I posted a blog on January 8th, explaining what we are here to do in Mexico. I’d like to add a few more details. These details date back to when Mike and I first got married. On Nov. 5th of 2008 we celebrated our 20th Anniversary. There has never been a dull moment as Mike’s wife. I appreciate his loving leadership in my and my children’s lives.
Mike told me right from the start that he desired to take our family on a trip out of the country; this was even before we had any children. He knew that teachers often exchange country to country. I can’t help but think that God new the need to plant this seed well in advance to get this girl ready. I am not much into spontaneity (unless it is going out for Chinese food).
In my heart I made “my” plans for the past twenty years. I had read all the fantastic, adventuresome missionary stories. We will go far far away to a remote country with no running water and eat only beetles for food. Well, God determined the outcome, not us. There were several attempts to bring it about this last year. First it was a location in Brazil. Then, he worked on plans to travel to Argentina. Each time, his efforts were in vain. God picked Mexico. Mexico? Mexico was the last place I would choose. It didn’t suit my criteria.
It was a year ago Mike started coming home with ideas. Willies jumped in my stomach each time he wanted to talk with me about it. Our oldest child would be turning 17 so time was of an essence. If it were not for the fact that we had discussed this long ago, I most definitely would have recoiled and come up with a hundred excuses as to why I couldn’t possibly go. I knew that if I wanted to, I had the power to shut this whole operation down. God’s calling early on is the only factor that assured me that this was from Him. I knew that I could trust my loving savior. i most certainly knew who the real idea creator was.
Mike continued to work with his colleague, Mario, to refine plans. Mario had a brother in a small town in Mexico. Both Mike and Mario knew the ins and outs of the system on how they could make something like this come together and find funding. In fact, Mike became a “trail blazer” for a brand new program they were designing; a teacher exchange program specifically between Mexico and Oregon State University. Each time Mike would come home to privately give me an update. I would weakly say, “ OK” feeling very shaky about such a life-changing event. After some time I figured out how to reason it out. God would confirm this trip as being the one that He laid on our hearts years prior through the mere fact if all circumstances came through.
The next 6 weeks of waiting was both exhilarating and scary. During those weeks God built our faith. There were loose ends yet, and we learned that we would have to leave the unfinished details to Him. No more waiting for everything to work out “perfect” to determine if we were to go. The call 20 years prior gave me incredible strength and faith. The “loose thread” was an additional $2,500 worth of funding. Without it, we may not be able to afford to travel back home. Mike didn’t find out that we would get that money until a couple of weeks after we left home. I also had to trust God with a daughter's health. God had moved in our hearts strongly to trust Him.
Why did God choose Mexico? I am sure that God will spend the rest of our lives revealing those reasons to our entire family. Daily I pray that God will reveal more of what we are to do here. We have been tempted to think we aren’t serving enough. “Lord, we want to love on little orphans! We want to feed the hungry!” All those missionary stories have conditioned our thinking. Then God reminds me that He laid this on our hearts 20 years prior, and that I can most definitely trust Him for the rest. I don’t have to “do” but I can just “be” by following Him. In my walk with Christ, He has proven over and over that God is at work in and through His people even when they don’t know it. In my experience I have also learned that this is when God works the best! For me and for the rest of my family, living in Mexico has been a day by day faith walk. Every day is full of surprises and requires us to exercise trust in our God.
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