The Lord our Shield

Psalm 115:11 Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.

As most people who follow the news are probably aware of, Mexico is suffering a wave of drug related violence that has resulted in the death of thousands of people. You can Google “Mexico drug deaths” and catch up on the latest news. As the Mexican army has been cracking down on the drug cartels, the violence has increased dramatically. Police, rival drug gangs and soldiers are all fair targets. During this phase, the drug cartels have diversified their tactics. Recently the Mexican nave seized a submarine loaded with cocaine (click here fore the full story). Another tactic they have begun using is kidnapping. Thousands of kidnappings have taken place. Many of them are high profile (like the coach of one of the professional soccer teams). Most of the murders and kidnappings only affect people that are either in the drug world, fighting the drug world or are extremely rich. That means that until now, we have not felt in sort of danger or threat. However, the result of the inability of the police to do anything about the high profile kidnappings has resulted in a wave of small-time kidnappings all around Mexico.

This has become a matter of concern for us here in Monterrey. Just a few weeks ago, the cousin of one of our staff members was kidnapped. After beating him and using the contacts in his cell phone, they kidnapped about 5 more of his family members and co-workers. Several days later they were released after their families and businesses had paid a significant ransom. During the time there were there, several police men came by to talk to the kidnappers to make sure everything was ok.

Just a few days ago, one of our graduates and staff members was driving a van he wanted to sell. A man approached him and asked if he could test drive it. The man drove the van to a shop, supposedly to have a friend look at it. When they arrived at the shop, two men came out with guns and knives. After tying up and beating him and the teenager that was with him (the son of another staff member), they forced him to write a check. They went to the bank and cleared out his checking account. For about three hours they held them, attempting to get more money out of them. Finally convinced that they didn’t have any more money, they released them, taking a new laptop that Luis had recently bought. Thankfully and surprisingly, they didn’t steal the van as well.

These “express kidnappings” do present a real threat to the average person here in Monterrey at this time. Since most people will not report these kinds of incidents to the police (because they fear revenge and because the police may be involved), the likelihood of these men getting caught is almost non-existent. My current opinion is that they are still not brave enough to kidnap Americans. It is too high profile. They are primarily interested in quick, low-risk kidnappings. However, this could change. Please pray for safety (for us and the believers) here in Monterrey and in other areas of Mexico.

The following is quoted from an article on BBC’s website:

“Whereas the 2,000 or so drug-related murders this year do not generally raise much concern among the public, kidnappings do. And not just high-profile ones either. Many people here can relate their own experiences of something that has been called "express" kidnappings. These are the opportunistic random abductions from the street, where people are driven or frogmarched to cash machines and forced to empty their accounts.”

Even in these situations, we see the Lord’s protection. He is our shield. He is still in control. The Lord demonstrated that in several ways during the van incident I related earlier. Apart from a few bruises, they were not seriously harmed. The van was not stolen. The kidnappers heard the Gospel clearly presented on several occasions during the three hours. Another exciting thing is to see how the teen has responded to this situation. The Lord seems to really be using it in his life.

Ultimately we know that our fate is not in the hands of violent criminals or drug lords. We are shielded by the Lord.

Psalm 33:20 Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.

Psalm 5:12 For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.

Home at last

We have been home now for about two weeks. We are grateful for the protection the Lord gave us during our time away. We traveled about 9,037 miles during our time away. Our van did wonderfully, and, as we explained before, the Lord provided in a marvelous way for our financial needs. Thank you for praying for us.

We are busily preparing for the next school year. Because of government regulations (changes they have made in our calendar year), we are starting our school year in three different waves this year. The first wave (a small group) begins classes on August 18^th (these are the students that are still in the semester program). The next wave comes in on August 25^th. Those would be the Pastoral Theology and Church Music students. Finally, the largest group of students will arrive on September 8^th (the trimester students). We will be having in-service the week before that. We also will be having some strategic planning meetings with our key personnel on August 28-29. Pray for our students and staff this year. Many of our students and staff will be having year-around school. This is because of what the government has done. Pray that we will have wisdom and strength to last!

Yesterday we started a three-day VBS at our mission. We had a good turnout (approximately 60 kids). We were really excited about how the Lord controlled the weather for us. Without explaining all the meteorological conditions of Monterrey, let’s just say that it should have been raining where we were. But the Lord held it off until right at the end (and even then it didn’t rain hard). At one point, it was raining on the front of the property (where we have a tin roof) where one class was going on, but was not raining on the other side of the house (where there is no roof). This lasted for about 15 minutes or so. Right when the teacher finished the lesson it finally started raining in the back! Only the Lord could do that. He manifests His greatness in so many ways