At
11:00 pm with heavy drizzle and fog on the road through the mountains
with no streetlights or reflectors made the drive from Toluca
into Mexico City rather taxing. But we know the road well and
it helped that there weren't many other vehicles. But on our way
back home as Tim merged to skirt the right lane, which was a foot
deep in water, we dropped into a huge pothole - the kind that
makes us immediately thank God that our tire didn't pop or our
axle break. Just past the hole, off to the side in the water,
were four cars with popped tires.
a
view from the front seat
A
few minutes later we came across flowing water in the highway
that was deeper than we had anticipated and the spraying water
completely blocked our vision for at least 5 seconds - made particularly
harrowing since there was a cement retaining wall on the left
and a truck ahead on the right.
Coming
out of the mountains on the final stretch towards home we saw
a line of cars and commented, "Looks like someone has gone over
the embankment again. I can't believe they don't secure down the
barricades better instead of just tipping them back up every weekend."
But the road had another surprise for us. As we got closer we
realized traffic was backed up because the right hand side of
the road was completely submerged, and a VW Jetta was bobbing
in it with water up to its windows.
Annette
taking in a normal driving experience
near our home (it's a bit like North Carolina)
A
night like that makes us rail against the systems here that do
so little to protect people from difficulty and even danger. But
even more, it makes us appreciate God's protection, and your prayers.
Thank You.
A
girl recently converted from new age-ish occultism, another from
nominal religiosity; a girl who has been reading the Bible on
her own for several years but has never attended a protestant
church and another who has been in our church her whole life;
a girl who is still recovering from surgery for a brain tumor
and another whose mother-in-law is dying of cancer - these are
the 6 girls in my new small group.
Annette
with Lynette and Zaida
What
a privilege to experience the enthusiasm of new believers
and the joy of seeing people set free by God's truth. And what
a responsibility to teach them and develop them into people
who can then reach out to others with God's love.
Our
frequent work-related travel requires me to "reproduce myself"...
to train other people to take my place. So two of the girls in
the group are "in-training" and really only lack the confidence
to effectively take my place as leaders.
The
overwhelming needs of this group of girls make me look for spiritual
support. So when you think about it, would you please pray for
them:
- for
healing from significant emotional wounds
- for
physical healing
- that
God's Word would bring life and freedom to them
- and
that our relationships would be a context for all of this to
happen.
