What a day!

Well a lot has happened since I posted this morning. I just had to tell you the rest of the story. ;o) Salvador was in no mood to listen to anyone today. He was mad that his children hit him. Can you imagine? Of course he said he would never forgive them and Angelica said, "But I am supposed to forgive you?" To which he had no response. He just doesn't see that hitting his wife is wrong, but oh, hitting a parent, now that is wrong. It was so frustrating! He started drinking again about 9:30am and continued all day.

When I posted this morning I forgot to say that one thing that encouraged Greg and I was that when we arrived at their home at 2 this morning, Moises and his mom and his wife were already there. They have been a blessing!

Anyway, Angelica, Lupita (her daughter) and Olivia ( one of her daughters -in-law) all came to church tonight. It was really good for them all. Of course we were hoping her sons would be there but they all were embarrassed by their father's actions and didn't want to come. So after our study a group of us went to their home to encourage them. It was awesome! All I could think was this is what it is all about! There were 13 of us in a tiny room and they were all talking in their languagae and using Bible stories as examples of how Satan will try to tear us down or how God can encourage us or how we are given second chances. We heard them use the story of Jonah, the parable of the seed sower, The Prodigal Son, The story of the demon possessed man, and many more. It was really awesome!!

I was so encouraged! I saw the body of Christ taking care of part of the body that was suffering. They were all doing this without any help from Greg and I. So although I hate that there was hurt, it gave us an opportunity to see that they are going to be just fine without us. I just know it! We prayed for Salvador as we knew he was a lost sheep and sometime while we were praying he climbed into bed and went to sleep. We are now praying that he wakes up with a repentant heart. Please pray with us. God sure can do a lot in just one day, huh? Love to you all! Missy

While you were sleeping.....

Hello friends, sorry it has been a few days! I have been battling a few things. A cold or flu ( oink oink, just kidding) and a stomach infection after that. Needless to say the past few days haven't exactly been fun. However, life must go on and I did have my party on Saturday. It went well. I will tell you more about that tomorrow. Right now I need to tell you what happened while you were sleeping!

Last night about 2 in the morning 3 (EST) I was still awake and didn't know why. I just was lying in my bed waiting to fall asleep when the cell phone rang. I jumped up and saw it was our friend's number and quickly answered it. I found out that our friend, S (alcoholic) pictured above had started drinking and beat his wife, A. A is one of my dearest friends. She is the rock in this family, precious, precious woman. Please pray. I am writing this with tears in my eyes. I love her. It isn't fair that someone has to indure this kind of life. It isn't fair. When will it stop she asked me. What can I say to her? When he kills you. S is a wonderful man when he is sober. However, when he drinks he is evil. All together evil. This not only effected Angelica but her 2 sons, M and C, their 2 wives, R and O and her daughter Lupita. (pictured here with them) They all live together.

We just so happened to have an overnight guest (another m) staying with us for the night and so we left the kids with him and Greg and I headed to their home to see just what had happened. When we get there everything was calm. A's face was all swollen, she probably looks pretty bad today. Sal was in jail, for the night, and C and M were very sad. We went in and found out that S had started beating A, C (21) went in to defend her and then S started fighting him. Then M tried to stop that fight and he was hit too. It was then the 2 of them against him, with A trying to make them all stop.

Then people from the streets came in to break up the fight and it became one big fight. You can just imagine. The police came, took Sal to jail (this is just customary) to sleep it off and he was released this morning.

Now Greg is down at their home trying to talk some sense into S. It is so hard when Greg stands at least 2 feet taller than S and Greg would like to defend A himself. However, he has gone down there to show the love of Christ and try and talk to this man and see if he can somehow change his way of thinking. Knowing that only Christ can really change this man when this man wants to be changed. It is a tough, all of the kids want to leave and live in other places, however they don't want to leave their mama to defend herself. Oh, my heart hurts. Please pray for us. Love to you, Missy

15 years ago today

Hi! Well, I was going to post this yesterday but we were very busy and it didn't happen. So, I will have to tell you what happened 15 years ago from today instead of yesterday! 15 years ago from today I was boarding a plane named AirJamaica. I was starry eyed and madly in love with my husband of just about 15 hours and we were on our way to Jamaica for our honeymoon. Oh the memories. We were laughing yesterday over a very nice lunch, (just the two of us)about him bringing me all the way to Mexico to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. HA! That little booger. I told him if he had laid out the plan for me 15 years ago that I would be living in a dusty, dirty, village in the middle of Mexico 15 years later I may have re-thought things. I am so glad we can only see today. I love my life here and love that we have had many fun adventures. I just needed a little push to get me out of my comfort zone! Okay, maybe it was a BIG push! ;o)

I love all of your comments about the pictures it is really helping me! Please keep voting and help make that all important decision! I wish I had all of you with me when I have been at a photo studio!

Please continue to pray for us as we have everyday filled up on our calendar. Tomorrow I will be having a special time with all of my friends. We are having a movie and a manicure in my house! I wanted to do something special for them all one last time before we leave. I will be sure and take lots of pictures!

I sent out our Newsletter yesterday, so if you would like to receive it and didn't let me know and I will make sure you do! Blessings! Missy

Vote for our prayer card photo!

Photo number 84.


Photo number 96.


Photo number 108.

This is number 111. (We didn't actually take that many photos!)

Hi friends! I am asking for prayer as I am not a very good time manager. I remember in elementary school I always got a 3 on mangages time wisely. 1 was best and 4 was worst. If that tells you anything. I think Greg might think the teacher was being nice. I think I may have adult ADD and I really have a hard time focusing on something for too long. Especially when I have 3 children that like to interrupt me every few minutes. So, I am looking around this house and I am thinking, "Hmmmm.... I am leaving 2 weeks from today and it looks like I have done NOTHING to get ready." Can you pray I will have some good time today to pack? People in the village continually come by to see us and that has thrown a kink in the packing process as well.

Yesterday we had family photos taken and we are thinking about using them for a new prayer card. I am going to post all 4 that are in the running for our prayer card and you can vote on which one you like the best. Click on the photo to enlarge them. That will be one less thing I have to worry about. Love to you all! Missy

Where is my mother-in-law?

Last week I was so busy with other things that laundry got the best of me. Last night I was folding this HUGE pile of laundry and I said, "Annie, where is Grandma when I need her most?" Grandma (Greg's mom) always does our laundry when she is visiting and we LOVE it! Annie said, "Mama, you know Grandma lives in the United States and can't always be here to help you." I laughed and she said, "But Mama... she looked at the big pile and continued, you do need her help!" So, Grandma, if you want to make one last ,quick trip, come on!!

A day at church

Little boy going to church. How cute is that?



Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

I caught this mama bird giving these babies their food. It was quite interesting as she kept swooping in and out throughout the entire church service. She didn't care if we were singing or praying or preaching. All she cared about was giving her babies their food. What was even more interesting is that the people in the church weren't bothered one bit by their chirping or her swooping above their heads. So neat!



Inside of the church before many had arrived.


I taught the children the same story Greg taught and then they colored a picture of Jonah and the whale.

Afterward we went to someone's home to eat and this precious lady was doing laundry. She allowed me to take this picture so you could see how her washer works! ;o) What you don't see is that it that it had just hailed and the water was freezing!

The walk from church to where we were going to eat lunch.

We all laughed as we sat down to eat and it started to hail. The hail was falling through holes in the roof and bouncing on the table. The kids thought it was awesome as they tried to catch each ball of hail. I tried to capture the moment, but the hail was too small for my camera to see.

Sunday lunch, fried eggs, salsa and chicken, fried fish and salsa, yum!

This is the family I mention below.

The couple on the right is the pastor of the church we attended and his wife.

Hello everyone! Today we visited a church in another village to say good~bye to them. It was a great visit and we were very encouraged. Greg told the story of Jonah. It always amazes us that most of them have never heard the story of Jonah. Afterward we were so blessed when one man came up to Greg and said he has felt called to be a pastor but wasn't sure what to do. After hearing this story he said he knew he had to accept this call and he was ready to go to a seminary so that he could study to become a pastor. He asked me if I could encourage his wife as she wasn't very excited about his decision. I told her I wasn't very excited about the calling to be a missionary at first but once I realized that all God ever really wants is our obedience, I was okay with that decision. Obedience is never an easy thing to learn! By the end of lunch and hearing many of our stories of how God has alwasy provided for our needs and how He has never left us, she too was excited about her husband being a pastor. Really great day!

Okay, now to answer Amy's question. Do we have to leave? Yes. Why do we have to leave? Because. :o) No, just kidding. We work for the International Mission Board and they require us to take a respit from the field after being on the field for 3 or 4 years. We chose to stay for a 4 year term. The amount of time we take in the states can be different, however we are able to take up to a year if we have been on the field for 4 years. Greg is required to take some seminary classes and because of that we needed the full year for him to be able to complete his studies.

We are also required to go to different Southern Baptist churches and share with them what we have been doing the past 4 years so that we can raise support for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. This is an offering that is taken up in Southern Baptist churches once a year at Christmas time to support all of the IMB missionaries all over the world.

Our plan is to return to the same house we are in right now, to the same village and continue our work here after our time in the states is over. We have arranged with the owner of our house to leave our furniture and all of our things and pay to store our things for the year. Hope this answers your question.

Baby Esther

Read my post below the pics first, so you will understand more about the pics. Thanks! ;o)
Okay, I promised more pictures, so here are more pictures! This is Jerod and Alex playing checkers at a friend's house.


Are you wondering what this is? Well, in our villages it is very normal to have your baby way over dressed and even if it is 80 degrees outside, they cover their babies up like this. I am amazed that more babies don't die of SIDS. I mean this baby is completely covered. Look below!

I pulled back the blanket so you could see there really was a baby underneath!

This is baby Esther's big sister, she is so proud of her new sister and Annie just loves to play with her!

This is their little flower garden. Isn't it cute? They make do with what they have and it always makes me think, "Now why haven' t I done that?"

This is their kitchen. This is the kitchen for 4 adults and 5 children. Now try and complain about your small kitchen! ;o)

Annie and her 2 friends. Don't you just love the plug hanging down from the roof?

Jerod shooting marbles.

This is our friend Luisa's ( the mom of the new baby) mom. She was washing dishes and I just happened to catch her in the act. All you need is some rain water and an old orange bag (you know the green netted bags oranges come in) and wala you have a dishwasher. :o) Oh, and if you have a little soap that might help too. If you have some.

This is me and Luisa. She doesn't like to smile, I don't know why, she is very sweet, but doesn't really like to smile. Anyway.. that is Luisa.

Of course this is precious little Esther. She gave me a half smile.

Today we went to say good~bye to some of our friends. They just had their 5th child 2 weeks ago and we wanted to see this little blessing before we left for the states. Her name is Esther.

How precious! While I was there I tried to capture some moments that would interest you.

Many of you have asked us how long we will be in the states and the answer to that is that we don't really know. It will be between 10 and 12 months. Others have asked when we are leaving. We are leaving our village on June 17th and heading to Puebla, Mexico for a week. From there we will fly to Charlotte and then we will eventually arrive in Wake Forest, NC where we plan on living.

My friend Katie asked me how our children are going to handle the transition from simple life of playing marbles and checkers to the fast paced life of the US. Well, I don't know that either. I am a little concerned about that as they really like the simple life. We are going to try, try, try to keep many of the same traditions we have here. Like, on one night a week, we have movie night where we pop homemade popcorn and watch any movie they want as a family. NO interruptions. Now that isn't always possible, the NO interruptions part but, we try. We eat dinner together as a family every day of the week and oh how I want to make that a priority. I know many of you are rolling your eyes. But... if I don't try, it won't be a priority. That could help us. Anyway, that could be our biggest prayer request in regards to the children.

Okay, if you have any other questions, please ask!!