Little Rock, AR

We made it safely to Little Rock, AR yesterday afternoon and are heading to our last missions service today in Shreveport, LA - this will conclude our Tour! Each family member has "threatened"/promised something they would do to celebrate when tonight's service is over!...smiles...

Thank the Lord for safety in traveling thus far!

We're Going Home!

We have sorted and organized and packed and repacked and I think? we're ready to go. At 8:00 tomorrow morning we plan to leave Indiana and the Northland and head for South Texas by way of a missions service in Shreveport, LA on Sunday night. We hope to arrive in Edinburg, TX sometime Monday evening. We will be staying in the guest house on the RGBI Language School campus until our house in Saltillo is ready for us to move in and all of our furniture arrives from storage - hopefully not more than a few days.

We are so excited!!!

We met with Missions Director John Parker and almost his whole family today for a few moments to say goodbye and have prayer together before we headed back.

We do ask your prayers for safe traveling for our family over many miles in the next 3 days. As I'm able, I'll be keeping you posted on the Weary Travelers' Itinerary (that's us).

Thanksgiving in Ohio

We spent most of this Thanksgiving week in Brewster, Ohio with my parents, Henry and Jan Miller and my sisters: Marci, Missy, and Myranda and their families. We just had so much fun! Since we are leaving to go back to the mission field tomorrow, we went ahead and had Christmas with my family. Here's a few pictures to share with you.

Marci's and my kids eating at Steak and Shake on the way over from Indiana...what a ride! Our crazy husbands talked nonsense on the walkie talkies the whole 6 hours over and about drove Marci and me right out the passenger windows! We made it though.

Cameron enjoyed playing his guitar with Aunt Missy.

The kids wrapping presents with "Mamoo" - Jordan's name for my mom when he was learning to talk. It stuck - now 10 other grandchildren call her Mamoo.

Here we are getting ready to play a game.

The kids had so much fun in the snow.

Here I am pictured with my Aunt Liz Miller, my dad's sister.

The kids were singing Away in a Manger in front of my mom's beautiful fireplace. I can promise that Ryland was there just a second before - he must have just stepped behind Jordan whose face you cannot see. Yes, there are 9 grandsons and only 2 granddaughters!

All of us girls went together and bought my mom a countertop mixer this year.

We had so much fun together - great memories that we will always hold dear!

Last Day at SCCA

This past Monday was our boys' last day to attend SCCA, at least for this year. :)

Principal David Crosley made a special presentation in each of their classrooms, each boy received a gift bag full of goodies and a prayer of blessing and protection was prayed for each of them as well. What a privilege it has been for our boys to attend Stone City Christian Academy for a few days now and then during our Share Support Tour. Thank you to each Learning Center Supervisor and homeroom teacher: Steve Craig, Dan Collins, and Tamra Crosley, for allowing our boys to join your classrooms and for your instruction and guidance to them. And of course to Principal Crosley for welcoming our family to your school. And guess what? The boys are even going to be included in this year's SCCA Yearbook and receive their own copy!

A delicious cake and cool balloons were provided for all the school kids at lunch...so neat how it says goodbye in Spanish to our boys.

Wednesday Missions Service and Sunday events

On Wednesday we presented our ministry at the Frankfort Bible Holiness Church here in Indiana. Thank you to Pastor Mowery and people for the share support and love offering! It was our privilege to be with you.

Here are the church children taking a special love offering for our boys.

Me and my friend, Sarah Fry. David was out of town - we missed seeing him. Thanks, Sarah, for the awesome gifts! Good to see your kiddos, too.

Today was Pastor Appreciation Day at Faith Mission Church. Marc and I participated in the special service this morning honoring my in-laws, Leonard and Janet Sankey and the David Crosley Family. Mercy sang and Marc gave special remarks about his parents and the Crosleys and then preached the morning sermon. Some of the church people made special remarks, and many of their favorite songs were sung or played. Gifts were given to them and a receiving line at the close of the service allowed everyone to shake hands and personally express their love and appreciation. A delicious meal was served afterwards for the pastoral families and extended family. It was a great morning. We were privileged to be a part of it!

Our House in Saltillo

Ok, here you go....pictures of our house in Saltillo.

The signs say for sale or rent - we're renting it.

Here's the view of the neighborhood and mountains from our upstairs balcony. We'll be living in the same neighborhood (gated community) as our coworkers and family, Steve, Beth, and Kent Stetler.

Our beautiful backyard

Here's my kitchen - oh joy!

On the picture of the backyard, you can see Pastor Dolores, National President and our pastor in Saltillo. He has been just a tremendous help to us in finding housing: following leads, setting up appointments for Marc to see lots of different houses, and more. Muchas gracias, Hermano Dolores!

Our departure date to return to the mission field is next Saturday, November 29. We have a service in Shreveport, LA on Sunday the 30th and we should arrive in the Valley sometime Monday night, Dec 1. Logan has an MRI on Thursday, Dec. 4 and that weekend we hope to have everything ready to move back to Mexico. We are so excited!

Marc found a house!

We are so thankful tonight - God has provided a home for our family in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico! It is a 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath home in a safe neighborhood, was well within our budget, and my personal wish - it has a beautiful view of the mountains all around Saltillo.

Pictures will be coming soon when Marc returns from Mexico tomorrow and when our missions service in Frankfort is completed tomorrow night.

Thank you for praying about this need for our family and thank God for supplying our needs. He is good - all the time!

Weekend Revival in Zanesville and More House Hunting

Tonight we finished a weekend revival (special music and preaching) at the Bible Methodist Church in Zanesville with Pastor Blair and family. We really enjoyed our time with the Blair Family and with the church people. Thanks, Blairs, for the wonderful accommodations, delicious meals and great fellowship and to the entire church for the love offering. The Lord is certainly sending revival to the Zanesville Church - we were privileged to witness God's moving there.

Cameron enjoyed playing his guitar in the services with his friend, Caleb

Fantastic Sunday lunch!

On the way over to church this morning, we saw our first snowflakes of the season. The boys were so hoping to see snow before we head back to Mexico in a couple weeks.

Marc is flying back to Saltillo tomorrow to continue house hunting for our family. The possibilities from a couple weeks ago did not work out. We would appreciate your continued prayers that God will provide us a home in Saltillo. We are scheduled to return to Mexico on Saturday, November 29.

As you can see, time is of the essence and we are just trusting God to provide what we need. Marc is planning to return on Wednesday in time for our Share Support Service in Frankfort, Indiana. Thank you for praying.

Bible Methodist Combined Ministerial

This week we had the awesome privilege of attending and participating in music at our Bible Methodist Combined Ministerial in Bagdad, KY. It was so wonderful to be with other Bible Methodist pastors and wives - so many old friends and also new friends to meet!

Connectional Chairman Daniel Stetler ministering to us in the Tuesday evening service.

Marc conferring with President and Mrs. Sams about the music schedule for the service.

The sense of God's presence with us was very real as we listened to annointed challenges presented to us by our Bible Methodist leaders. At the end of a long deputation tour, this ministerial was just what we needed to refill and refuel us to Behold the Harvest!

The times of prayer together were wonderful.

We so much enjoyed the fellowship around the table, between sessions, etc....Here Julie, Kim and I are catching up with our kids via email since cell phone service was basically nonexistent.

It was so wonderful to be with our Missions Directors, John and Cathy Parker - love you all!

We were also privileged to be able to meet Daniel and Tiffany Melton and son Kenton for the first time although we have conversed by email in the past. They are EFM missionaries in Honduras. We enjoyed talking "missionary talk" with them and feeling that connection although we are both far away from our fields of service. So nice to meet you, Daniel and Tiffany.

It was also fun to have my sister Marci and her husband Anthony come on Wednesday evening to sing with us in a "mini-concert" by Mercy in the afterglow. I did not capture any pictures of this due to my camera not cooperating...it's tired from deputation, too.

Again, we were so thankful to be able to attend Ministerial - we will carry the memories of this time back with us to Mexico!

Services at Kenwood and Franklin

On Sunday we enjoyed 2 very special services in our "home area" - Kenwood and Franklin, OH. Thank you so much to Pastor and Mrs. Durr and church people at Kenwood for your interest in Bible Methodist Missions in Mexico and for your share support and love offering. Also for the delicious lunch you provided for us!



Then on Sunday evening....back "home" to Franklin! How wonderful it was to be with Pastor and Mrs. Hooker and our special friends at Franklin. God blessed us with years of ministry there and those memories will always be dear to our hearts. Thank you Pastor and people for your share support and love offering.

Our boys and their row of friends enjoying the service together.

Our friend, Mike Pennellatore holding one of the laptops that the Heartland Conference has raised money to purchase for the Bible Institute in Mexico - thank you!

Logan and his best friend, Jacob Snelling

The beautiful parsonage where we lived for 8 years

Pastor and Mrs. Jack Hooker - we so much enjoyed being with them. Thank the Lord for their annointed pastoral leadership at Franklin.

Beautiful guest room where we stayed upstairs in "our" house.

These 2 services concluded the main part of our missions tour - we have 2 more services left and then we're finished! Our target date to head back to Mexico is Saturday, November 29! We can't wait!

Time with the Sams

We are so thankful for the friendship and mentoring of our dear friends, President and Mrs. Clair Sams. He is, of course, our Conference President and his advice and leadership was invaluable to us when we pastored at Franklin. Now we appreciate his leadership as a member of the Bible Methodist Missions Board. Melba has always been a special friend to me and a role model for all of us ladies in ministry to follow.

We enjoyed visiting with them in their beautiful home in Germantown and the lunch was delicious!

Time with friends

This week our wonderful friends Shane and Tamra Craycraft, Bryson and Jillian have opened their home to us and we have so much enjoyed staying with them and driving back and forth to our services. Here we are enjoying Donato's Pizza! Thanks so much, Shane and Tamra, for everything - we love you!

Tamra and I took the kids to Skyline - one of our family's all time favorites!

Our family had the privilege of visiting the Creation Museum in northern KY this week. Thanks to a great friend of ours for providing us this privilege by way of his guest passes. We enjoyed it so much - it's a great place! We enjoyed hearing Creationist Ken Hamm speak while we were there.

Last night, we were invited to the home of our friends, Paul and Sarah Holden for a delicious meal - a feast! Also great to be with more friends, Randy and Michele Jewett and Nate. Cameron and Nate enjoyed playing guitar together. Thanks, everyone, for a wonderful time!