In the Spring of 1994, I was invited to teach at a Youth with a Mission discipleship school in a town called Tepic, in the state of Nayarit, Mexico. We were living by faith, so we never had an abundance of money, and when I teach in third-world countries, I usually do it without any expectation of pay. Sometimes they give me an offering, and sometimes they even pay all the expenses, but usually, that was not something I could count on. Instead, we had supporters in the US who believed in our ministry, and their monthly or one-time donations kept us afloat financially.
So when I received this invitation, I had to sit down and count the cost, see how much we had in the bank, and try to calculate what it would cost to make the trip. I looked at a map to calculate the distance (around 946 miles one-way), and calculated our fuel costs, based on our normal gas mileage and fuel prices in El Paso. Then I tried to anticipate any other costs we might incur. It seemed we had enough to make the trip, so we committed to do it. The leader there had told me on the phone that he didn’t have any money to pay, but I told him not to worry about that. God would provide.
My wife and I drove down in our Chevrolet Suburban, with all four of our kids aboard and a small camper trailer I’d converted for hauling our luggage in tow. Putting our luggage in the trailer made it possible for the kids to have more room in the back of our car. It took days to get to Tepic, and we stopped at several places along the way. We also had some unexpected adventures. While driving in the mountains in a place called “el espinazo del diablo” (the devils backbone), we were sideswiped by a pickup truck as we rounded a curve. I stopped along the side of the road, but the other driver never even paused. The trailer was damaged, but not seriously enough to hinder our trip.
What did hinder and surprise us was the cost of everything. Usually you think of things being cheaper south of the border, but that’s not always the case. The gasoline in Mexico cost quite a bit more than it had in Texas. Not only that, but many of the roads we had to take were toll roads, and we ended up shelling out a lot more money for those tolls than we had anticipated. By the time we got to Tepic, we really didn’t have enough money left to get back home!
Nevertheless, we pulled into the YWAM base in Tepic, a private house in the suburbs, and got ourselves settled in. The kids explored the house and found every fun or interesting nook and cranny. I met the students and staff, and the next day, began my week of teaching. Every day, the base leader would pick me up and take me to a separate facility in another part of town, where the classes were actually held. I would teach about 4 hours each day, with lunch right in the middle of that time, and then he would return me to the house where we stayed.
The first day, my wife Lynn asked me what we were going to do about our money situation. I said, “What do you mean?” She said, “Well, you know we don’t have enough money to get home now. Are you going to ask the leader to help with that?” I was very unhappy with her for saying this. “You know they don’t have any money. I agreed to come here, knowing they couldn’t pay us. How can I ask for an offering now?!” I was embarrassed at the prospect and generally displeased at the whole situation. I told her we would just have to trust the Lord to meet our needs. Now my wife is usually more spiritually-minded than I am, whereas I tend to be the cold, hard facts guy. But this time, she was the practical one. “What do you mean, trust the Lord? What are you thinking? We’re in Mexico, where nobody but this base leader knows us. Nobody’s going to send us money. Money’s not going to come out of the sky or something. You’re going to have to tell him we need help!”
“Look,” I said, “I just can’t do that. We’re going to have to pray and ask God to meet this need.” With that, I left her and went to teach my class. I taught Monday through Friday. But every day, we discussed this. Every day, she insisted I tell the leader our need. Every day, I said I couldn’t. Finally, our last day arrived. God had not provided any money during the week. Lynn and I talked, and she told me, “This is the last day. Today you’re going to have to tell him.” I was very unhappy about the way things had turned out. But I agreed. We were going to have to head back, and we didn’t have the money to make it. I’d simply have to ask the guy. Maybe God was working on my pride? “I’ll talk to him about it today,” I assured her sadly.
I figured I’d broach the subject as he was driving me to my class, but something had come up, so he sent another young man to pick me up and drive me. “Oh well,” I thought, “I’ll tell him at lunch.” Well, he didn’t show up for lunch. “I’ll tell him when he takes me home,” I thought.
After classes, he came to pick me up. We got in the car, and I set myself to broach the subject. “Listen brother,” I started, “there’s something I…” At that moment, he saw his pastor’s wife walking on the sidewalk. “That’s my pastor’s wife,” he interjected, “I’d better see if she needs a ride.” My appeal for cash would have to wait yet again.
We rode along, and he and the pastor’s wife talked about a variety of subjects. I was mostly silent. Finally, he got her to her destination and left her off. Should I tell him now? We talked about some other things as I got myself ready to make my appeal. But quicker than I’d realized, we were at the base, and I had to get out. Time was up! “Hey, um…” I started. But before I could say anything, he interrupted.
“Oh,” he said, “sorry to interrupt, but there’s something I need to tell you.” I looked at him, my eyebrows raised. “The other leaders and I met this morning, and we decided the Lord wanted us to give you an offering. It’s not much, but here it is. I know I told you we probably couldn’t pay, but we do have a little money, and we felt God would have us give you what we have.” With that, he handed me an envelope. I accepted it gratefully, and got out of the car without opening it. We said our good-byes and I came inside.
In the room with my wife, I told her what he’d said to me, and together, we opened the envelope. Inside were the equivalent of about $90 US in Mexican pesos. With that, we started home the next day.
Guess how much the tolls and gasoline cost us to get back to El Paso? About $88 dollars US! I remembered the scripture that says, “Before they call, I will answer them.” (Is. 65:24) God knew exactly how much we would need to get home, and He made sure we had it. His provision for us had indeed come, and I never had to tell anybody! I smiled as I realized, it had come, just in time! And you know, I think when it comes to God and His provision for us, “it always comes, just in time”!