Travel adventures

     Well it’s never boring, that’s for sure! There is always something happening or going on to make this deputation thing exciting and thrilling! We are *still* enjoying the wonderful warm weather down in Florida. I will be making my way up north(north-er) on Monday. My mom flew down to spend the weekend with me and help me make the 17 hour drive next week back to Maryland. I am so excited to get to spend some time with her these few days! 

    Yesterday we were driving from eastern Florida to south-west   Florida. I had a meeting on the East coast Wednesday night. We were taking our time, it was just a 4 hour drive so I wasn’t super pressed for time or anything. We pulled off the highway to eat lunch and as we were leaving the restaurant, Rays front bumper just about fell off! I had checked to be sure I wasn’t up on the curb, and both of us are sure I didn't hit anything yesterday, but there it was, hanging on by a few clips. Last week while I was driving, I had hit something on the highway which detached a small part of the undercarriage covering, but it wasn’t very big and it came right off. I think that may have had something to do with what happened yesterday. 

    I pulled into a parking lot nearby and did my best to reattach it, but because it was kinda monkeyed on there in the first place (because of my accident), there was no way for me to reattach it securely. So, I called the closest body shop and asked them if they could have someone resecure my bumper to my car as it had fallen off. They said sure, and to bring him in. We drove over there, praying the whole time that the bumper didn't fall the rest of the way off and that they wouldn't try to rip me off… Body shops can be… well you know. 

    We got there, and they were slammed! They had so many cars waiting to be worked on, the few mechanics I saw looked super busy. But the manager came out and talked to me, looked at Ray and she PULLED ONE OF THE MECHANICS OFF WHAT HE WAS DOING, and told him to remove and reinstall my bumper. I couldn’t believe she was pushing me to the front. But he did, he dropped what he was doing, repositioned my car and started working. He pulled the bumper off, looked around and told me it hadn’t been attached properly. He filled in some holes and patched some pieces of the bumper back together.  

    Towards the end of the job I went out to try to talk to him. He only spoke Spanish, I learned he was from Cuba and had only immigrated here about a year ago. He told me that he was a Christian! He had gotten saved in Cuba and started going to church there, now he is working in a church there in Florida. When I told him I was a missionary he got very serious and thanked me. He began to tell me about growing up in Cuba and how there are not enough churches there, or enough churches sharing truth. He told me stories of the Pentecostal and Apostolic churches trying to confuse people and shield them from the true word of God. His heart and passion for his people was truly convicting to me. 

    As I listened to him talk about his people in need of churches and preachers I began to think of just how apathetic we can be as Americans. People of this, ‘Christian nation.’ How concerned are we for those around us. Our friends, family and fellow Americans. Do we pray for God to send someone to reach them? Do we try to reach them? I wonder, if on a global scale, if America would even rank under countries who pray. This man was from Cuba! A communist country, where they aren’t free to worship. They aren’t free to do anything, and yet, here he was praying and begging God to save his country. Our country is not yet to that point, but how strongly are we begging God to keep us from that? 

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    God has been so good to me, He has shielded me from harm and blessed me along the way. I am so thankful for everything that happened yesterday. Ray looks much better than he did even before. Because the mechanic fixed parts of his bumper, it reattached much cleaner that it was before and looks a whole lot neater. At the end of the job, they only charged me 80$! What a blessing! And- because he filled in a lot of the gaps and holes where the bumper was misaligned, a lot of that lovely ‘whistle’ that Ray has had all this time, is gone. Obviously, that has never been a hugely big deal to me, but it is still a blessing to see God care for the 'little things.' He is so good, all the time. 

Thank you for your prayers and for taking the time to keep up with us!

Beca + Ray