Remembering A Year Ago With Thanksgiving (A pictorial review)

A little over a year ago, at around 1 p.m. in the afternoon, a got a rather frantic call from Mayra. "Come, quickly! Two guys with guns just robbed the Journey. I'm o.k." I'm near where Elena used to live, at the San Judas Tadeo pharmacy."

You can imagine how I felt...I had never received a telephone call like that in my life (and hopefully never will again!). I jumped in our second car and drove as quickly as I could to where Mayra was waiting, scared by unharmed. On the way I passed a State policeman, going the other way, through a rather narrow part of the main street that goes past where we live. "Follow me please," I shouted. My wife just had our car robbed. For whatever reason, he didn't follow me.





After collecting our wits, we made our way to the local police department to file a vehicle theft report. Turns out that we were unable to complete the report that day due to a frightful lack of information and an almost comical series of Catch-22s. We returned back to the police station the next morning, now convinced we'd likely never see our vehicle again. The police station (actual picture below) was a bit, err...disorganized.

We thought we may have lost our almost new car, but alas, God had other plans! We received a phone call around 5 p.m. that same day, a little more than 24 hours after the robbery. The local municipal police had located the Journey. Could we go claim it? My wife was encouraged but skeptical. What if people who know have our personal info want to do us further harm?  But when we arrived at the agreed meeting place, we did indeed find a municipal police truck, and followed them up a hill to our Journey, parked on a street, waiting for us, with all the car papers still inside.

 It took another 5 weeks to cancel the stolen vehicle report that we had filed that same day.  Finally, through both contacts locally and in the state capital of Toluca we were able to drive our car again, with a copy of the report in our car, just in case our plates are still on a report somewhere!  Replacing Mayra's driver's license is a story in its own right.  But through it all, we learned much about the Lord's provision and Mexican culture!


And I was able to continue to enjoy my lovely, beautiful wife, who went through this whole ordeal with a remarkable amount of peace and grace! Below, a recent picture taken in Herman Cortez's house in La Antigua, Veracruz! Those are roots behind us...and we know that the roots we have as a couple and a family also run deep, nourished by living water, anchored to an eternal Savior.