a Totonac Indian girl captured when she momentarily sits


Traveling in Mexico with my four friends came with its own set of challenges. Most of them were language related. My translator was young, and had his own agenda, and a short attention span.

This often found me having to dig deep for words I do not ordinarily remember or use. This is good for me, and challenges my language skills to grow.

Our trip began as we pulled out of Nuevo Laredo around 5:30 in the morning on Monday. We began what I had been told would be anywhere from a 14 hour to a 18 hour drive.

I was hoping for 14. I would soon find out, that with the stops we would make, even the latter guesstimate would fall short.

We were blessed to be riding in a comfortable van that seated seven. The seats reclined, and allowed for better rest during the trip. My concern was that my young translator had only gotten two hours sleep the night before, and was expected to drive the entire distance.

I rested anyway, and found myself revolving through periods of sleep. When I was awake, I drank in the countryside. There were many more mountain regions than I expected, and they were quite beautiful.

After we had been driving through a desert region for quite some time, I noticed fewer and fewer buildings. I was not surprised, but did find myself wondering what one would do if they broke down out here.

Conversations would begin and end with the bouts of sleep. Our driver remained strong and pressed on.

At a point that I cannot particularly remember if we had been talking or quiet, suddenly we were interrupted by a very loud bang, from the back right of the van.

Immediately, our ride became uneven, and we pulled off of the road.

We had not seen buildings for long distances. I knew the tire had blown, and was hoping we had a spare!

We climbed out of the vehicle and took turns looking at the shredded mass of rubber.

When I looked up, I was struck by cruel irony, or amazing provision.

Out in the middle of nowhere, we had come to rest in front of a small building with words painted acrossed it, that revealed to us that it was a tire business...well, was at one point.

It was in poor condition and looked abandoned. I began to pray.

As we walked up to the door, it suddenly opened, and gave way to a roly-poly little man whose shirt begged for less to cover.

He greeted us and scurried over to the van to check out the situation. He headed back into his shop, which had no lights on and what seemed to be old tires sitting about. It looked more like a reclamation center for tires than one that would have replacements.

No matter, there was a spare on the back of our van, just no tire jack or iron to set it free.

Our rotund redeemer returned with blocks of wood, a hydraulic lift, and a tire iron, and he went to work.

It had been raining as we moved into this area...curious for what seemed to be a desert...so he got filthy as he came to our rescue.

I thought about the cruelty of the irony, had this building been abandoned.

I thought about the almost unbelievable blessing and provision of an amazing God who was looking out for us!

This could have ended, very badly. It could have consumed a great deal of our time, and chewed up potential ministry opportunities by delaying our arrival.

Instead, we were on our way in forty five minutes.

I was in awe of my God. I blamed my friend and contact, Pastor Nicolas Alba, for living well, and being the reason we rolled to a stop in front of the only place for miles, which also just happened to be exactly what we needed.

I sensed God's hand on this, and knew He was revealing Himself to us, through this incredible provision! He would walk with us throughout!

Our trip continued as we ventured into Tampico, where Anabel, my primary contact, was from. She directed us to a "Chinese Restaurant." All of my companions were excited to eat Chinese food.

I couldn't help but wonder at availability of Chinese food in most of the countries I have visited.

After the long and filling meal, we headed to Anabel's family home and visited for a
time.

Then we proceeded to a thriving tire business, where we secured a replacement for our shredded flat.

We would arrive in the wee hours of the next morning...nearly 20 hours from departure!

We would wake later this same day in a land unlike any I had visited. It was jungle-like, mountainous, steep and seemingly, unforgiving.


dad