The Smith Connection

This past Thursday we traveled to Texcoco for the farewell meal of a fellow CAM Mexico missionary, Cindy Bishop, who worked with my parents in that town for a number of years. We stopped by San Juan del Rio to pick up fellow missionaries Paul & Grace Becker who traveled with us. All was going well, and we were close to getting to Texcoco when we came to the realization that we were driving in Mexico City on a Thursday! For us this is bad news! In order to help with the pollution everybody has a day that they are not allowed to drive in Mexico City according to the last number on their license plate - our day is Thursday, and it had not even crossed our mind until Bryan saw a couple of police cruisers at a toll booth. That is when we started praying in earnest that God would cause the police not to look at our vehicle. If you get stopped for driving on your day off it can be a fine up to $300 US and your car can get impounded. Thankfully we made it through the danger zone without getting stopped, and we enjoyed a wonderful time at the goodbye party.

We decided not to risk going home the same way we went, so we had a take the long way home. The long way home takes us 4 hours instead of 2, and some of the road is two lane through hills and dangerous curves. It is also the preferred route of many truckers as there are no tolls. We got off around 5 PM, and all was going well until we hit the two lane stretch of highway after the town of Ixmiquilpan. It was dark, and there was construction on both sides of the highway - in other words there were 2 to 3 foot drop-offs on either side of the road with just white painted rocks as warning every 15 feet. All of a sudden the car began to bump and shimmy and we realized that we had a flat tire. Thankfully, just as we were looking for a place to get off the road God provided one! There was a wide spot only on our side of the road where we were able to pull off.

Paul and I got the jack and tools out and began to take the tire off, only to find out that one of the lug nuts was almost completely stripped. We tried every tool that we had in the van that might possibly work, to no avail. We decided that one of us should go and try to find help. Just a little ways up the road there was a little town of sorts, and a few small businesses. The first place I came to was a taco joint, and they said that there was a tire repair shop just up the road, but that he was closed. I decided to head up that way anyway to see what I could find, and as they had mentioned, it was closed. A little further ahead I found an electrician - I might add a very drunk electrician - working on a vehicle. I asked him if he had the tools to help me get a stripped lug nut off, and he said, "I don't, but you can ask the tire repair guy. He just pulled up to his shop." I turned around, and sure enough there was a truck there now!

He got some tools together and drove his truck back to where our van was. He had the lug nut off in a flash, and put the spare donut on for us. We went to his shop, and he was able to repair the tire. Earlier in the week when I was driving on a dirt/rock road the tire had been punctured pretty badly by a rock. It had been repaired at that point, but obviously not well.

During our time there another man came up to the tire shop and started talking with us. In the course of conversation he asked us what we do and he found out we were missionaries. I asked him if he knew of any Christian churches in the area to which he replied in a rather sarcastic way, "Why don't you ask 'brother Daniel' here. He could tell you." The tire repair man just smiled. He was a believer! He did an excellent job on the tire, and only wanted to charge us $200 pesos (about $20 US). We insisted on giving him more, and he finally took it. We exchanged telephone and address information - he has two sisters who live in our city of Queretaro - who knows, maybe God will use this to bring more people into his family.

As we look back on everything we see God's protection and care in many ways:
1) We decided to go the back way because of our no-drive day in Mexico City. The tire that went flat was a tire that had been damaged earlier in the week, and probably would have blow out either way. Had it blow out on the highway it could have been much more dangerous. We were going fairly slow when it happened.
2) Just where it happened there was a place to get off the road safely when just before and just after there was no safe way off the highway due to construction.
3) It happened just before we got to the curvy, hilly part of the highway where there are also very few safe places to get off.
4) There was a tire repair shop not to far down the road, where the tire repairman was just getting back to his shop from another job.
5) The Beckers were with us, and were able to stay with Lori and the kids while I went to get help. It can be dangerous after dark in that area. Having them there with us added assurance and safety in a rather tense situation.
6) The tire repairman, Daniel, was a Christian and treated us nicely, did his job well, and charged us very fairly.
7) We trust we were able to be an encouragement to Daniel. Being a believer in that area and environment can be very difficult.
8) We may have at least two more contacts in our city of Queretaro as a result of the incident!

We made it home by 11:00 PM, thankful for the way God protected and cared for us and worked everything out for His glory. Why do we doubt at times?