Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Change Is In the Air!

Hi friends! I know I haven't updated this in a few weeks, so sorry. We are doing well, aside from battling with your normal allergy and stomach virus stuff!

Fall is my very favorite time of year and it is probably the hardest part of being out of the US. I love seeing the leaves change, wearing sweatshirts, going to football games, and I LOVE fall festivals! Not to mention my love of garage sales. So, not being there now is very hard for me! I do hope all of you will enjoy every single day on my behalf! Although there isn't any change of leaves here or the other changes that fall brings, there have been many changes for our people here this past month.

We have been so blessed and have been able to help so many people here b/c of the love and support that many of you have given to us. Through our shoe ministry,(Which I want to emphasize is NOT an organization, it is just us accepting shoes from friends, churches, and schools who want to participate.)and other gifts we have been able to help many! Hope you like the pictures and see the change that has occurred in many lives here.

Lots of new and used shoes to bless lots of feet!


Lots of shoes with holes, replaced by....


Lots of new pretty shoes!


Cherished!

These little ones were so confused about why they needed their picture taken with their new shoes!

He was wearing girl's shoes and she was wearing boy's shoes.

SO Happy!!

Out with the old in with the new.


Ever kissed your shoes?



Another change... This was our friend, Estella's home. Holes in the roof, only one complete wall and a tarp for one wall. 



This is the wall with the tarp.


Change has come to her and she now has complete walls, a pretty new roof, and the rain can no longer come into the walls.


I will post a picture of the complete project very soon! So... no pretty leaves, but the changes we have seen are just about as pretty! Love you all! Missy


Sunday, September 23, 2012

Here's an update about our ministry.

Soles 4 Needy Souls


Here is a video we made to raise awareness of our shoe ministry.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Homeschool, Shoes and Estella

Hi friends! Time is getting away from me and I am not updating as much as I had hoped. School started and it is going well. I used to say that the three things I never wanted to do were homeschool, leave the country or be a B. God in His awesome sense of humor combined all of them and I love all 3! We have decided to do video updates as often as possible to try and bring hisvillage to you! Hope you like our 1 minute video posted in the post before this one.  Love to you all! Missy




We found out Annie loves uniforms and so this year she is wearing one to school! ;o)



Day 2 uniform!


I am so glad I get to teach the best daughter in the world! 


One thing we love about homeschool is our PE days. This day we went to a park and Greg worked on football skills with the boys and I went discovering with Annie. Not the best hair day for me, but... my husband didn't seem to care! 

Annie and I discovering Science by the river. This is what we found...


We think ants are WAY cool. They work together better than any humans ever could. They walked for miles in ant terms to get these little orange and yellow leaves. Then they carried them all the way to the top of this tree. It was fun to follow their trail with my camera lens.









Can you see the trail of orange going up the tree?

We followed them to the very top left corner of the tree. Really amazing!



Football... boring! Ants are way more fun! 


We are always amazed at how much they look alike! They were deep in some discussion. He loves his boys!! And his GIRL!!

Annie and I helping Alex out with his photography class! 

Annie made these cakes. They were super yummy!

The world looks so peaceful in her hands!



SHOES!!! This ministry has taken off like wildfire. After our last team brought a box of used shoes to us many others got on board and have sent us shoes too! We now have 5 boxes in the mail to us and we plan on using these to open many doors. 

This is what it looks like when a little one receives used shoes! 

We gave her 2 pairs b/c she needed them pretty badly. As you can see, her happiness was beyond words! This family had never let us in to visit with them until we had shoes. 

"Gracias!!"


This is how kids in the village play. It had rained hard and they just played in the puddles/street.



I have mentioned Estella many times before. This is Estella and Jacob. She is our house helper and our poorest friend. I love her with every fiber of my being. I am praying for a way to fix her house. 

There are more pictures below, but this is one side of her home. Just a tarp for a wall. They sleep on the floor, have one outlet for a light that they borrow from their neighbor, they have no bathroom or any water. Please, if you pray, pray for her. 

This is the front of her house. They have put plastic over the roof to help keep the rain out.



Wood's Video Update #1



Here is our first Wood's video update! Hope you like it.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Estella


Hi friends! I wanted to show you all some pictures that are really so sad. In my last post someone asked if we ever just get really sad. Well, I do. However, I must say my friend Estella's life probably makes me sadder than anything else. Just a few weeks ago her husband died and now she is fighting just to keep the little shack that is rightfully hers. Her husband's family is trying to sell it out from under her and they can. They have told her that if she leaves this house to stay with her mother, they will sell it immediately. 

While Rachael was here she had some money donated to her that she wanted to spend on someone in need. She used it to buy Jacob (Estella's son) a pack-n-play. The following pictures are of Estella's home. 


This is how Jacob was sleeping when I arrived at their home. They had him covered with a sheet to keep the flies off.

This is blurry, but it shows how they sleep. The mat she is standing on is where Estella, Chata and Jacob all sleep. 



We picked him up and put him in his new pack-n-play and he slept like and angel!


This picture shows the fly net that keeps him fly free and also the cardboard on the floor that is Marcos' (Estella's 16 year old son) bed. 

Me and Estella.

Their roof. It has holes all in it where the rain continually comes in. The house only has 3 walls and a tarp for the 4th one. 

This is one wall you can see behind Chata that is only halfway bricked, and when it rains, it comes in the side of the home. 

Under that white tarp is where they cook if it isn't raining too hard. You can't really see it, but there is a pot over a stack of bricks that they use. They have NO water at all, for anything, drink, wash, anything.  They have one light that they have from an extension cord from their neighbor, other than the one lightbulb, they have no electricity. Times are tough!



 Last week our family took a trip to research another people group. We went to a place about 6 hours away that was truly breathtaking! We had a good time as we learned a lot about this people group and how they lived and we saw some beautiful parts of Mexico. We also celebrated Jerod's 16th birthday.

Every night we watched beautiful sunsets! 

The boys froze in the broken hot tub! They still had fun!

Annie was the smart one!

We met this sweet lady who told us how she was a Jesus follower. This isn't exactly normal in the villages here, so it was interesting to find so many. 

We stopped to talk to this man, his name was Gregorio too and he and Greg hit it off. He told of how he too was a Jesus follower and we were then learning that this area had MANY Jesus followers! We were blessed to see so many brothers and sisters in this area! 

The beauty was breathtaking! I mean REALLY breathtaking! 


This was a camp by the river. Really neat place!


This sweet man was showing us the cabins by the river. They were REALLY nice! 

OF COURSE.... he too was a Jesus follower! ;o) It kinda became comical for us. He explained that an M came there years ago taught them all about God's Word and many began to follow Jesus instead of Mary. 

This is Julio. He is the nephew of our landlord. He is now working at a church there and helped to show us the area. We learned a lot from him. He too is a Jesus follower. Heehee! ;o) 


The sunsets we saw each night were amazing! 

My sweet Alex!

I asked them to act like they liked each other! It worked!

Alex was enjoying all the views he saw!

While there we visited a water park for Jerod's 16th birthday. They had fun.


Greg and his boys.


Me and my babies!

The hotel we stayed in was not exactly the Ritz, but we had fun b/c we were the only people there! 

Annie on the swings.


He was 2 yesterday, I am sure of it!

Annie had fun feeding the fish everyday. 


The boys had fun playing Chess. 

It was a good trip and we learned a lot. Hope you all have a great weekend! Love you all, Missy