On March 6th, 2005 I left Minnesota for Monterrey , Mexico to take a group of youth on a short term mission’s trip. I drove our 1973 Ford 12 passenger van that we are leaving in Texas to be used in the ministry. My first stop was in Boone , Iowa where a church is starting a food ministry and we are blessing them with their first load of food. Bob Espeseth, one of our board members, delivered the food on Thursday. Also while I was gone our volunteers continued to pickup and distribute food. After a two-hour stop in Iowa I drove to Oklahoma City to spend the night.
On Tuesday I drove to Houston , Texas and spent the evening with a cousin who I had only seen once in the last forty years. We had a wonderful visit.
On Wednesday morning I had breakfast with the director of a large food distribution ministry in Houston . They have a 4 acre warehouse! Then I drove to McAllen and spent the evening with friends from Minnesota who winter there.
On Thursday I had a meeting with a company from whom I wanted to learn some business things and then had lunch with friends who had attended the church I had pastored in Eau Claire . I also found a small shop where some young Mexican men were cleaning vehicles and had the van cleaned. I had driven 1900 miles and the trip was going really well. I was ready to pick up the team at the Harlingen airport at 4:50 P.M.
As I was driving on the expressway to the airport the right rear tire blew out. I drove off the expressway, across the frontage road and into a small older used car lot thinking I might be able to get help changing the tire or using a floor jack. The first thing I did was to try to crank down the spare from underneath the van. I could not get it to crank down. After messing with it for a half hour the man who owned the car lot came out and lent me a car to take to small tire shop about a half mile away. I took the flat tire off and drove an old car over to the tire shop where I purchased a used tire, had it mounted and was on the road in another hour. I was 1 ½ hours late picking up the team. I did not have their cell phone number and they didn’t bring mine with so were unable to call each other. I called the airport to page them numerous times but they were sitting outside so didn’t hear the page. I got them to the motel, went out to eat and went to bed looking forward to crossing the border in the morning.
After breakfast Friday morning we were met by Ardis Rivera, our staff person in Mexico and Pastor Magdaleno from Monterrey . We loaded everything up and headed to the border. We got all the visas and the car permit with the exception of two visas for foreign exchange students from Korea . We had to go back to McAllen to the Mexican Consulate. We got there at 12:57 P.M. and found out they close at 1:00 P.M. and didn’t reopen until Monday. After frantic begging we got them to process the visas after they complained that they could have done it at the border. As it turned out the processor, who was unfriendly, had been a foreign exchange student to Minnesota himself when he was in high school. Then he warmed up to us and took good care of us. So back across the border went to get the two visas stamped.
As we were heading to the border the van died! It started again and I stopped to put some injector cleaner in it thinking perhaps that was the problem. As we continued toward the border it continued to die and restart so I decided that we needed to go back to McAllen and get it to a garage. The first garage we stopped at wouldn’t help us and directed us to a Ford dealership about five miles away. As we limped along, the car would run for sometimes only a few feet and stop again. Finally, about 3:00 P.M. we arrived at the Ford dealer. At about 4:30 P.M. they finally got it in to look at it after it had cooled down which turned out to be very unfortunate because the problem was heat related. It turned out the fuel filter was plugged and someone had put on the wrong filter perhaps ruining the fuel line meaning the van wouldn’t be going anywhere for a few days. I told them to try to get the stuck filter off and it came off without ruining the lines so we were back on the road.
As we crossed into Mexico the van died again! I didn’t think I dared drive the van across to the US with the traffic backed up for hours. I sent Ardis and the team in her little van and stayed at the border with Pastor Magdaleno until Midnight. The team stayed at a motel and Ardis went to stay with friends. When we crossed we got something to eat and looked for a motel only to find out that the motels in the area were full. Finally we found a modest motel a few miles down the road and we stayed there.
It was now Saturday morning and we should have been waking up in Monterrey . We missed the service on Friday night and we were destined to miss both services on Saturday. I brought the van to the Ford dealership and their service department wouldn’t even take it in to look at it. The mechanic who worked on it was asked to come in to work on it but he refused. So I called a local ministry that I know of only as Melody Lane and they sent us to their place to meet with a man name Jim. It turns out he is a 73 year old retiree from Iowa whose ministry is to fix vehicles and other things for ministries. He jacked up the van and after three hours he had pulled the gas tank, which is the size of a small coffin, and replaced the fuel pump. It was hot and it was a very, very hard job. I was touched by Jim’s heart as he worked so very hard in the heat to help us.
As we crossed the border the van began to act up again but only momentarily but again it appears to be something that has to do with the heat and perhaps is a sensor and all of the above. Everything was going well and we were about half way to Monterrey and it appeared the worst was behind us. What else could go wrong, right? Pastor Magdaleno was driving Ardis’ van ahead of us with a big truck between us. Suddenly a red pickup was spinning off the road and everyone was trying to stop. Fortunately I was able to stop and we didn’t get hit from behind but there had been a crash ahead of us. As the truck moved around the vehicle that had crashed to our amazement it was Ardis van!!! A big truck ahead of the pickup lost the tread on a tire and the pickup stopped to avoid running over it and pastor Magdaleno, who was driving Ardis van, couldn’t stop and hit the back of the pickup knocking it off the road. The van was totaled and Ardis’ head went into the windshield as she wasn’t wearing her seat belt. So, I took the team to the next town to a real nice restaurant for two hours while the federal police came.
We had pushed the van off the road and thought we would just leave the van there. Wrong! We had to hire a tow truck to tow the van all the way back to the border and turn in the permit! I was in disbelief. The tow was $200 and you know what that means! When the tow truck driver came I traded him the wrecked van for the tow. But Ardis and Pastor Magdaleno had to ride in the tow truck to the border and then took a bus back to Monterrey . I drove the team in, missed my turn and got lost trying to find the motel. Finally we arrived Saturday night at 8:30 P.M., 31 hours after our estimated arrival.
We missed three services and started Sunday morning with three services for the day. A lot of prayer was in order for obvious reasons. The Sunday morning service was at a United Methodist which was very charismatic. The team did a great job of singing and sharing testimonies. I preached and it was a three hour service, but not because I preached!
The Sunday afternoon service was in a remote area in a very, very poor neighborhood that has a history of witchcraft. During the service a demon possessed man walked in and threw himself down on the cement floor and yelled and kicked around for almost an hour. The service just continued and the pastor and the congregation ignored him. The kids did really well through all of this and the other adventures.
Sunday night we were at a Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in another very poor area with very bad streets. The team ministered through drama, puppets, testimonies and one of the teachers gave a sermon. Afterwards we went to Taco Popos for the best tacos in the world. The kids loved them, especially the green salsa!
Monday we rested in the morning and in the afternoon went shopping and toured the historical buildings downtown. In the evening we went to another church in a poor neighborhood. We prayed for a boy who has been crippled his entire life. The team shared with the church and they played soccer and other games with the kids after the service. And, back to Taco Popos!
Tuesday afternoon we went to a cell group with a pastor up in the hills on little winding dirt roads that were definitely one-way. It was hard to believe that anyone lived up there. The team went door to door sharing Christ with the people in the little houses so far up the mountainside. In the evening we held a service in a Church of God and again the team did an excellent job. I shared in the dramatized sermon of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We prayed for a little boy who had trouble talking and individual team members prayed for individual people in the congregation. After the service the church provided tamales with green salsa. The team ate all the salsa and the Mexican women were concerned about them eating all that hot chili! They didn’t expect Americans to devour that much green salsa!
Wednesday afternoon we went out to a rural pastor’s church that feeds children who do not have regular meals at their homes. The team ministered in puppets and music, played with the kids. They had a great time. We also saw a four year old boy who we had prayed for and God had healed when he was about eight weeks old. It was fun to see him healthy and running around. He had had terminal asthma and heart disease and after spending six weeks in the hospital the doctors had sent home to die. In the evening we went over to another church and the team had a jam session with their musicians and also held a drama training session for people in their church. After that we were going out to a different taco place but lightening suddenly hit a transformer next to us and knocked out the electricity in that part of the city. So, back to Taco Popos!
Thursday afternoon we went to an orphanage where the team did puppets and some music. They did face painting and made animals out of balloons and had a great time with the kids. On the way to the evening service in heavy traffic, the van transmission suddenly started slipping. I pulled off into a service station and discovered the transmission fluid was a little over one quart low. After adding a quart it seemed to work fine but also seemed to shift hard. After dropping the team off I went to a meeting and it did not seem that the transmission was shifting into high. We were supposed to drive to Harlingen that night after the service and I was deeply concerned about possible breakdowns during the night in Mexico . However, after my meeting the transmission seemed to work fine and so we ventured out after the service. Of course, the service lasted later than it should have and they fed the team tacos with more green salsa after the service. We drove to Harlingen with basically no glitches except that by the time we went through the border things we got to the motel at 4:30 A.M. My cell rang for the first time at 7:30 A.M. and I was up for the day, getting ready to catch my plane.
The team had asked to use the van and go to Progresso, across the border from Harlingen for some more shopping, etc. My plane left earlier than the team’s plane. So they went across the border on foot and when they started back, allowing themselves plenty of time to catch their plane, the US Immigration wouldn’t let the two Korean exchange students who attend the school back into the United States ! Evidently they were missing some form although they had been in and out of the country twice already with no one asking for that particular form. Finally they let them in and the team had to literally run to the gate to catch their plane at the gate.
My plane went through Houston and Chicago. When I finally arrived in Minneapolis I thought it would probably be appropriate to kiss the ground!
So how was the trip? You would have to ask the team. I am sure they will never forget it!
See also http://www.cambridgechristian.org
Copyright © 2006 Church Mouse Chronicles
All rights reserved. International copyright secured
