Into The Heart Of Mexico!

Get that corn out of my face!

What a week this has been! We loved the time that we got to spend on the ranch. It was such a blessing and a great place to start out in Mexico. We were sad to leave, but there were other guests scheduled to come and stay in the house, so it was time to move on. We spent a quiet week in a house on the ministry base of “The Way of The Cross.” This too was an amazing blessing and we were still close enough to the ranch to go catch a couple more catfish to eat.
We had an inner drive to get further south into Mexico and closer to Oaxaca. Grandpa Jim and Grandma Carol had briefly met a missionary from Puebla, a city about 60 miles outside of Mexico City, named Jonathan Smith a few years ago while they were in Texas. She gave him a call to let him know that we were coming his way and wanted to stop by to say hello. At the end of the conversation she asked him if he knew of any houses we could rent in the area. He said, “It just so happens that we have an apartment available on our base here on April 1st and they can have it for a month.” So the journey continues.
Before we left Aldama, we took the kids out to the Gulf of Mexico to go swimming and play on the beach. We all had an amazing time. It was one of the nicest beaches I had ever been to in my life. So though we have moments of great homesickness and culture shock, the Lord continues to give us times of great fun too!
On the morning of April 1st we left the Aldama region of Mexico and started our descent into the heart of the country. We made it as far as Tampico when we ran into our first little glitch of the trip. I was trying to keep up with Grandpa Jim in traffic and I didn’t notice that the light had changed from green to red. I’m still amazed how running through one little red light in Mexico can set your day spinning. Many people had prepped me for encounters with the police in Mexico, yet I still wasn’t really prepared. I tried to explain to him that I was trying to keep up with my amigo and I didn’t see the light change. He didn’t care and just kept pointing to his ticket pad and rattling off in his quick Spanish. I was able to make out that he wanted to write a ticket and have me follow him down to the station. I didn’t want that to happen, so as I had been instructed, I asked if I could pay him some money to forget the whole thing. I offered him 50 pesos, about 5 bucks, and he laughed and said, “No, no, no, 300 pesos.” I explained to him that I did not have mucho dinero and the most I could give him would be 100 pesos. It just so happened that when I reached into my wallet, the first bill I was able to discreetly pull out was a 100, and when I put it in his hand it made him happy.
So with hands shaking and a grateful heart, I pulled back out into traffic only to realize I had no idea where Jim and Carol were. Neither of us had cell phones so we drove around Tampico for about 3 hours looking for their little green Toyota truck. Rachel finally convinced me to pull over and email Carol and see if she would respond. Well, I realized I didn’t have her email address so I had to email Jim and Shiloh to ask for it and see how quickly they would respond. Amazingly, Shiloh responded almost immediately. I was able to email Carol and she quickly responded from an internet café down the road. We reconnected in the Walmart parking lot and I was never so glad to see a green Toyota truck in my life. I thought Jim may be upset about losing a day of travel, but he amazed me by saying, “Well, we might as well just laugh the whole thing off.” From that statement and several other experiences, he was to remind me so much of Rachel’s dad.
With that behind us, the next day we drove from sea level up to 7,000 feet in the air. Ouch! It was hot outside and the going was slow behind big semis and buses. It was the first time I had ever seen the temperature gauge move on the Miracle Mobile. Poor thing, we made it work so hard…but it did great! It’s amazing how the Lord knew exactly what kind of vehicle we would need. If we would have ended up with some of the other junkers we were looking at, we would have been in big trouble.
Well, after driving over what seemed like 20,000 speed bumps (in Spanish: topes: pronounced “toe-pays”) we eventually made it into Puebla, which is a beautiful city. It’s known as one of the safest big cities in Mexico. It’s the city the Shah of Iran chose to flee to back in the 70’s.
We didn’t know what to expect, and quite honestly didn’t have high expectations. But when we pulled up to the ministry base here I was absolutely blown away. It’s set out on a peninsula of a beautiful lake with one road in-one road out access. There’s a giant pool for the kids to swim in and an abundance of gorgeous flower trees. And that was just the beginning. When our new friend Felipe showed us to our apartment, I was amazed to walk in and see a piano in the front room. The Lord is so good. The girl in charge of the main kitchen had stocked our little kitchen with a ton of food. And anything that we were lacking, Jim and Carol quickly went out and purchased for us. Did I mention that the Lord is good?
I can’t emphasize enough the fact of how scared we were to step out and follow the Lord’s leading. Once we did, He has continuously met us and provided for us in profound ways. I think someday I will learn to stop worrying all together and realize that His plans are always better than mine.
We were sad to see Jim and Carol leave yesterday and will forever be grateful for the time we got to spend with them while they were here. We look forward to many Mexican reunions with them in the future.
That’s all for now. Just know that the Lord is good and if He is calling you to do something, anything at all, step out and do it. You will be amazed!