The Greatest Revolutionary of All Time!

Christ is Risen!
2000 years later, this simple message is revolutionizing our entire world! This is not merely an idea, a nice religious thought we try to believe.
Christ’s Resurrection is a historical fact, rooted in reality, fully witnessed in Scripture, the foundation of our faith.
 Rom 10:9-10 affirms that when we believe in our hearts God raised Christ from the dead + confess this with our mouth, we saved/healed/restored/ made whole! Countless lives have been changed by this truth!
The Early Church preached Christ’s Resurrection to religious + skeptical audiences alike. Their lives embodied this message and humanistic philosophies could not withstand their evident demonstration of truth in action! They overcame by the blood of The Lamb who had overcome death and their lives and deaths bore witness!
While teaching in Nepal + India, I saw afresh how truly radical the Resurrection message is! Hindu + Buddhist culture know only reincarnation: endless cycles of karma + hopeless bondage, but Jesus broke the box of all human limitations. Not only was His preaching life-changing, but His final act marks Him as the greatest revolutionary of all time: He overcame sin + death!
The Resurrection message has a deepened significance for our family this year. We believe one day we will meet our Erica again and even share together this resurrection to life of all who believe and receive this good news! She is not dead, but has gone ahead of us to be with Jesus and her works follow her.
 Indeed, ever since her funeral, we are seeing abundant fruit of Erica’s life and answered prayer. People, things, situations she prayed into for many years (and I can testify: Erica prayed) are now coming to pass!
Our God is a Redeeming God and what the enemy meant for evil, Our Father is now turning for good + His glory.
Thank You again for your continuing prayers, encouragement and care for our family!
And we pray His Resurrection faith, hope, joy and love both rise up and increase, not only during this Easter season, but throughout your lives. May you be full to overflowing with His blessing!
Christ is Risen Indeed!

6 months, 60 years

Today marks 6 months since Erica went missing; even on the same weekday, a Saturday morning, ½ a year ago!
It also marks her 60th birthday, but it’s pretty hard to throw a party without her being here.
We miss her very much!
I think it’s been harder since I came back from the missions/rest trip to Mexico-Guatemala.
Don’t know why exactly?
I guess traveling can be a bit of a distraction and then suddenly I’m home again, expecting her: once again pulling up in the driveway; her unique, familiar march down the stairs; her full volume ‘Hi Hon!’ telephone voice calling me to come and pick her up from somewhere she’s just been waiting for me…
for the last 6 months.
But that call doesn’t come anymore.
And so I must focus my ears + eyes to hear + see that other call.
The upward call.
That call that undid what the enemy tried to do in stealing her away.
Erica’s legacy is yet intact, vital and bearing fruit! I believe in the Resurrection and that’s not just one day in the future; but ever since Jesus rose from the dead
= the 1st Resurrection, it’s been Resurrection Day and time for the fruit of His passion, resurrection and ascension to the throne of the universe to be known + shown!
And the fruit from her life is so abundant!
So many places I went in Central America, people told me how they had been affected and were praying for our family. Her story has touched many hearts, not only in our community, but beyond.
Although it didn’t turn out as we had hoped, yet her life was never in vain. From the many letters, testimonies, messages, and phone calls I’ve received, it’s quite evident her life example stirred and is yet stirring many hearts.
I’m believing for her legacy to bear fruit, more fruit and fruit that remains!
Rev 12:11 ‘And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.’
but we tend to overlook the last part: ‘and they did not love their lives to the death.'
That’s what seals the deal! When a believer dies, regardless of how, God still counts them overcomers.
Our Newfie friend recognized Erica in a dream as the one preaching the Father’s love on the very day she was entering heaven . When the Early Church suffered persecution, Tertullian, one the Church Fathers, coined the phrase, ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church;’ because the truth is that when 1 believer died in the arena, 10 more were born again in the stadium seats! Hearts were touched; lives were changed!
Ever since Erica’s funeral, I am seeing fruit of answered prayer. Many people, things, issues, situations she prayed into for many years (and I can testify: Erica prayed), these are now coming to pass!
Something has broken through! The resistant exteriors are giving way, the ground of hard hearts is softening, the seed has been sown and, like our present spring season, it is now sprouting, budding, and ready to bring forth fruit!
I’m believing for 10, 100… no, 1000 and more to rise up and take her place!
Our God is a Redeeming God and what the enemy meant for evil, Our Father is now turning for good + His glory. Lord, give us eyes to see how You see and what You are doing in the earth even now, so we might work more effectively with you!
And that is more than enough reason for our family to celebrate Erica’s birthday today. We will remember not only her life, but also rejoice in those same promises of God she looked for, believed in, and embraced with all her heart.
Happy Birthday, dear!

‘You need to realize how much you have a Father who loves you!’

It’s amazing how the Lord turn days, lives and circumstances to His glory!
Today, for example, a friend asked me to coffee and brought another friend who had just driven across the country all the way from Newfoundland. This 2nd friend told me he had met Erica + me before, briefly at a conference a few years ago.
We sat down together, and he began sharing an amazing story with me that I would now like to share with you.
He was not really sure why he’d driven back to Abbotsford, but as he spoke, he said this purpose was growing clearer.
On October 5th, he awoke from a dream. In this dream, he had seen a line of people entering heaven. A young girl, he thought about 12 years old, left the line, came and stood right in front of him, pointed directly in his face and said,
‘You need to realize how much you have a Father who loves you!’
He added that he inherently knew this wasn’t a young girl, however; somehow he had the sense she was really an older woman, especially from her thick, combed-back hair.
Later that day, his wife showed him the FB story about Erica’s disappearance on the same day and when he saw her accompanying photo, he realized the girl in his dream had been Erica!
As he related his story, I felt a strong witness this was from the Lord for 2 reasons:
1st: he knew this specific item of Erica’s thick hair. This had always been one of her personal pet peeves: her hair was so thick she always said she couldn’t do anything with it!
2nd: her words about The Father’s love were the same words we use in expressing the central message of our Father’s Heart seminar we’ve been teaching for the last few years: ‘You’ve got a Father who loves you!’
He could not have known these details just through his own intuition, so this greatly encouraged me.
Somehow the Lord had driven this man all the way across Canada to affirm something in my heart.
Our ministry yet carries on, even though Erica is no longer with me.
She was preaching even while she was in line to enter heaven. She never gave up!
My new friend and I talked further, prayed together, and when we went outside, another fellow approached us.
I didn’t recognize him at all; however, my new Newfie friend did.
But almost immediately, this fellow turned to me, exclaimed, ‘You’re Henry, Erica’s husband!’ and proceeded to tell me how profoundly he’d been touched by her funeral service: ‘I felt I’d been in the most wonderful spiritual encounter ever!’
‘Oh, you were there at the funeral?’ I replied.
And he then related to me how a mutual friend of ours, who now lives in Alberta, had tried to get him to meet us months before, but Erica disappeared before this could come about. Turned out this mutual friend had flown out from Alberta and brought this fellow with her to the funeral.
Again… just an added touch of how strongly the Lord wants me to know how He has used Erica’s life even in death, and her funeral to touch hearts, even of people we don’t even know.
On my walk back uphill, I stopped where they’d finally discovered Erica’s body New Year’s Day.
So close, yet so far.
The sun came out, it grew warmer! Spring was in the air and I felt the Lord healing more in my life and family. Somehow He orchestrated these ‘chance’ meetings and brought me together with these new friends to affirm my heart that none of this has been wasted, to no avail, or in vain.
His Hand is redeeming even now: new glory through the pain and suffering.
And as if I needed more confirmation, as I continued walking, an eagle appeared above me. For me, another sign of His Presence, circling and soaring, leading me home.

If you are interested in more on The Father’s Heart: we have a 4-CD set that was recorded last year.
It focuses on how Jesus essentially came to reveal The Father, bring many sons and daughters to life, heal the father wound and break off the orphan mentality so evident in this generation (John 14).
Together, Erica + I and members of our family share how the Lord brought healing to our own lives, marriage, relationships and ministry through this vital message.
These are available for a donation.
Please contact me personally through a FB message or email: henryerica604@gmail.com
Simple gospel Answers to life’s contradictory Questions:
‘I’m a child of God’ + ‘I have a Father who loves me!’
Discover your eagles’ wings and mount up above those problems trying to overwhelm you.
I know it’s true: the Lord has lifted me through these last 6 months.

‘I have set an open door before you, and what I have opened, no man can shut!'

My Missions-Vacation trip to Mexico and Guatemala was going really smoothly until…
I had spent the first week with our team in Mexico City and Oaxaca, then 4 days with missionary friends in Puebla. My flight to Tapachula, a border town, had also gone well: I’d met my friends and we’d driven to Antigua, Guatemala where I stayed for the next week.
Tucked into a mountain valley, surrounded by 3 volcanoes, 1 still quite active, filled with beautiful flowers and impressive historic ruins, the entire scenario proved restful. It had been a great time, and now I felt revived, restored and ready to return to my home and family and continue life’s changes.
Monday started early: 3am and I awoke to catch a shuttle into Guatemala City from where I transferred to another bus for a 6-hour ride back to Tapachula, then flights to Mexico City and home on Tuesday. All my trip costs had been covered by love offerings and friends’ generosity along the way and now I was enjoying the final leg of my journey, gazing out my bus window at the passing Guatemalan countryside.
The only interruptions were those intermittent and inconvenient tumulos (in Guatemala), topes (in Mexico), speed-bumps (in English). Surprisingly, people actually build their own tumulos and then stand beside them, right in the middle of the road, with bowls extended, inviting contributions from passing traffic!
I felt a similar tumulo in my up-to-then smooth ride when we arrived at El Carmen, the Guatemalan border crossing.
Confusion reigned! I felt like back in Nigeria in the 80s! My bus was taking us all the way into Tapachula, but the driver advised us we had to take our own luggage off the bus and personally walk it through Mexican Customs. When I got off, all kinds of people immediately surrounded me! Taxi drivers soliciting fares – ‘No, I don’t need a
ride!’ Money-changers hollering out their competing rates of exchange – ‘No, I don’t need any!’ And everywhere, 7 + 8-year olds, who without asking, just grabbed at my suitcase, hoping to lay claim to a tip for helping me. In Nigeria, they’d asked, ‘Can I take your bag, sir?’ and meant it. They’d take it all right, and you’d
never see it again! I felt the same here, so I kept my bags close and my eyes wide open.
Surprisingly, the Customs officers asked us all to open our luggage and thoroughly checked each one. Chiapas State isn’t the most peaceful part of Mexico, so I guess they wanted to make sure we weren’t running guns or dope. I wondered: But why aren’t they checking down at the river where I’d just seen a whole bunch of contraband floating unchallenged into Mexico without any checkpoint?
I closed up my suitcases, beat off a few more would-be helpers, and continued towards the Immigration-Passport-Visa people. But there were none in sight and the
official there just waved me on by to my waiting bus. I thought it a bit peculiar that no one would actually check my passport, but in the midst of all the noise and confusion, perhaps the Mexican and Canadian governments had come to some special understanding, so we didn’t need a visa and passport stamp every time?
I loaded my bags back on the bus and took my seat. The bus drove off and I figured I’d left the confusion behind. My bus dropped me off at the city depot, I got a taxi out to the airport (such a deal! it was 1/2 the price I’d been told, so I thought I was extra blessed!) and I was there, ready for my flight, with 2 hours to spare!
Like life sometimes, my trip was going so smoothly until…
The next tope: Time to check in for my flight to Mexico City and when I gave the lady my passport, she kept thumbing through it, looking for something that was evidently not there. She asked me how I got into the country. I explained my crossing at El Carmen. She replied that I had no Mexican visa paper, but then shrugged, said this was just a domestic flight, and I could get on anyways.
Our flight flanked the sun setting in a red-gold symphony to the west, and then millions of crystalline lights twinkled their welcome to one of the world’s largest metropolises. My home-stay student and his family picked me up right when I arrived. We went out for a wonderful Mexican supper, then back to their home where I had a shower and even slept in a real bed for 3 hours. They woke me up (my second 3am rising in a row!) and kindly drove me back to the airport. I was at Terminal One in the Air Canada check-in line by 4am.
All was going so smoothly until ….
everything hit a sudden speed-bump. My ticket agent was looking through my passport and asked me where my Mexico visa paper was? I again explained how the border officers had just waved me through yesterday and expected that to be enough. But this agent did not look happy. He called over his manager, who looked at both my passport and reservation papers, which made him look even unhappier, and then told me I could not get on my flight without a proper visa paper and stamp!
I replied, ‘But it’s not my fault! The Mexican Immigration officials themselves had been negligent. They waved me into their country without a visa and now these same officials didn’t want to let me out until I’ve got their stamp?
I think I began muttering en espagnol, ‘Loco, loco!’
However, the manager did offer me a bit of hope. He gave me a stand-by boarding pass, and then said all I had to do was pass through Security and secure the necessary paper and stamp from some Immigration official who would be on the other side!
I made it through the first step, but the second proved a seemingly impossible wall!
I did find him, but this Immigration officer spoke very ‘poco inglese’ and together with my ‘pecito espagnol’, the only thing clear was that he was not going to give me my stamp, although it was right on his desk in his hand. He was not helpful at all, but kept on talking about some faraway Gate 19 and Door 10, where they might be able to.
We were at about Gate 28 so I headed down the hallway, my carry-on bags in tow. Ten minutes later (it’s a long way between gates in this terminal!) I arrived at Gate 19 only to find a lone cleaning lady, but no Door 10 anywhere! Not even a Door 1! She spoke solo espagnol, which further frustrated my search, so I turned and ran 10 gates back to Immigration. He was quite put off with me when I told him his Door 10 didn’t exist, insisting it was just outside. So how do I get outside? Do I go back out through Security and count 10 doors to my hidden destiny?
Our language differences didn’t help communication. Another lady stepped in, but only made things worse.
I found out my flight was leaving through Gate 34, so now clutching my Stand-by boarding pass tightly and praying fervently in the Spirit, I abandoned my search for the elusive Door 10, hoping AirCanada would be more helpful.
Another 10 minutes sped past me, and when the agents showed up; the lady said she couldn’t help me, but directed me to the manager, the same dude I’d met at Check-in. This time he proved completely unhelpful, even abruptly advising me, ‘Go back to Immigration, Meester!’
Discouraged, I rushed back to this one who was not at all happy to see me again, and emphatically insisted that the invisible Door 10 held my answer. I thought perhaps I was misunderstanding Door 10 as really Gate 10, so I ran, again with my luggage, another 20-gate marathon.
But Gate 10 was empty, and there were still no doors!
Time was outrunning me. It was now 5 o’clock and I had less than an hour to find the magic door!
I ran back to the Immigration guy, pled with him, appealed to his compassion and sense of justice to just give me the stamp he held in his hand so I could go home. But he didn’t budge. In fact, he was unrelenting, even belligerent.
But then he added something new to the Door 10 mystery. It really did exist, but only opened at 7am!
‘Non bueno,’ I countered, ‘my flight leaves at 6!’
‘So rebook your flight for menana!’
Talk about Catch-22! So was I supposed to stay in this No-Man’s Land, like some Tom Hanks movie character, in this airport for 24 hours or however long? I told him this was ridiculous and they should take care of their own bureaucratic irresponsibility.
Thank God I still knew I could pray: those 88 Days did teach me something.
But I was at a loss of what and how to pray? I’d appealed to the Lord’s power and mercy, taken authority over the devil, cast down his schemes and everything that was trying to hinder my journey. But as I ran back to the AirCanada Boarding Gate, only 20 minutes remained till its departure and every minute screamed more loudly that my plane was leaving without me. Frustrating? Discouraging!
I arrived out of breath and the manager made like I was invisible, completely avoided me, walked right by me and disappeared!
That did it! Any hope I had broke and so did I! At a loss, I virtually crumpled on their counter and cried out: ‘It’s up to you, Father!’ and was reconciled to wait on His Will… whatever. 88 days’ waiting has a tendency to change one’s perspective.
The lady agent I’d first met at this gate then came over and asked why I was so upset. I told her the situation: I needed to go home – today. I poured out my heart about Erica, the last 5 months and how I needed to be with my family!
Then, without a word, she took my Standby pass, went to her computer, typed something, returned and handed me a real boarding pass.... and with a glance to see if her manager was watching? motioned me to board the aircraft!
Dazed, I started walking, down the boarding ramp, onto the plane. I felt like I was reliving Peter’s dream coming out of prison!
Amazed, at how the seemingly impossible had suddenly become so possible!
God was at work, especially in and through this woman’s compassionate heart! I’m now convinced she was an angel – there just to make a way for me!
I sat down in my seat: 12F, and pulled my seat belt tight. There were still 10 minutes till take-off and they still had 10 minutes to remove me from the plane. But I resolved that even if the Immigration guy, the Air Canada manager and a gang of Federales might all appear, they’d have to take me by force. I would not go without a fight! If need be, I would create an international incident. I was not ending up in a Mexican prison!
The 10 minutes passed. The stewardess closed the overhead compartments; the aircraft’s door was shut tight.
But…then it took another 15 minutes for our plane to finally pull away for take-off.
But in that time, I heard His Word speak in the power of His Spirit:
‘I have set an open door before you, and what I have opened, no man can shut. And what I have shut, no man can open!’
Finally we were airborne! We cleared that last tumulo/tope/speed bump.
I had my wings and my heart filled with thanksgiving and overflowed with joy!
God had made a way where there was no way.
Within 7 hours, I was home and my luggage too!
My angel had remembered to even put it on!

Can God turn deserts into oases? Come and See!

Our team returned yesterday from 3 days in the Oaxaca mountains, definitely off the beaten track. Felt almost like ‘Yanquis bandidos’ in a long ago scene from Butch Cassidy + the Sundance Kid! Miles before we turned off the highway, my Jeep companions pointed to a vague line snaking its way up a distant mountain and disappearing beyond… into the heavens?
‘We’re headed up there!’ they motioned. I was sure they were teasing me, but an hour later there we were, looking from the opposite perspective: down rather than up, bouncing around in the back seat from rock face to cliff side, suddenly turning bends, confronting large trucks and barely avoiding swerving motorcycles, wondering how there could be life in the midst of these brown cactus- barrens, let alone towns with people.
No need for Mexico City speed bumps out here!
I’ve been in desert-country before, but this was really bleak… until we got over the top and the views across the canyon proved magnificent! Fields sprinkled the mountainsides; villages clung defiantly to their terraced tops. Winds cleared our afternoon view, but in the evening they whipped in banks of dense fog that spring unexpectedly upon us, rolling around and around, until they opened to a candelabra of glittering stars in the heavens that civilization so often hides.
Kind of like life, right? We tend to get lost in the details and lose the Big Picture!
I drew plenty of parallels to my last 4 months’ journey on this stage of my missionary trip. Endless dry terrain, rocks, bumps, bleak terrain, blind curves… unsure of what was coming next, but waiting for the heavens to open and reveal a once out-of-reach glory such as we’d never been seen before!
Can God turn deserts into oases?
Truly, the Lord is at work and has led me to see what could not have come to light in the valley.
3 wonderful experiences shone through the fog and what had before seemed just a dark valley and barren sky. Nothing is or happens without purpose. God has purpose in all He is and does. His kingdom unfolds in time + purpose. In our complexities, we need to see His simplicity like Jesus: see what Father is doing and follow Him.
1st: Saturday’s Youth meeting shifted sharply when Pastor Brent began sharing about Erica, the 88 Days, how her disappearance touched so many and the irony of how we had been having coffee only a short distance away when Tim found her body on New Year’s Eve. Brent was standing directly in front of me. I stood and took the mic and shared how Erica’s heart was always for youth. At 16, she’d saved her own money, raised funds and bought a school bus so youth like these could attend gospel meetings. As I spoke, the Holy Spirit fell: Ingrid, our interpreter, started weeping, others too and soon Pastor Adonias… and me… and Brent all ended up in a big wet hug, together at the front while the young people watched it all play out before them! Many had heard part of Erica's story and had been praying for us, but now their eyes saw this manifest outpouring: the fruit of God’s love!
2nd: Sunday’s service and about 50 received Jesus as their Saviour! A wonderful harvest with an equally wonderful church response as workers immediately responded to come alongside and + personally counsel and pray with them!
Then a time of ministry to married couples followed and I felt pretty lost, alone and even sorry for myself; like only ½ there without Erica by my side.
I longed for the meeting to be over and began to gather my things together.
But God had other plans and soon people were gathering around, asking me to pray with them!
I felt completely inadequate.
One young woman brought her newly engaged girlfriend and asked for prayer to help prepare her heart for marriage. I agreed and as I prayed, the new fiancee began to tear up. Ingrid was busy interpreting elsewhere, so the friend who had originally asked for prayer stepped in and interpreted for me.
More couples surrounded us for more prayer. The need was evident, so this young woman and I became a spontaneous prayer- translator team over the next hour. After this, Jackie (that was her name) shared with me how Erica’s story had deeply touched her heart, and when Ingrid joined us again, I found myself praying Erica’s Deborah anointing over both of them –warrior women who will not accept the devil’s ‘No’ for an answer, but will stand for truth against this world’s injustice.
God poured out His Spirit again and soon all of us were weeping.
Erica’s legacy is not in vain: He is raising up more Deborahs!
3rd: Yesterday we had an evening meeting with the Sheppards and their church in Puebla. Pastor David has translated my Come Follow Me discipleship booklet into Spanish and after I’d shared about how we need both Word + Spirit wings to cut through enemy confusion, another lady approached me. She was leaving to work the night shift in the local hospital, and I told her I saw her like Florence Nightingale: a Lady with a Lamp, shining light into the darkest places.
As her story unfolded, it turns out her name is Luz which means ‘light’ and she has been using these translated booklets in her work as a psychologist, helping suicidal patients find hope!
She has such a compassion for her patients that she even takes her break-time to encourage them in the Scripture and prayer!
That did it for me! Seeing God work it so my booklet was now encouraging suicidal patients to keep walking where Erica had fallen victim opened the heavens above and the fountains of the deep again!
Imagine: actually meeting a lady here in Mexico named Light using the light of my newly translated booklet to shine against that very darkness that sought to extinguish Erica’s light.
The ways of God are truly beyond understanding!

The 3 Miguels

One of many highlights from the Fuerza Agape Youth Conference we took part in yesterday here in Mexico City:
Remember a movie called The 3 Amigos? Well, I got The 3 Miguels yesterday: all in a row, one after the other, for prayer at end of the meeting. All 3 with our son’s name! What are the odds on this?
M1 spoke pretty good English, but rather than prayer for himself, he asked if I could pray for his friend: M2, who’d never been to a Christian meeting before.
M2 stepped forward, out of the crowd: 16 years old? not tall, with tattoos, piercings and rings all over his ears, lips and nose, black leather jacket, black hair, in fact, his whole countenance looked downcast black.
But he had been all day in the meeting and now he wanted prayer.
M2 didn’t raise his eyes and only briefly did they meet mine, but I felt the Father’s love for him so deeply and I knew in my heart nothing was going to stop Father from engaging this prodigal with nowhere else to go.
He stood in front of me, head down. And I began to pray… just simply that M2 would see, hear and know Jesus as the Father’s love-gift in the midst of his confused and confusing sin-sick world. I took authority over anything that would try to separate him from this love. As my hand barely touched his forehead, his body suddenly started to quiver, then shake and weave from side to side. Tears broke from his eyes, flowed down his cheeks and M2 fell out of control, forward, right into my arms which could barely keep him standing! It all happened so quickly and
unexpectedly, all I could do was stand there, holding his virtually collapsed form against my frame, praying healing for his heart, mind and whole being. I felt tears saturate my shirt. Something wonderful was indeed happening!
Time was giving way to eternity; a once-closed heart was opening to the infinity of Father’s love.
His arms held, then folded and tightened around me, almost like in a wrestling match he was determined not to lose.
Then just as suddenly as he’d put the hold on me, he now released me. I raised his chin, lifted his head upwards, looked into two very different, now clearly bright eyes, and asked him if he wanted to receive Jesus. He replied he didn’t know what that meant.
Now I could have tried to explain this in my very incompetent Spanish, gone for the kill and got him notched on my born-again, new converts belt, but I felt to not pressure him and called his friend M1 in to show M2 the Jesus Way!
M2 gracia’d me and I felt a simple assurance that M2’s born-again experience would not tarry long after such an encounter with the Father.
M1 + M2 walked away together and next in line appeared M3: much younger, only 7 yrs old? and this little guy had decided he wanted prayer too, all on his own! Jesus’ words rang in my heart:
‘Don’t forbid the little children to come to me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven!’
When I got home last night, I remembered my 3 Miguels and wondered whether our roads might meet again?
Some prayers definitely take less time for answers. Today M1 came to me right after church and reported: M2 gave his heart to Jesus immediately after they’d left me and confirmed his commitment in church this morning!
You don’t always have to hit a home-run. Just get a runner safely on base and let the Father bring him home. He is well able to complete what He’s begun.

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!