On Their Way to Oaxaca

8:45 a.m. Monday, August 16, 2010

Thirty people including Victor, our daughter Martha, Mark Marshall, Rosa, our cook, and members of the Karkow family from Iowa just pulled out of Refuge Ranch heading out on a weeklong crusade to the mountainous, indigenous area of the state of Oaxaca!

The team that left for Oaxaca just a little bit ago!

The fact that they even pulled out of the driveway is a miracle in and of itself! Let me tell you why!

The black truck pulling out of the new warehouse after being loaded up! This was the first time we loaded the vehicles inside the warehouse directly from the medical supply area! Praise God!

The black truck and white van heading down the road leaving Refuge Ranch!

The red van on its way!

When crusades are held towards the south of Refuge Ranch we ask team members to meet the night before here at Refuge Ranch. They all sleep here and have the chance to load up the vehicles and head out at a decent time the next morning. We have crusade team members from all over the place. For example, on this team their are volunteers from the United States, Mexico City, the state of Mexico, as well as the Mexican states of Michoacan and Guanajuato. So, they all fly or take buses to Mexico City where we pick them up and bring them out to Refuge Ranch. Yesterday, Adrian took the white 15 passenger van to Mexico City and came back with the crusade volunteers.

When Adrian pulled up to the house he said that the white van and jerked several times about 15 minutes from the house and no longer wanted to shift. Mark Marshall, our resident auto mechanic, got in the van. It would not shift into reverse or any other gear! Diagnosis? A burnt out transmission!

We absolutely had to have that vehicle to transport crusade volunteers! The team had planned on taking both of our 15 passenger vans and the black truck for supplies! (If you aren't yet doing so, please pray for a 40 passenger bus with a bathroom on board and plenty of storage space!) So, here we were, 33 people on site ready for a crusade, enough money only to carry out the crusade, and a van with a burnt out transmission. So, what to do? PRAY!

Seriously, we didn't know what else to do! Victor and I, along with Adrian and Vero, (our right hand people on the crusades and also here at Refuge Ranch), went up to our office here at the house and prayed together. At the same time we asked Rosa to gather the rest of the volunteers to pray. As soon as we finished, I called my parents (our #1 prayer warriors!). Dad promised: "We will be on our knees as soon as we hang up!" (To my grandparents: Thank you for teaching my parents how to pray and about the power of prayer and, even more importantly, thank you for being a living example of prayer to them!) Dad and Mom, in turn, contacted their church's prayer chain.

We were simply praying for peace and wisdom. I knew that God could "heal" the van, but if that was not His plan of action, we prayed He would give us wisdom as to how to get more vehicles or which people to leave behind.

As I walked back out of the house from praying, I passed the piano and said to the Lord silently: "If this van starts running we are ALL going to hold a praise service tonight and sing your praises!"

Victor and I went to the dining room (aka warehouse) to eat with the team. As we walked past Mark he asked Victor: "So, what's your plan?" Victor answered: "Pray!" What more could we do? Fix a transmission at 7:00 p.m. on a Sunday night? Prayer was more of a reality than the possibility of actually "doing" anything!

After dinner Victor, Mark and Adrian got in the white van, were able to pull out of the driveway and began to drive to Cuautla, Morelos. This is about a half an hour drive from Refuge Ranch and is all down hill on the way and all up hill on the way back. I am assuming Victor choose this route to see what would happen to the van on the hills because they have lots of mountain driving to do today!

An hour later they pulled back into the driveway, Victor came into the house and said: "The van is fine! It is running just fine!"

We didn't fix a thing and the van is running perfectly!!!!! God is an auto mechanic supreme!

So, we all gathered in the living room and I let the team know that I had committed them to a time of worship if the van started running again! They readily agreed (of course!) and we held a moving bilingual prayer and praise service!

It is my great joy and pleasure to announce that all three vehicles: two 15 passenger vans and the black truck, along with 30 volunteers have just pulled out of Refuge Ranch on their way to share the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those who have never heard of His hope in the state of Oaxaca!

TO GOD BE THE GLORY BOTH NOW AND EVERMORE!

Praying for the team before they left this morning.

Let's carry them in our prayers: for safety, for effectiveness and that the glory of God may shine in Oaxaca, throughout Mexico and in the whole world! Please also pray for those of us who stay back at Refuge Ranch: myself, Lucy, Magda and Cirino, that we can be His faithful servants this week here!