4 years ago today....

Hi everyone,
I wish I had it in me to hunt down pictures from 4 years ago, but.... I don't. Four years ago today, we all boarded a plane in Richmond, Va. and headed to Costa Rica for language school. I was scared to death and had no idea what God had planned for our family, all I knew was that I was going to obey the call! Well, today the kids and I were thinking back over the past 4 years and it has been amazing to see how He has worked in our lives. The one thing we kept noticing is that God never left our side, not even for a minute. Each time we were scared or nervous or frustrated, HE always showed up and comforted us in every way. Our dream was to see a church planted here in our village, but when we arrived here it looked so unlikely that it could happen in 3 ( minus 1 in Costa Rica) short years. However, with God ALL things are possible! God really has been good to us! We are looking forward to our time in the states and looking forward to returning to our people at the same time! Love to you all!

Celebrating Children!

Here are some of the kids we have in our group. There were many missing, but this was who showed up on Monday night. We were celebrating Children's Day. They actually celebrate that here in a big way and it was last Thursday. We celebrated on Monday night with games and cupcakes. We had to laugh when they started eating the cupcakes. I guess they had never seen them before. They were just eating the tops because of the paper. So Greg finally told them they needed to take off the paper and they laughed and took it off.


This is Angelica, she was in charge of fixing the food for our Monday night meeting. She chose to fix tacos which everyone loved! She is such a pillar of strength in her family. While all of her family was at our meeting, her husband, Salvador was off drinking and causing problems. She is tired of fighting with him over his alcoholism. Will you pray?


This is how they heat up the food, this is an old barrel that is cut open. They use, old corn cobs for wood, as you can probably imagine, I usually have to pray a lot in order to NOT freak out when I am around these scenarios. Of course there were kids all around. Please pray that these children stay safe around all of these unsafe situations!

These two boys on the left have just accepted Jesus as their Savior. They are now trying to help their father understand what that means. Please pray for them.

This is Petra, you can pray for her and her husband Prisiliano. They are seeking God's will for their lives. We are praying that they will be our leaders in our church. We really need them to rise up!!

Love to you all! Missy Oh yeah, we are all still healthy and the threat of any flu seems to have passed! There is hardly anyone wearing masks anymore and we feel safe!! Thanks for praying!

Wedding

The bride.


This was the food served. Rice, beans and mole.

The OH so HAPPY couple! They already have a child who is about 9 months old. The bride is 17 years old and the groom is 19.

Notice this serving platter is on her head!

Wedding reception .

Boys playing on top of the roof, above the wedding

Little boy at the wedding

Wedding cake delivery.

Annie and friends running down the street .

On Saturday we attended a wedding with one of our friends. Her neice was getting married and she wanted us to join her for some of the festivities. I thought I would share some photos with you. Hope you like them. Not your typical wedding reception, huh?

Don't Worry, Be Happy!

Hi everyone! I took some pictures today to post on here, but they are downstairs and I am upstairs. That means, NO pictures, I am too tired to get them! So, you will have to suffer through without pictures today! ;o) The pictures really weren't of anything really great, they were just to show that life here is normal. No surgical masks are being worn now. Some kids wore them the first few days because they thought it was fun, but no one in our village is wearing them now. There have been no known cases of this flu reported in our state as of today. We had our church meeting tonight and had a good attendance and of course many are talking about the flu, but no one seems to be overly concerned at this point.

One of the things we talked about was why we thought it spread as fast as it did in Mexico City and it didn't spread as fast in the states. One thing we talked about which I found interesting is that in the bigger cities, like Mexico, they greet each other with a kiss on the cheek. Hmm.... if they have the flu and are greeting with a kiss, it is definitely more likely to spread than it would if they were just shaking a hand or saying hello. Just an observation, but I did think it was interesting!

I have been having physical therapy on my wrist each day for the past week. The past few days they have been playing the song, "Don't Worry, Be Happy." They said that it seems to help ease people's minds. It is in English so I find it funny that they understand, but they said they do, so.....whatever helps! Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that we are all just fine and healthy and happy and living life as normal as possible! Hope all of you are too! Have a great weekend! love to all! Missy

No water!

Purepecha traffic jam!




Waiting for water.






This is how they transport their water to and from their homes.







This is the line of women waiting to use the alotted few buckets of water to do their wash. Most of them had been waiting all day.






This is the amount of water that comes out of the spring that everyone in our village relies on. If you don't get water here, you must buy the water from a water truck. Lately there haven't been enough water trucks coming to town for everyone to buy water. So they must wait.




During rainy season, water isn't a problem, but it hasn't really rained since early November.

These women will wait patiently with their jugs until they get to fill them all up.

What a day! I thought I was going to post today and the title would be," The things that make you go Hmmmm......" but then I got home and found out we had a water shortage. So, that changed my title. What would you do without water? These women are trying to find enough water for their familes to take baths with, to wash clothes with, to wash dishes with, to cook with , to wash their hands with , to drink, to you name it... and all they have is a trickle. Pray for water!

I wanted so badly to capture all of these things that made me go, "Hmmm..." today on camera, but I wasn't able to, so I will just have to do my best at describing what I saw.

Here goes.... a little baby about 18 months old with a blue face mask on, sitting on his mama's lap in the front seat of a moving car, going about 45 miles an hour. Hmmm...... protect from Flu, but risk death in car accident? We are so confused by all of the people wearing these masks which are really uncomfortable, but no one around here uses their seatbelt because they say they are uncomfortable?!? I wonder if the seatbelts were painted blue and everyone wore them for a week if it would start a trend?

Two boys with blue masks covering their faces riding one horse together, in the middle of a deserted farm. Now correct me if I am wrong, but unless they are contagious, who are they protecting themselves from, the horse?

A horse in the street with a really expensive chainsaw strapped to the side of it. I don't know it just looked really funny to me!

Those were a few of the things I saw today while I was in town and thought I would share them.

Our village is struggling right now! The Flu is the least of their worries right now, without water, WE are going to have far greater problems! Right now our family has about a week and a halfs (half) ? worth of water. We are going to try and stay on top of our water situation, but please pray we don't get desperate! Thanks for praying! Love, Missy

Pray!

Hi All!

Many of you are concerned about us because of the Flu. No worries, we are all fine! There have been no cases reported in our state as of today. We are being cautious, but not really worried at all, so you shouldn't worry either!

One of my favorite verses is
Matthew 6:27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

I actually wanted to ask you not only to pray for Mexico, but for our friend Clay, who was burnt in February. www.claydavidfite.blogspot.com He will be having surgery on his left hand tomorrow. (Wednesday) They have prepared the family that they may have to remove a good portion of each finger. Please pray that the Drs. will be AMAZED at what they find! Thanks! Missy

Day of fun with our church group!

If you look here, you don't see many bathing suits, I don't think I saw but a few the whole day, other than my family's.


Annie is always the center of attention!


Barbara and her son playing.

This it Moises, Francisca and Esmerelda.

This is me with my good friend, Barbara, we had a wonderful day today. We talked about some things that had been bothering both of us! Her son has been bullying Jerod and today we got that all out on the table. I felt 100% better after talking this over!

Jerod and Alex with 3 of our friends, they had a great day! It was just what we all needed!

I don't know who he is, but I had to take the picture because he was trying to kill the bees with a butcher knife. It was just too much.

This is Annie and Yesica, they had a blast!

Angelica, Lupita, and Salvador, the parents stayed dressed like this all day long! They had to be sooo hot! However, we were just glad they came!

Hi everyone! Today was a super duper day! We have been trying to plan a fun day for our church for some time now. Well today was the day! We got together our friends and headed to a water park that wasn't to far away and had a great day! Yes today is Sunday, but remember, we have church on Monday and Friday here and the only day they don't work is on Sunday. So, this was the only day to do it. Just in case you were thinking, "How dare you?" Not that any of YOU would think that, right? ;o) (Habib)

Anyway, it is so fun to go to a water park and when you get there 10 people come up to you and say, " Melissa, did you bring me something to wear?" You have got to be kidding me? I mean, I understand the women, because they don' t have clothes to wear in the pool. So, I generally come prepared for most of them. However, some of the men came up and asked if we brought them shorts. They all have shorts! So, Greg ended up giving them all of his spare clothing as well. It was interesting!

Then when it comes time to eat, "Melissa, do you have salt, do you have plates, do you have cups, do you have napkins?" Now, people in the states always wonder why I always pack everything in my house when I go somewhere, it's because everyone always expects me to have everything they forgot! The strange thing is, I always do. I think now it is more a challenge, what are they gonna ask me?

I wanted to get a picture of some of the people at other tables. The clothing people wear to these water parks is really priceless! I mean, if I could have taken a picture of the footwear they wore to the water park, I think you would have had a really good laugh!! There were cowboy boots, work boots, tennis shoes, wing tipped dress shoes, penny loafers, you name it, they were there! All except for probably flip flops. (well I had those on, but other than mine, there weren't many!) I am not saying this to make fun of these people just to show you the difference in the water park attire here and in the states! I mean, can you imagine a man walking into a water park in the states with his shorts, and shirt and cowboy boots and cowboy hat and he takes off the cowboy boots and hat and then gets in the pool? Well, that is about how it happens!

Thanks for your continued prayers for our safety! We felt them today as no one was hurt and we had 30 of our friends from church together on this trip. Please continue to pray for all of us. Love you all! Missy