FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES!

We have friends in high places!  After much prayer, Lloyd and I took Gerardo and Miriam to the government offices in Rio Bravo with a letter of petition for a final solution to the flooding at the church in Nuevo Progreso.  The flooding is the result of someone illegally opening a valve at a lagoon and allowing blackwater to flow out onto neighboring fields.  Within minutes of presenting our petition, our letter was officially stamped with approval by the President.  We were instructed to present the letter to the delegada back in Nuevo Progreso.  We left that office with a feeling of victory.

Lloyd suggested a quick visit with an old friend while in Rio Bravo.  This friend (whose name is withheld for security reasons) owns a very successful and prosperous business.  We saw her often when we first started the work in Nuevo Progreso.  We were welcomed with open arms and were ushered into plush offices where we caught up on each other's news.  Our friend continues to help the poor, and has rooms full of medicines, blankets and equipment for distribution and for a future hospital.

She asked what brought us to Rio Bravo, so Gerardo explained our purpose and showed her the letter validated by the President.  Immediately this powerful and influential lady came to attention, picked up her phone and started making calls.  She summoned her own company engineer, giving him instructions to visit our church that day to see the problem.  Then while making notes for herself and giving us advice, she promised us two truckloads of caliche (Mexican gravel) at no charge to build up and strengthen the roads leading to the church!

Before leaving, we all joined hands and prayed together.  This devout Catholic friend emphasized that she is only concerned with working for the Lord and doesn't care about peoples' differences like the color of one's skin, their nationality or their religious affiliation.  Gerardo read us the following:  "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this.  To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."  James 1:27


Our drive back to Nuevo Progreso was full of encouragement, hope and victory!  When we have the Lord on our side, He will give us friends in high places!

When our business was finished, we stopped at a nursery outside Rio Bravo where we bought flowers to plant around the church.