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There are few things more humbling than to meet and hear from people who tell us, "We are praying for you." We respond with "we are thankful." But, truthfully, that is never enough.
We are grateful.

We travel back and forth from Texas to Mexico at least weekly and sometimes even more. It is not a Big Deal to us, and yet, we are cognizant that we are small and God is big. Even that sentence sounds pretty trite. Occasionally we are reminded of those ideas, that we are ever reliant on His steadfast lovingkindness and mercy, in specific ways. And such happened this week.

We traveled across on this day with several purposes in mind. We volunteered to bring over a visiting pastor from Haiti to see some of the work in Mexico. (note- there are few things more humbling than spending time with a pastor who grew up on the street in Haiti, who now lives and serves orphans in that country, and pastors and plants thriving churches in some of the most impoverished areas of his community. Our needs are very very few.) We needed to check on a few things for our upcoming teams at the end of July. We had my dad visiting from out of town along too, to show him where my son is serving this summer and where we spend time.

All was on track, until it wasn't, of course. Ready to leave the school and get back into the comfort of air conditioning and onto lunch, the van would not start. We were parked in front of the school where we will be serving at later in the summer, but it was midday on a hot June afternoon, and not many people were around. We didn't have jumper cables. The caretaker of the school didn't have a car. We didn't have a Mexican phone. I prayed for His provision.

We asked at the corner store if anyone had cables, and indeed, one man from the neighborhood did. But remember- gringos in the neighborhood? Why are you here, he asked me. I was so very grateful that I could quickly and honestly answer, we are missionaries and we will be helping at the school later in the July; we want to serve this neighborhood. And our battery is dead. He had cables, but no car. We met the girl who lives across the street from the school. No car, but she was excited to speak English to me.

It was at just the right moment that the front loader turns down the street. Yes, we got a jump from the front loader. It was quite the event. Both my family and the girl across the street took pictures, which were posted on Facebook and Instagram within minutes of having a wifi connection. But much more importantly, yes, those prayers, for safety and for provision and for opportunities to meet people and share the faithfulness of our God, all those prayers were recognized as answered on that hot afternoon in a sunny northern Mexico border neighborhood.

Please continue to pray. We are grateful.