Cancelled!

As I hung out last night and reflected over a few things on my calendar in December and January I noted:

     1. Jerod flying to Mexico Dec. 18^th-Jan 15^th to spend college break with us (CANCELLED)- Praise God he is still with us here in South Carolina

     2.  Baked Christmas goods evangelistic outreach for our local Mexican neighbors and friends (CANCELLED)

     3.   Christmas party and time with our wonderful missionary team in Mexico (CANCELLED)

     4.   Leadership training and encouragement to visit the churches and families where we served our first nine years in Michoacan, Mexico from Jan 5-12^th (CANCELLED)   

     5.   Local leadership training/vision casting in Veracruz including our missionary team, local Mexican pastors and leaders on Jan 23^rd (CANCELLED)

“Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes”  “Instead you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’” James 4:13-15

There is one thing that the Mexicans say and it is spot on, they finish a sentence by saying, "Si Dios Quiere." Which translates if it God's will. So, just like this verse says above we all need to think more like that and understand that God may change our plans at a moments notice. 

We should set goals and plan but always knowing that God is in the middle of it all and he may move us in different directions and we must be humble to accept these changes.  Easier said then done but Lord help us accept your plans. 

Greg

How are we?

Many of you have asked how we are doing. We are really doing okay all things considered. I mean Greg is feeling good and getting more energy everyday. He took me out on a date to Olive Garden yesterday, and we enjoyed just being together. His eye was swollen from his surgery, so it looked he had been in a fight. We want to thank all of you for your gift cards! Greg really liked taking me out and not having to pay! ;o) 

While in the hospital, we had so many friends, I didn't get pictures of all of them, but I did get a picture of some. So grateful for friends! Thankful for Alice Forest! 

My childhood bestie showed up at the hospital with a huge Chick-fil-A nugget tray! It was just what we all needed as we waited the long wait during Greg's surgery. Thanks Mindy!

A precious group of women made this prayer quilt for Greg and they prayed for him with each knot that was tied. As soon as he got home he covered up in it. Thanks Paula for this special blessing!

Dana not only spent all day with me at the hospital she also got her friends to help us out with some frozen meals. We are blessed with having at least a week or so of meals to eat! Thanks Dana and Joel for being there for us! 

I haven't gotten pictures of every visitor, there have been so many of you and I will never forget who you are, but today Alejandra and Alfredo came to pray for us. We are so blessed! 

Please continue to pray for our family as we definitely are feeling as if we are under attack. The day after Greg's surgery, Jerod was in his first (and hopefully last) car accident. Another student turned left in front of him as he was going through a green light. Her car is the one on the right and Jerod's is the white one. No one was hurt and for that we are very grateful. However, this just caused us a lot of stress and a lot more things that we now have to take care of. On the bright side, Jerod is driving a rental home and he will hopefully get a new phone! We do covet your prayers! 

 Jerod's phone, or what is left of it. 

Last night we made the very difficult decision to let our Ali go. This for me was probably as hard as excepting the cancer diagnosis. I don't understand what God is doing, but I will just trust him. You can read Greg's post about this decision in the post below. Please pray for Annie as I know this will be a very hard part of this journey. We have cried as much over giving up Ali as we have over hearing the word Cancer. We pray that our little Ali is blessed with an amazing family who will love her as much as we do. 

We are looking forward to tonight as all of our family will be back together! We even get to meet Jerod's Bri. Please continue to pray for us as Greg has doctors appointments over the next few days and we will gain more knowledge about our future. We love all of you!  

When God's plans are not our plans.

As I continue to heal and God is absolutlely healing from the surgery, I felt led to write out what I am learning spiritually from something that has been difficult with this sudden change in our circumstances.  Many of you know we have been working diligently for almost a year pursuing adoption internationally.  We committed to adopt a young girl from Colombia and were super excited to learn who that would be in late August.  Her name is "Ali" who just turned seven.  She has been in an orphanage since two years old.  The overwhelming myriad of paperwork, home studies, medical and psychological studies had been completed.  International adoption is pricey and God has provided.  Through our own savings, selling some things, two massive yard sales with donated items from friends in North Carolina last summer, churches graciously partnering with us in love offerings, adoption grants and most importantly family and friends who donated sacrificiously we have nearly met our goal of $30,000!!!  We have seen God affirm and bless and help us knowing that He is a defender of the fatherless.  We were possibly only two months away from traveling down to Colombia to get Ali. 

This is where I must learn humility knowing that MY plans do not carry universal authority and are obviously trumped by God's plans and his sovereign rule and power over all.  Reading the verses below puts things in perspective and I have often quoted these to others in ministry down in Mexico.  They now are applying and speaking to me.

Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
 neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
 so are my ways higher than your ways
 and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Proverbs 16:9 The heart of man plans his way,but the Lord establishes his steps.

It is easy for us to plan our ways and we “think” we know better and lose sight that his ways are so much higher then our ways. 

We spoke with our absolutely wonderful adoption agency “A Love Beyond Borders” last night and they have been so supportive and prayerful walking through this with us.  Their counsel and our desire is to place a freeze (not terminate) on our adoption until we know better into next year about future treatment and plans.  We are at peace with this but understand that Ali would now be open to other adoptive parents.  We already considered her as a part of our family and even had a birthday cake in Mexico last week to celebrate her 7^th birthday party as we hoped she had one as well in Colombia with her friends. 

God’s ways are perfect and better so we now look for something new and unexpected in all of this and a better more perfect blessing.  Would you pray for Ali this Christmas season that God would direct her to a perfect loving family that every child in the world deserves.  That still may be with us way down the road but that we would be humble trusting that his step and plans are perfect.

Blessings,

Greg

God is Good! We have peace!

Please forgive me for not updating you all last night. It was definitely a long day. So, here is what we know.

God saw us through a very tough surgery. We had faith that Greg would be fine and he came through like a champ! He can talk fine and his motor skills are perfect. His thinking is crystal clear and he remembers everything, right down to all of his nurse's names from all this week. He has been up walking the halls, eating full meals, he has NO IV in him and he is wearing a cute little beanie on his noggin. Life is good!

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1 NIV

After the surgery Greg had a follow up MRI that showed that our amazing Dr. got all of the tumor! Or at least that is what the MRI shows. The tumor was cancerous, but that really wasn't a shock to us. We are now going to enjoy an amazing time with family, celebrating Christmas together.

Greg will start radiation and chemotherapy in January.  That is to kill any of the tiny cancer cells that decided they would hang out in his big ole brain. We know we have a battle ahead of us and we know who goes before us and with us during this battle. We have a peace that truly comes from above and are so blessed to be in the center of God's will, even if that will has us walking this journey.

"You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you." Isaiah 26:3

I was telling a pastor that it amazes me how God has helped us to complete our major goals before all of this happened. 

1. In May God allowed Greg to graduate with his masters degree.
2. In August we were matched with a little girl to adopt who we call our daughter. 
3. He allowed us to complete all of our adoption paperwork for our adoption before leaving for Mexico. 
4. He helped us to raise almost $35,000 for our adoption expenses. 
5. He allowed us to return to Mexico, find a house, and start some works in some villages. 

It was as if He set up everything like a plane getting ready for take off and then just put the brakes on for a short time.We don't know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. We are extremely blessed to work for an organization (International Mission Board) that supports us and helps us and is loving us through this difficult time.  Many of you may attend a Southern Baptist Church. If your church takes up a Lottie Moon Offering this December, please know that money is what has helped us get the medical attention we needed, and it was done quickly! We are blessed by your prayers and we are blessed by your friendship and love.

 For all of you who may have been wondering where Greg's family was during this time, I have to tell you, they have been walking through this storm right with us. It was Greg and my decision that we didn't want them here for the surgery. We knew I would have plenty of support during the surgery and we knew he would want to see his family once he was out of the hospital. So we are very excited that they will be here for Christmas!

Many of you may also be wondering what we are going to do about our adoption. We have asked our adoption agency to put a hold on our adoption and we trust that once this is over we can continue on with that part of our lives. If you donated money, it is still safe and waiting for us to complete the adoption. Just thought I would throw that out there in case there was some worry about me going on a vacation to Hawaii for a few months with that moola!

We covet your prayers for all that lies ahead. However, please know that we are still standing strong in our faith and are not curled up in the fetal position somewhere! I am hanging out here in the hospital with Greg, updating you, and he is sitting up, eating dinner, and watching McFarland.  I am blessed to be his wife!

Love you all! Missy

Time to Pray!

Hi friends and family,

We now have a confirmed surgery day and time. So, the time we need all of you to pray is from 11:45-2:45 tomorrow, Thursday, December 10, 2015. Greg's Doctor's name is Dr. Anthony Asher and he will have a team working with him, but I don't know how big that team will be.

We have our moments when we start to think about the what-ifs, but are really trying to capture those thoughts. Please continue to pray for us! We love all of you!

Here is a tip. If you know me well, you know I ain't your average missionary. I have a horrible ability to memorize and although I try, I don't have all the verses of the Bible down by memory! ;o) I am keeping it very real for all of you. So, if you want to encourage us, please write out the verse because I will not know what the verse is and won't have time to look it up! I need to have those encouraging verses sent our way, so please do send them!

Thank you all for walking and praying us through this journey.
Blessings, Missy

Standing on the promises of God

2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 

This was part of my journal entry on Nov. 28, 2015

Today has been one of those days that I have read about other people experiencing and hoped I never would have to experience. However, God has been preparing us for just such a day. On November 27th I read this devotion. At that time I knew God was preparing me for a storm. I even said to myself, this is the calm before the storm. This is what I read:


From Girlfriends In God
Nov. 27,2015

Storms are a reality for all of us. Jesus told us we would have them and that we do not need to be uprooted by them because He is the source of peace and overcoming that we need (John 16:33). I don’t want to be a woman of shallow faith. I want to be a woman of strong, stable, deeply rooted faith. So I ask myself: how can I position my faith-roots to grow? I mull it over and open up the truth manual.

I see that Paul wrote this to the early church, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6-7)

And it occurs to me that the secret to having roots that are deep and strong is found in that little phrase above that repeats itself twice in those verses: IN HIM.

Yes. In Christ. In Christ alone my depth will grow. He promises that I can do anything according to the will of the Father and get through anything when I stick with Him (John 15:1-17). In that secret place of abiding with Him my roots grow. In Christ alone I am able to weather the fiercest of winds and the scariest of storms. You are too. You’ve got this, friend… because He’s got you.

On the same page as my journal entry on Nov. 28th was this. 

Last night we came to the ER because Greg's symptoms had gotten worse. His speech was slurred more and he had lost a lot of his strength in his left hand. So he was admitted to the hospital and they started some tests that they knew he would need. 

This morning we saw his doctor who was super impressive and we were given a little more direction. He had seen the MRI that was done overnight and of course said there was a brain tumor on the left side of his brain. He told us that unfortunately the tumor had cancerous characteristics. He said they would go in and remove as much as possible and then we would figure out what other treatment would be needed. (Radiation/Chemotherapy)

So although this wasn't the news we were hoping for, we are ready to grow deeper in love with Jesus as He carries us through this storm. We are confident that we are here for a purpose and are going to use each day He gives us to love on whoever comes our way. We feel that this will better equip us to have understanding and compassion on those who are hurting or suffering.

We told the kids and they all handled it well. They know we serve an awesome God!

Jerod and Alex are always good for comic relief! 

We love you all and are so very blessed by all of your sweet comments and messages. I will be updating this blog with all of our info and putting a link on Facebook.  I will not be able to respond to all of your comments, but please know how much they are appreciated. We truly covet your prayers.