Crossing Mexico's West Coast
(please see More Mexico Images)
We had crossed the coast and the terrain was climbing from the Caribbean to what turned out to be a high mountain plateau. Mexico City was ringed by ancient volcanos, and extended for miles. Our aeroplane seemed to just keep flying over it.
Thank God our arrival, baggage and customs all went smoothly and very efficiently.
God had blessed us to find a cheaper hotel in the Historical Centre of Mexico City through the internet before we left the USA.
And the positioning of this hotel was to prove to be very significant during our stay.
Although we had heard a lot of Spanish in the USA, suddenly we were thrown into a place where English was relatively rare. There were people who spoke English - but they were not always ready at hand!
The Lord Jesus was very kind to us and helped in situations where we really needed it as described below.
This help from the Lord was a promise that He had given to me (Paul) many years before.
I was living in Wellington in a Christian Community looking after people as they came to the Lord Jesus. There were a few houses that we rented off a chapel most of us went to, and some flats from a non-Christian landlord around the corner from us.
One morning I was over in the chapel building seeking the Lord in a quiet area out the back - somewhere I did not normally go during the week.
Having left University years before, over evolution (I had lost heart in all my studies as I realised that there was no scientific truth to the evolution we were being taught), I was sitting in a prayer room with University enrolment forms in one hand and my enrolment fees in another, really asking God if this was His will for me.
“My” plan was to take my science credits from years before and combine them into an arts degree focussed upon Spanish - because Spanish related languages are used by an eighth of the world and it would be useful in the Lord's work, I thought.
Under the Universities enrolment system, my day for enrolment had come. As I sat seeking God over this I had absolutely no peace from God it was the right thing to do, in fact it seemed it would get in the way of what God actually wanted to do with that period of time in my life.
A few hours went by, and then God gave me a vision of being on the step-through Honda scooter I used, travelling up past the Victoria University and into the Kelburn Shopping centre, and parking there. And God spoke to me in my heart and said that if I would trust Him and not do the University courses, He would do great things by His Holy Spirit.
I put my heart on what God was saying to me and turned my mind over to it, and as I sat contemplating all this I heard some fast moving footsteps as some one came pounding down the concrete path down the side of the building. Then I heard Christopher Logan's voice calling out to me.
I called out that I was and that the outer door was unlocked. Chris came through and said that he had been looking for me everywhere. A common friend, Jeff Grove had rung him that morning trying to find me. He had said that he was looking for someone to pray for him as he had cast his back was in pain, and needed to fly to Australia the next day for his work (Telecom). And with his back the way it was he could not go. He had tried to find other preachers to come and pray for him, but none would go, and the Lord kept showing him to find me. He rang Christopher, explained the situation, and asked him if he knew where I was. Chris offered to try and find me.
I was pretty concerned for Jeff's condition, especially with his flight the next day. So I asked where he was flatting now, and Chris told me that Jeff was living in a place above the Post Office in the Kelburn shopping centre!
I was astounded - that area was exactly where the Holy Spirit had just shown me in the vision, I had just had.
I got onto my Honda, and rather than take the short cut to the Kelburn shops via Farlie Terrace, deliberately went the longer way driving past the University just as the Lord had shown me in the vision. It was I believed the right thing to do as it symbolised by passing the University to press into what God has ahead of me by the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
Jeff had the door open, and by the time I arrived, was lying on the floor leaning up against a chair.
He looked pretty stressed. He thanked me for coming and said that he could not get any one else to come and pray for him. I was a little perplexed facing such a direct need that required instant assistance. I prayed a very simple prayer and laid hands on Jeff's head in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I did not feel anything special, I don't think Jeff felt anything special, but straight away he got up and made me a cup of coffee! And did go off to Australia for work the next day. Praise God!
This whole thing spoke to me of relying on the Holy Spirit and not what seems right and important to man. Around that time I believed the Lord also gave me a Scripture about not being worried about being sent to a people of strange or incomprehensible speech.
And truly ever since then whenever I have needed to communicate the gospel or make personal arrangements in cross cultural situations He has made this possible. Sometimes absolutely spectacularly by His Spirit as some of the following testimonies will show. I hope that this will be an encouragement to all who God calls to do any like thing. Ordinary people following an extraordinary God will see Him do wonderful things to help others!
My first real experience of God working things cross-culturally together like this in a Spanish situation was in 1988 while in California. The Lord Jesus had led four of us to the the United States for the express purpose of following His leading and doing what He wanted on a day by day basis.
We saw God do some wonderful things. At one point we needed to catch the train from the desert back into Los Angeles, and the only train for days was going to pass through a town called Indio near Palm Springs. We believed to stay in the Motel Six there as our Amtrak train would pass through during the small hours.
1 ¶ Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children
2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3 ¶ But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no-one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
7 Therefore do not be partners with them.
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light
9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)
10 and find out what pleases the Lord.
11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.
13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible,
14 for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,
16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,
20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
After checking our gear into the motel, we walked the town looking for something to eat. There was a very strong sense that the Holy Spirit wanted to take us to a specific place. As we walked we kept our hearts open to know where God wanted us. No one in town appeared to speak English - Spanish was the lingua franca.
As we went past one Canteena there was a man slouched in the front seat of a car - apparently dead! Eventually we came to a place on the far side of the town, and there was a strong sense that this was what God had planned.
Going into the take away/sitdown we could see that everything on the menu board was “chili con” — chili with ..!
We were baffled - from rudimentary French I was sure that one item might have meant something to do with a cow's stomach and chili! Then a quite finely spoken gentleman approached from the far side of the place and asked if he could help us order as we didn't seem to speak Spanish. We were very grateful and left it for him to choose the items that were less full of chili.
As we waited for our order, I went over and sat with the man who had helped us place it.
He was a blue eyed Mexican, and had excellent English. He explained that he was sick, and that this was the first time in nearly a fortnight that he had come from where he stayed to eat anything at all. And he didn't know why he had bothered as he was still very sick. In front of him was an uneaten meal.
The Lord Jesus inspired me to quickly start sharing with him as to the wonderful power of God to heal through His Son Jesus! As I did my eyes were open to see a darkness over the man. I started telling him of the power of God to defeat the Devil through what Jesus has done for us on the cross. He lightened up, and I offered to pray for him, but he said that as I had spoken he had felt the pain leave his stomach and he was feeling suddenly very well!
He lifted up his fork and started to eat gustily. I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in a lovely way. There was silence while he ate, then he asked,
“Is it right for a man to live and sleep with a woman who he is not married to?”I answered that his question showed that he already knew the answer to that. He acknowledged that it was so, and I reemphasised that it was not acceptable to God that we sin sexually.
He asked me more on how a man could walk right with God and we shared on the truth of walking with the Lord Jesus Christ as our God and Lord personally. He left saying he had a lot to think through.
The reasonably priced hotel God had blessed us to find on the Internet, was right in the middle of Mexico Cities historic district. Our nearest subway station was very close by, at Bellas Artes, Alameda.
We were immediately struck by the fact that this was all something very old. The USA had given us no sense of permanence, even New York CBD seemed younger than parts of Sydney Australia in feeling, but Mexico City historic district has that immediate sense of its full 500 years, and then more. Its founders the Aztec Nahuatl had built the original city 6,000 feet up on a lake under the leigh of old volcanos. With its canals, architecturally designed buildings and careful civil organisation, this beautiful city was likened by the Spanish to Venice in Italy.
In fact the Spanish could not believe that such an enormous metropolitan area with such incredible town planing and architectural assets could have been built by what they considered mere pagans. It so stupified their sensibilities that they couldn't cope with it and set about to replace it!
The Spanish destroyed a lot of it - especially anything they considered pagan. So all of the vast temple structures and many of the stone palaces were destroyed almost immediately. The canals filled and european style roadways were established.
So the Spanish brought their heritage — and that is fundamentally the Roman culture and a Latin language descendant. Daily I started to hear and read words that I had studied in college in Latin classes! Mexico City represented for us a taste of a whole vibrant civilisation that while having many points of contact, was in reality profoundly different from our own. A civilisation with two roots, both of which directly extended back thousands of years.
And with the Spanish one had come Roman Catholicism. Now often a strange syncratisticly mixed bag of the pagan beliefs it had originally set about to displace, and the more ritualistic forms of its own Roman origins.
Scripture portions in Central/South American Spanish were a great need! We had not been able to obtain a ready supply before we left the USA, and so we started praying fervently to be able to buy some somewhere.
Local book shops turned up needed maps and the like, but there did not seem to be any bible book shop in the whole area.
One day we believed to head out to look at the remains of an ancient municipal and temple area that the Spanish had destroyed. Even today the area is a major civic centre. We had been in Mexico a few days now, and slowly with the Lord's help we were learning a few of the needed phrases for daily necessities. But our Spanish was very poor. We paid for a license to video the temple area. As we wandered about the displays and walkways we were often wading through groups of secondary school students doing their assignments. Quite suddenly a number of them started trying to interview me. They were convinced by my looks that I was Portuguese and had found someone to talk to me in Portuguese! (This happened more than once in Central America.)
I could understand when they went back to Spanish that they were asking me what I thought of the ruins (it was a part of their assignment). In very broken Spanish I explained that it was spiritual (offerings of human sacrifices etc ...) but that it was not from the true God, through Jesus Christ the Lord. And their faces lit up as I said that!
They got a teacher and again later brought another student over who spoke English and we had a great sharing time. We toured and photographed the temple area and museum. There were some reconstructions that we were really spiritually alert to, especially one figure that turned out to be the demon/god of death!
When we left we passed through the main square where preparations for the celebration of Mexican Independence Day were in full swing with truck loads of soldiers, performers and everything you could imagine all over the place.
As we continued back to our hotel, we got to one corner, and I really strongly believed that the Holy Spirit was telling me to stop and look up along an avenue we were about to walk past. I could see nothing distinct just a leafy tree-lined street with a sort of pedestrian mall in the distance.
Michael and I prayed and believed that the Lord said to go along that way. We walked for a few blocks, and then entered the pedestrian area. And there in the middle of the pavement was a statue of a bible, and opposite it what translated as an Evangelical Methodist church!
The statue was written in Hebrew, Greek and Spanish and Nahuatl (the language of the Aztec Indian), and was obviously a memorial to the Bible Society in Mexico.
This was a real surprise to us both. We looked behind it to the Evangelical Methodist church which had an inscription on it as well saying that it has been standing there for well over a hundred years. In we went. It was Saturday and the place was buzzing with people. It was to turn out that they were having their celebrations for the Mexican Independence a week early as something else important to them was going to be on that weekend.
We indicated that we spoke English and asked about the Bible Society. We were asked to wait and someone who spoke English would come. Eventually a lady called Maria came down and she spoke beautiful English. She explained that the Bile Society had shared their building with them for a great many years but had now moved to its own place elsewhere. And asked what we needed. So we explained that we were looking for Scripture portions and Spanish New Testaments and would like to buy some.
Told to wait again, we watched as the various groups were making their preparations for the early Independence Celebration later that afternoon. Eventually a great guy, one of their preachers, came and we were led up a couple of flights of stairs to his office on one of the balconies overlooking the central building courtyard.
With Mary interpreting for us we talked with this man again explaining what we were looking for. He had people looking all over their large establishment, but they could not find any. Eventually some Mexican New Testaments were found in the Childrens' Department. And we were given a couple, for which they would accept no payment.
Their hospitality was flawless and we were asked to join with them for a meal later after the official speeches. We followed Maria and this gentleman out on to the main balcony, and people gathered on the other balconies and on the ground level below us. A band with trumpets and Mexican flags came and played and their senior preacher delivered a serious speech, I think on Mexican Freedom and like themes.
Then to the accompaniment of loud trumpet volleys, cheering, and Viva Mexico!(s), the colours were trooped, and the whole thing was over.
We all went up to the top floor for a smorgasboard type meal that was being run as a fundraiser.
There we met David, Mary's father, and her sister and husband Sergio (who - in 2009 - we are still corresponding with). David had some very insightful questions about the role of the Holy Spirit in personal prayer, and we shared from 1 Corinthians. Slowly we found ourselves drawn to Sergio and a Nigerian brother, Jarius, who was studying in Mexico. Jarius was a water baptised Holy Spirit filled believer, and Sergio has a real heart open to the things of the Lord. It was an amazing afternoon!
imageWe were invited to come back the next day, and so we did. We waited outside their church building at the end of their service the following day. Sergio spotted us and we spent time with their family and Jarius. Then Sergio suggested that we should all go for lunch at a place a couple of blocks away.
We were talking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit as we walked down the mall. Sergio was very interested in the expression of God's love when He heals people and does miracles. As we came near to the end of the mall, suddenly a Mexican young man called out to Sergio, and Sergio answered him and turning to us said, “I think that this is your department!“.
It turned out Sergio said, that the young man had been suddenly moved to ask for prayer for healing. I said that it was the Lord Jesus department, and encouraged us all to gather around this young man to pray for him in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The man had highly discoloured portions of grey flesh on his lower right leg, and said to us through Sergio that his family, thinking that he must have aids, had chucked him out. He was living on the streets. Jarius, Sergio, Michel and I prayed, and as well all did the Holy Spirit fell in a most beautiful way. The young man was very surprised as he could feel the love of Jesus so very strongly.
We all gave him money. Which may be all that he would have expected anyway Sergio told us later, but he got far more - the hand of God on him with a touch from the Lord Jesus Christ!
At the dinner table we continued talking from the incident about the working of the Holy Spirit amongst believers and how God wants to reach out to the people around us to show His love in great power, so that people's salvations might not be based on mere human reasoning and wisdom, but on the demonstration of God's great love through the Holy Spirit confirming the gospel message of Jesus great work in dying on the cross to take the judgement we deserve for our sins, and God raising Him bodily from the dead!
During lunch a few times the power suddenly cut out, the people would loudly cheer, and the staff would distribute more candles. Then when the power eventually came back on everyone cheered even more loudly. Apparently this is quite common. We asked for advice from our new friends on finding and catching the right bus to Guatemala City in the adjoining country. As we spoke and ate, David (who we had met the day before) Sergio's father-in-law rang. He had been unable to join us as he had a previous engagement. Sergio asked his advice as he recalled him having done the same trip some time before.
The next day (Monday) we went to find the Bible Society. With the help of our Christian friends and a Phone book, we located it on a map at between twenty and thirty minutes walking distance from our hotel. We wanted to buy Scripture portions and Spanish New Testaments. Afterwards we intended to take the subway to the Bus Terminal that David and Sergio had told us about for getting to Guatemala City so that we could check things out in advance, and buy our tickets.
Quite surprisingly there was no one at all who spoke English at the Bible Society - not a person that day!
We wandered around the quite large public area spotting the various things that looked like what we needed. We found all of the Gospel portions except the Gospel of John.
We obviously looked a bit puzzled at that point and a Spanish looking woman came around one of the stands and asked us in beautiful English if she could advise us? Her husband was a missionary to a southern part of Mexico and they were both born in different parts of South America but held USA citizenship. We explained what we were doing and she offered to help us. Explaining that her husband was out the back making arrangements for bulk purchases of some of the things that we were buying she offered to ask him if he could cut us in on the lower price.
We were very grateful to the Lord when her husband came round and told us what the deal was. He asked if we had found everything that we needed, and we said yes, everything but the gospels of John we were particularly after. With an absolutely straight face he told us that there were not any available in Mexico as they did not believe in the gospel of John!
The guy had a wonderful sense of humour and we all got on very well. He explained to us that the area they were in was very anti-Christian and steeped in traditional things. When the forced separation of church and state had happened in Mexico, even nuns in their district had martyred themselves in the fight rather than go along with the plan. These various martyrs were still highly venerated and gospel work was somehow basically seen as a personal attack on their memory.
The area was still very staunch and hard going for the gospel. Our friends had had to come up to Mexico City for their regular renewal of their missionary visas. Rather than drive all the way to Mexico City they had flown up on a same day trip, as the road journey was not worth making.
As we looked back on the help that the Lord gave us through this dear couple we were totally amazed at God's timing at getting us to the Bible Society on that very day, we would truly have been all at sea by our selves otherwise! Now equipped with gospel portions in Spanish and paradise leaflets and NTs in both Spanish and UK English, we looked forward to being able to put something in both tourists' and locals' hands for the Lord Jesus. (We were later to solve the mystery of the Bible Societies missing Gospels of John in a costal port city in Honduras.)
We were blessed to be able to see Jarius on the day we were to leave Mexico, but it was all too brief and we were not able to really pray with him. We entered the subway at Bellas Artes, and had to make two changes as I recall it to get to the Southern most bus terminal, "Port del Sud".
There we took the bus we had pre-booked and it spent some hour and a half or more going through the Mexico City traffic to get to one of the other main terminals. The Eastern Bus terminal turned out to be the main bus hub more like a very large series of international air terminals. It turned out that the bus station David sent us to, only had one bus going to the country of Guatemala, and by doing that he had spared us the confusion of the this small galaxy of bus terminals. We were very grateful to God for that mercy.
We traveled south out of Mexico City past volcanos, the various squatter settlements and into the grey mist that was falling with the sunset. On and on into the night at great speed, but only about fifteen feet visibility. The driver had a schedule to keep, we had to be at another terminal by 3.30am to meet with other buses for transfers. Pay the little bit extra to get this class of bus in Central America. They do not stop except in secure terminals - often gated with high protected walls. The only other stop we made was in a very isolated place and a "spare" driver emerged from a locker under the bus, where he had been resting before taking over the job of driving!
Dropping six thousand feet from the high central plateau we were headed for the eastern Pacific Ocean. Break feasting in the small hours in a secure terminal mini fortress, we were both a real talking point — not many whites, and fewer polynessian Samoans, make their way on that particular routing.
We made Tapatula City later than expected and had missed the early buses into Guatemala. Tapatula is a real border city far removed from centre of Mexican life. The people were very friendly and we holed up across the road from the bus terminal in a Canteena cafe to have lunch and start our wait for the 3pm service into Guatemala. It was strange to think that we were almost on the "other beach" thousands of miles from familiar coastal areas at the other end of the vast Pacific Ocean.
We were both pretty bushed after the all night journey.
Our next bus was late leaving as well, and took us to the little used border crossing known as the Talisman Bridge. The bridge straddles the border of Mexico and Guatemala, a steep mountain river that rumbles boulders down into the sands of the Pacific shore.
The driver had to drop us on the Mexican side of the border and going ahead, left us to make our own way across the relatively long bridge to the small town on the Guatemalan side, meet our immigration requirements and then find the bus again to continue our journey.
As we started walking across the bridge, a large mob of locals was forming up on the other side, and as we got to the half way point they literally lunged at us demanding passports, offering to exchange currencies. Nearly all of them were wearing official Government insignia, and sporting very official looking IDs. They immediately took Michael and I for "Gringos" meaning USA Americans.
And they wanted our American notes, but as you looked at the piles of money they were thrusting under our noses you saw that some was very very old, antique even, and in the middle of the four inch piles of notes, there were photocopied bills!
Suddenly the older lady and her husband who had been sitting across the aisle from me on the bus, protectively pushed in front of Michael and I and started fending these interlopers off, with loud taunts. The old “mother” screaming at them, "Criminales!! Criminales!!".
And so we inched our way through the mob, I was keeping my hands in my pockets to stop pick pockets, and somewhat apprehensively arrived on Guatemalan soil. Now we had to find the immigration and then try and find the bus again so that we could continue on ...
