God-cidents: His plan unfolding!

We arrived in Mexico City last evening. Our flight was late, but we were right on time!

I mean: after 88 days of Enduring, what’s being delayed a couple hours in a comfortable lounge? Waiting no longer reacts with impatience the same as it did before. We landed right in the fullness of God’s time.
This trip was birthed out of this time of waiting. In fact, it was on New Year’s Eve – as I wrote previously, at the very same time Tim was running from the cop’s sirens and into the blackberries to find Erica, I was having coffee only a mere 50 yards away! Pastor Brent from Windword Church + I were talking about what could possibly break the mystery and bring revelation of Erica’s whereabouts and, sensing I was stuck in that waiting period and needed a change after 3 months, he invited me with him on a Missions trip to Mexico in February, where he ministers to growing churches in Mexico City and then further south in Oaxaca. The invitation to do something different than just wait felt good in my spirit; my family even encouraged me, ‘Dad, go for it!’ But before I could confirm, news of Erica’s discovery New Year’s morning changed our lives forever and Mexico disappeared from the picture!
Then, in between New Year’s and her funeral, an eagle (one of our STC students) came to visit me with a Word from the Lord:
I was going to take a trip in February, then for 1 year I will revisit places we’d been over the last few years,
then for 10 years following (that would take me past 75!) lots of new opportunities will open for me to share what the Lord is doing, and then I will re-focus on home and pour into our grandchildren.
Sounded good to me: especially the last part, because I’m a firm believer in relaying the vision and passing on the inheritance to our next generation!
Plus a trusted friend was there to witness to this word’s truth + timing: its messenger knew absolutely nothing about the February Mexico invitation! Additionally, I don’t believe in trying to self-fulfill prophecies, so I didn’t agree or disagree: I just held it in my heart.
Then a couple weeks ago, other Canadian missionary friends in Puebla, Mexico, phoned to tell me they had translated my Come Follow Me discipleship booklet into Spanish and just added I should come and see what was happening and take a rest too! They had no knowledge of the previous invitation either, but I figured if these two pointers to Mexico were in fact the Lord, then He was bringing it together, without me trying to make it happen.
I re-contacted Brent; his invitation still stood,  a seat also was still available on his same flight + the drive to Oaxaca would take us right by Puebla, so they could simply drop me off to stay with the missionaries for a few extra days.
And then Guatemala came into the picture! I’m the kind of traveler who continues to look further from where he’s already at. I’m always wondering what’s on the other side of the mountain, around the bend, or just beyond my present grasp. After all, a man’s vision must exceed his grasp… or what’s a heaven for?! 
Now, we just happen to have other Canadian missionary friends who live in Antigua, the old Spanish Central American capital, and when they heard  I was going to southern Mexico, well! Wouldn’t you know it? they just had to renew their visas outside Guatemala in early March and would be there right at that time – coincidence?
I have come to believe less in accidents or coincidence + more in God-cidents during this faith journey.
So rather than take the 20-hour bus ride through a somewhat questionably insecure Chiapas, I found a  1½ hr flight from Mexico City to the Guatemala border for only $10 more and decided to splurge! Why not?  I soon booked the necessary flights and the journey extended to a further week in Guatemala, with only a relatively short return bus to the Mexican border and flights back to Mexico City and Canada the following morning.
And wouldn’t you know it? The Lord has taken care of even this! Our last year’s homestay student just happens to
live in Mexico City and has invited me to come and be with his family that very evening, rather than just wait at the
airport. Hospitality in action, eh?
And to top it all off: Windword church took up a love offering and paid for my plane ticket. More generosity to me! I think I’m loved!
So here I am discovering new friends: more hungry + thirsty Mexican eagles! Gotta love their flag: it depicts an eagle eating a snake! Now that’s the right kind of symbolism in action: eagles destroying snakes!
Jesus up: devil down!  
No, I’m not lazing on the beach getting a burn-tan, but by the grace of God and His people’s love + generosity, I am once again on one of the front-lines where the kingdom of God is advancing against drug cartels, child prostitution, religious ignorance and self-interested pollutions of heart, mind and soul.
This is resting, refreshing, and restoring, all at the same time.
I can’t just sit home in pain; when He opens the door, I have to mount up and fly for both Erica and I!
Thank you, all of you, for loving, praying, believing and helping in so many ways to make this healing reality!