I went to Gabriel House on Tuesday for a quick drop off - Jan and I loaded up the van with TONS of diapers that a guy has been storing for us since we don't have much room at the office.
We were praying soooo hard - it's always difficult to get stuff like this across the border, especially in large quantities. We've heard terrible stories of people getting sent back, their stuff being seized, huge import fees charged...and we just really didn't want any of that to happen, obviously!
We crossed and were waiting to be inspected, but our guy was "having breakfast." I asked how long his breakfast was and a border official goes, "Oh, something like 15 minutes or so." I immediately knew we were in trouble. Jan and I sat down, getting comfortable since we knew we were in for a long wait. A different border official started talking to us, asking what we were doing and stuff, and then asked if my eyes were really that blue. He was sure I was wearing contacts, so I showed him how if I move my contact around in my eye, the color doesn't change...and then I asked if he was the one who was going to inspect our car. He said no, but grabbed someone who was walking by, obviously headed somewhere else. He inspected our car, charged us less than $30, and we were on our merry way!
Moral of the story: thanks for the eyes, Mom and Dad!
As Jan and I left Gabriel House, we left with heavy hearts, which happens often. Gabriel House is an amazing place and so much is happening with those wonderful kids. But there's always more to be done - more that we'll never be able to do. It's hard to balance all that sometimes, and discern what to tackle and what to leave alone. Anyways, as we were driving back and processing that, Jan's sister calls. She had spoken to her church a few months ago about Mexican Medical and briefly mentioned Gabriel House. That morning, she ran into someone from the missions board who told her they were so excited to partner with Gabriel House - they had already sent a check, were putting out boxes to collect items from our Christmas list, and want to partner with us by sending teams several times a year.
Here's the thing. God could have waited. That random encounter could have happened next week. Jan's sister could have waited to tell us what happened. But no.
In the very moment that we were struggling, God met us there. And he told us, yet again, that he's got this. And he always will.
