Honduras and Nicaragua

We’ve made it down through the Mexican/American border, through major cities in Mexico, Guatemala (and the village where the woman and her husband were healed), El Salvador, and Honduras. The border to get into Honduras was rough. We stayed there over night after doing the run-around for about 4 hours, hopping from one “office” to the next, trying to get the big RV registered.

A select few of us stayed in a hotel right there at the border overnight so that we could finish the paperwork in the morning. After another cold-water bucket bath, Phil sat inside of his hotel reading the Bible while a few truckers chatted outside in line for the bathroom. It seemed like they were having fun, and Phil enjoyed hearing them laughing and joking in Spanish. But one of the other teammates informed Phil that the truckers were talking about how many prostitutes they had slept with on their trucking journey.

The recent memories of scantily clad women with umbrellas at a truck stop at three in the morning in Mexico, and a girl climbing into the passenger’s side of a semi-truck in Guatemala came rushing back to Phil’s mind. Sex trafficking has been traveling with us the whole time.

After our papers were settled by a hefty sum of money under the table, we were stopped three more times by random police blockades before we could reach the Nicaraguan border, probably because we were an American RV caravan. They nitpicked about things like not wearing shoes while we’re driving, and asked us for more money under the table. In some instances, even though we explained that our travels were to bring hope to Latin America, we had no choice but to pay the bribe.

We’ve made it into Nicaragua now as well, and it seems so much more civilized, even just a border away. The heat is penetrating, and the entire team is traveling with sweaty arms, necks, faces, and feet. The schedule for us is intense, and we have very little time in each city. Pray for us that we will soon have a great rest, and that God will regenerate us in this time of exhaustion.

The Healing of a Guatemalan

Guatemala - Mostly green mountainous jungles - is no place for a 1985 Cobra RV to be driving. We broke down next to a village of locals at the top of the steepest hills and decided to stay the night. Since the performers on the trip were going to miss their show in the next town, they did a show for the locals.

Afterward, the leader mentioned that we are followers of Jesus Christ, and people asked for prayer. We captured some amazing footage and ate another meal of beans and tortillas, then went on our way in the morning. By God's providence, we broke down again only two miles later.

Just a few minutes had gone by when a woman arrived from the village. She said that she was pursuing us because she wanted prayer. One of the men we prayed for the night before was her husband, and he was completely healed of some kind of liver problem. So she asked us to pray for her as well, because she was having intense pain in her stomach and her ovaries. She had no money and no access to a doctor, and after just a few minutes of intense prayer, she was healed. She was a member of the small church there in the village, and there's no doubt her faith, as well as ours, was increased.

We had all been discouraged that the RV was holding us back from doing our purpose on this trip - especially those of us who are researching sex trafficking. But God clearly showed us that He will do what He wants to do with us, and that we must simply always walk in the Spirit, desiring to please Him.

(Pictures above are from Mendosa, Mexico. Pictures of the above event to come SOON!)

Check out our facebook for status updates and more photos.

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El Paso, TX to Victoria, Mexico

Los Federales – the newly established federal enforcements assigned in Mexican cities to bring further justice to the overwhelming crime. Unfortunately these guys are another bad word from the classified opinions we’ve heard on our trip through Juarez and down to Chihuahua. Ironically crime has increased since the jet-black pickup trucks began to comb the streets. Sunglasses sit over their eyes and automatic rifles hang around their shoulders like satchels.

Fortunately we’re here with an organization that is spreading hope through the country – a movement to inspire people in their effort to stand strong in tough times. This alias slides us relatively easily through the borders and checkpoints scattered along the major highways throughout Mexico.

I say “relatively” because already our travels have not been without a dark night lit by spotlights and scattered with uniformed and armed military asking us to enter into their office before claiming a price of passage by threat of deportation. It wasn’t until after Diego explained that we didn’t have the money that his heart sank… The man in the uniform asked in Spanish, “How much do you have?” He was asking for a bribe. “I want to help you here.”

Diego whispered it to Rob and Brittany, who were also under an infraction for not having the right papers. They quickly agreed to give the man $100 and leave. As Diego opened the door to exit the dark office, he saw the man slide open an empty drawer by his desk, throw the money inside, and slam it shut.

Our travels continued through Chihuahua to Santillo to Victoria where we interviewed a number of NGOs, prostitutes, and church leaders so that we can find out exactly what sex trafficking looks like here in Latin America, and what it will take to fight back.

After interviewing a couple of locals in Victoria, asking simple questions like “when you hear the word, ‘abuse’ what comes to mind”, a woman came to us. She had been one of the first people we approached that night, She said that her brother was kidnapped for a ransom. She and her family couldn’t pay, so the felons killed him. And only a week ago her father was also kidnapped. Near tears, she told us that she felt the Lord tell her to call home on Sunday morning during church. She did, and her father answered. He had been released.

God brings these sorts of things to us. Indeed, God guides our travels and takes us wherever He wills. And it hasn't been easy. Our RV, a 1985 Cobra named Frida, hasn't been entirely faithful to us. Hours of our days have been in wait of Frida, sitting in the 90 degree heat on the side of the road in between cities. And yet God has shown us more than we could imagine. We are, as our production company name declares, walking IN DEPENDENCE. As Diego sat in the dark, protecting the RV and its contents as the rest of the team ate dinner nearby, he said, “I see now how it feels to actually rely on God.” As simple as it sounds, it’s hard to understand for most of us – being reliant on God means that we are reliant on nothing else, especially ourselves.

Pray for us that we will continue to walk in the Spirit, be it prophesy and spontaneous prayer, self-control and purity, wisdom and discernment. We lift you up to the Lord and ask that you, as we are learning on this difficult journey, would rely on the Lord in everything. Seek Christ in your prayers so that everything you do and say can be in Jesus’ name (as we have learned to say at the end of our prayers.)

And when you pray, intercede for us and seek answers. If you have a word from the Lord, shoot us an email.

info@volviendo.org

Verses that have surfaced during prayer time are these:

PSALM 9 – God’s good deeds, justice, and uprightness.
ROMANS 8:8 “Those who are in the flesh cannot pleae God.”
2 CORINTHIANS 2:14 “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.”

1 CORINTHIANS 15:50-58 – Mystery of imperishable bodies, and victory in Christ.