her to a "specialist" in the states and he said it was a wart and froze it off. It came back a week later. We brought her here and they said right away it was a Mucus cyst that had to be removed surgically. We made arrangements with one Dr. and he disappeared. So, we made another appt. with another Dr. and he agreed with the disappearing Dr. and they plan on removing it on Thursday. This will be outpatient surgery, but they will have to put her to sleep. He said this is very easy to do but because she is a child they have to put her to sleep to do the procedure. Hence the timing of the party! We wanted to make sure we could eat all the candy we wanted the day before! :o) So, I think that is all that is happening here. Miss all of my friends and family and wish I could give you all hugs! Instead I will just have to think about you, pray for you and look for you in my dreams! Love you! Missy

young love

Hi friends,

For some reason I never have time until now, which is midnight to do anything. Of course I had some time earlier and we had no internet. Then when I have no more energy left, oh yay, internet is up again. Sometimes this life just wears on a person! Oh, but I am not complaining. My life is just cherries compared to most. We came back from church tonight and we heard of two young couples who are having trouble. One couple is separated right now because the girl's parents walked in on her husband beating her up.  The other couple is having problems and they have only been together for a few weeks she has already had 2 black eyes. In this culture it is just normal for this to happen, but oh how it makes me angry. I just want to beat some little kiddos bottoms. I mean, these aren't grown ups, they are still kids. Some of the men are 18 or 20 but the girls are 15 or 16. So you can imagine how mad this makes us. Anyway, please pray for these couples. Their parents come to us for help. "Please help us with our kids, they need to change." They want help with their children but they allowed them to get married so young just because it is cultural. That is where I just have to shake my head and wonder what they are thinking.

Adolfo....We showed up to visit him tonight and they said he was talking to Greg and I last night. Of course we weren't there last night. I think..."Oh he is starting to hallucinate" Greg says, "There were many times when God spoke to people through visions. See, 20 hours later, here we are." I love my husband, we think so differently and that is why I love him. He makes me soooo much better!  Okay, I am muy tired so I am gonna go to sleep now. Love to you all! Missy

time for pictures!

 I had to come into town to have high speed internet so I could upload some pictures for you. We went to a village yesterday and think we may know where God is leading us for our next journey. It looks like our next village may be a place we will call  Icatchwind. It isn't really pronounced that way or spelled that way but that is what we will call it. Anyway, we are excited and will find out next week if the village leaders will allow us to live there. We are praying that if that is where He wants us than that is where we will be. We have a lead on a house to live in and I took some pictures of it. It still needs some work, but I was excited about it, it is MUCH smaller than our home now, but we will make do. Please join us in prayer about this next adventure in our lives! I am not going to explain all the photos because I need to get home, but.... enjoy them! Love you! Missy

The house from the back.  That is a little room upstairs.

The front of the house with the two beautiful trees!

The side view of the porch.

Icatchwind.

Meat eater. This is raw meat! Yum!

This is Salvador, you may remember him, he is really changing for the better!

Oh, Adolfo is still holding on, but he is in a lot of pain, please pray for him.

Hamburgers

Hi friends! Okay, very quick update. Adolfo has lasted a lot longer than I had expected, however he is in a lot of pain. His family is taking him back to the hospital today to see what they can do for him. Please pray.

Now, we are doing a survey for health in homeschool. We are asking everyone we can think of how many hamburgers they eat in a week. We need to know your age, sex and how many hamburgers you eat at home and how many are from a restaurant. You must be honest! Thanks for your help! I will post our worldwide results once the facts are all in! Love you! Missy

Barbie baptism

Hmmm... are you curious by my title? Well, tonight at church Greg was going to do his best at describing what the Bible says about baptism. So he decided he would bring a Barbie and a plastic container filled with water to explain how immersion is done. Many of them had no idea what this would look like so he thought this would help them to have a better understanding. He had all of the props ready and was well prepared. Of course when he has props this makes everyone very attentive to see what he is going to do. All eyes were focused on Greg as he had the container in front of him filled with water. He was explaining how it all worked and pulled out the Barbie and off came her clothes. Poor Barbie was completely naked in front of the entire church. Of course they all burst out laughing and the moment was changed instantly. Once everything calmed down he did a fine job of explaining how and why this is done this way. It was quite comical and so I thought it would give you a good laugh too!

I have been wanting to tell you about a certain visitor I had recently. Her name is Lupita. She and her mom came to my home looking for some wise counsel. I know some of you are probably thinking, "Why did she come to you?" I know, I know, I thought the same thing, but I guess I am wise in comparison to some. Very few, but some! :o) So anyway, they began to tell me about how Lupita had changed over the past 3 months and was always mad or sad. Lupita explained to me that she even told God she didn't think he had the power to help her. That is some tough stuff to hear. Lupita explained that she felt miserable most of the time and hated her life. I asked her if she had felt like Satan was attacking her. She got these really big eyes and said, " That is exactly how I feel. I feel like Satan and God are both pulling me and I don't know which way to go." I asked her why she came to me. She said, " Well, we had an appointment with the witch doctor and my dad said, if we were going to follow Jesus, why not seek help from those who follow Jesus instead of those who follow the devil." You see, this family has been attending our church group on and off for years now. However they never can quite commit with their whole heart. So, I asked her who she wanted to follow and she said, " I really want to follow Jesus. I want to learn more about him and live how He wants me to live." She then bowed her head and gave her whole life to Him. It was precious. The amazing part is how this has affected her family. They are now committed. They have come every time that it was possible and have really been trying to change their ways. Please pray for this family. They always seem to have problems in their home and they say they know this is Satan's strategy. We are praying that they will see God's hand in their lives like never before. Thanks for praying! Love you!