BIBLES FOR SOLDIERS

Sugar cane wagons are heading for the fields early in the morning.

Early Sunday morning April 26, 2009, we drove away from a little settlement in Tabasco, Mexico where we'd spent the night with friends. Men and boys on bicycles looked hot and weary as they rode to the sugar cane fields where they worked. There were a lot of motorbikes on the narrow road, along with huge noisy tractors pulling as many as six large wagons for harvesting the sugar cane. It was business as usual in this agricultural area of Mexico.


Insects made shrill high pitched noises in some tall trees along the canal. A large green iguana slithered into the vegetation on the side of the road. This was a lush green and humid part of Mexico; producing bananas, pineapple and other exotic fruit.

We'd noticed a military camp near the area the day before and Lloyd felt strongly that we should offer to give the soldiers Spanish New Testaments. As soon as we turned onto the main road, we saw the concrete block walls surrounding the camp and we also saw gates with armed guards at their posts on each side. Lloyd drove the van right up to the barrier at the same time that the guard raised his weapon and questioned our presence there. The young men on either side of us were tense and alert.

Lloyd got out of the van and began to show them the New Testaments, asking if we could leave some of them for the soldiers. The two guards were surprised; it was evidently unusual for someone to approach their camp with such a request. While they tried to decide what to do, Lloyd handed them a box of New Testaments and they carried them into the nearest building.

We pulled away from the military camp feeling compassion for the fine young men who have left their homes to serve their country. And it felt good to know that the Word of God will go with them back to every corner of Mexico.

Friends we stayed with in Tabasco.  Left to right:  Moises, Maria and her mother, and Lloyd.  Maria is the mother of our dear friend Javier who was the former pastor of the church in Nuevo Progreso.