Hello again,

Since another few weeks had gone by we just wanted to write you again with an interesting story of something that happened to Kim some time ago and a couple of important prayer requests related to things going on in our area.  We also wanted to send special greetings to all our Houstonian friends, who managed to survive hurricane Ike (praise God) and the not-so-small inconvenience of being without power for some weeks afterward! (We write this under the bold assumption that you all have electricity again…!)

We have also been following all of the news on the recent election, and we want you to know that our thoughts and prayers are with you. We’re glad to have finally found the time to write you again. Hope you enjoy this update!

Well this story is somewhat overdue, since it actually happened a couple of months ago, and we feel bad for not having shared it with you for various and sundry reasons, probably in part because we were too busy, and also because we were not sure if you’d actually believe that this happened.  We know we wouldn’t believe any of you if you tried to tell us something like this.  But since we’re not responsible for whether or not you believe us, all we can do is tell you what actually happened. So here goes.

Can you believe that such a winning smile could need dentist work?

To start with, we should probably tell you that about a year ago Kim went to the dentist, who informed her that she had something like 7 cavities, plus a bunch of really worn-out crowns, and that it would cost around five hundred dollars to fix her mouth.  Now that’s a pretty cheap bill by stateside standards, but even so Kim did not know where to come up with that kind of money, especially with all of the expenses coming up in the midst of construction.  So like any good missionary, she went to another dentist, who for five bucks told her to just keep on brushing.  According to the second guy, she didn’t absolutely have to do anything until the cavities started to hurt.  Now that sounded like a plan…!  Denial!!  So Kim went away from the second dentist quite happy and murmuring “In the name of Jesus, I do not have seven cavities or any problems with my teeth…!”  So great was her faith (denial?), in fact, that she forgot about all of her cavities entirely, and with the exception of a strict brushing regimen she hardly gave another thought to her mouth, which (she continues to claim) never hurt her or even caused her so much as a minor toothache.

Anyway, here our story jumps to about a year later, this past September, on an unusually rainy Sunday night.  Both Larry and Kim were tempted to just stay home that evening, but instead gave in to the funny feeling they had that they needed to go to a revival meeting which was being held that evening in the downtown part of Torreon.  The guy who was leading it is the type of guy that people here generally call an “evangelist,” not quite like the (weird?) TV evangelists that are sometimes seen in the states. But to be sure, this guy did have a reputation for being used by God in doing certain kinds of miracles - like cancer healings, and so forth.  So since we had actually seen this guy do one other meeting before, and he had struck us as being very down-to-earth, and not at all fake or “show off,” we decided to go downtown just to check out what was happening.

By the time we got there, there was quite a crowd and the “evangelist” was right in the middle of ministry time.  Kim felt lead to pray for a lady who was standing near the front, so she worked her way up towards the platform.  After having talked to and prayed for the woman, she continued hanging out near the platform just to watch what was going on.  When she saw that the lady she had prayed for was in line to receive ministry from the evangelist, she decided to stand next to her and continue talking with the woman while she was waiting in line. Just when Kim was ready to help her new friend up onto the platform, the evangelist turned around and in a booming voice ordered Kim to step up to the platform.

Now needless to say Kim was a bit taken aback, since she’d had no thoughts of actually going up there, and she tried to explain this to the evangelist, kindly offering to help the other woman up, but the guy just kept pointing at her and saying “No! You!“ until Kim finally found herself being “ushered” up to the platform.  Standing there, she realized she was in front of quite a crowd, and she was just beginning to wonder what was going to happen to her when she heard the evangelist say “This woman is not from here, and God is going to do this for her as a sign of His love, since she isn’t even from around here!” While the crowd was cheering, and Kim was left wondering what exactly “this” was, the evangelist touched her and she felt a sort of tingling sense in her neck.  Then she got rather dizzy and sort of fell backwards (you know, like they do on TV!), but she did not lose consciousness, and so the evangelist ordered for her to be stood back up.  When she was back on her feet again he promptly told her to open her mouth.

Still wondering what was going to happen to her, Kim did as the evangelist said and opened wide.  The next thing she knew, there was a big camera being pointed at the inside of her mouth (which means it will surely come out on the flyer for the next revival), and the evangelist was saying “God put gold in her mouth! God put gold in her mouth…!”

As the crowd went wild, Kim found herself being ushered quickly off of the platform, where she was met with a sizeable number of people wanting to take pictures of her mouth with their cell phones.  After having appeased all of these anxiously-waiting crowd members, she spent the rest of the evening praying for people and sort of dancing around to lively praise music (which is what you do at these sort of evangelistic campaigns), but since she herself could not see the inside of her mouth, she couldn’t help but wonder what had actually happened there - or if the people were just getting excited because they were seeing the crowns that she had already had since high school.

Finally, at about one in the morning Larry and Kim arrived home.  Kim, still nervous about seeing the inside of her mouth, decided to get totally ready for bed and then timidly peak in the mirror to see if she could see anything in the half-light of the bathroom.  When she did so she was met with the total surprise (‘O ye of little faith!’) of seeing several little shiny little cross-like fillings in her molars! And, as evidence that God had did something in her mouth that no dentist would ever do, she noted that her wisdom tooth on the back left side (which is the only wisdom tooth she has left) had been filled to overflowing with some shiny stuff dripping down over it!  Since no dentist would ever spend money on material to fill somebody’s wisdom tooth, but instead just happily charge them the labor to yank it out, Kim knew that this was unmistakable evidence that God had done something in her mouth that night.

The next day, Kim had a great time showing all of her friends, neighbors and construction workers her molars.  To be sure, she was met with some pretty funny looks as she tried to tell people what happened, but nobody could deny or explain the unusual filling on her wisdom tooth.

So what’s the moral of our story?  Certainly, we do still recommend brushing your teeth regularly.  And try not to eat sugary snacks between meals.  But if you ever doubt God’s love or provision for you, or if you’re told at some point that you need major dental work done, just come down to Mexico.  You never know what might happen.

Hi everyone,

1. Before you read this, sit down.

2. Don’t miss the pictures. (Though you might not open them in front of younger family members.)

3. Kim’s mom does not know about any of this yet, so please don’t mention any of this to her. We will eventually tell her about it, but we want to choose the right timing.

We just wanted to send off an emergency prayer request to you guys - We’ve decided to send a financial update this month instead of our regular newsletter, which should be on it’s way, but we did want to send this message off quick, since a few days ago something happened to us that was rather scary and we wanted to ask for your prayers.

What happened was that while we were driving home through one of the neighborhoods we minister in on Saturday night we suddenly saw a surprise, in the form of man with an automatic rifle, who had jumped out of the sidestreet and pointed his gun directly at us, about three feet away from our front windshield. Being the perceptive people that we are, we immediately understood that this guy was the type who is interested in making a real fashion statement, since he was dressed all in black, with a black cloth over his face. After getting a good look at us, and apparently realizing that we were not the person or persons he had been intending to point his rifle at ( !), he started motioning angrily for us to pull over, seeming to want us to get out of the truck. When he saw that we were too shocked, confused, and afraid to comply with his request, he and another man (similarly fashionably dressed) decided to approach the truck from either side, attempting to break the glass of the passenger side and driver’s side windows with the butts of their respective rifles. As we peeled off (since the first offender had courteously stepped out from in front of our vehicle), we heard several loud gunshots from behind (That would be “annoyingly loud,” to be accurate.)

As we ducked down and raced away from the sound of the gunshots the only place we could think to go to was to our friends house, who lived a few blocks away, and whom we had been originally going to visit. By the time we got there we could tell that thankfully the noise from the rifles had died down and that there was no evidence that the men had been following us. All the same, though, we jumped out of the truck and practically banged down the door of our friend, who happened to be just closing up his shop for the evening. He quickly tried to calm us down, and when we were sure that we were in no further immediate danger, he loaned us his phone to call 911 (actually “066″ - again, to be perfectly accurate) at which point the operator on the other line responded nonchalantly that she’d see what she could do about things. When we called once more half an hour later, to see if it might be safe for us to leave the neighborhood, she responded that the police units were still “on their way” and that it was not a good idea for us to go anywhere, since guerrilla warfare action between two warring drug lords who were fighting for control of the neighborhood was “at a climax” that evening. (Here you may refer to the ever-witty subtitle of our article… “Oh, that’s nice to hear!”)

A few minutes later the police secretary’s report was seconded by a guy on a bicycle, who, when we attempted to warn him not to go in the direction we had come from, told us that he himself had just heard a shooting a few blocks in the other direction … So since we were feeling quite tuckered out from our adventures for that evening we decided to spend the night there, where we got a (miraculous) two hours of sleep amidst the periodic shouts and cars racing furiously down the outside street.

The next morning we showered, and (since things appeared to have calmed down) groggily made our way to a ten-year anniversary event (of all things ! ) for our church, where (you can be sure) we did not miss any opportunity to talk with people about what had happened the night before. And as we discussed things, we learned that the area in which we minister is now being invaded by a coastal drug mafia (now challenging the formerly-dominant Juarez mafia) in response to a police crack-down they felt from the state of Durango, which happens to be the state we cross into to minister. What happened to us that night was that the coastal mafia was looking for a mid-level Juarez “pusher” in that neighborhood, and we just happened to be driving by in a truck very similar to his, neighbors say. Please pray for this man because later on that night they did actually find him and kidnap him. In hindsight we think the men who were looking for him had obviously mistaken us as being family members of his (it was dark, and it looked like we were driving his truck…). We suspect that when they detained us they were trying to kidnap us in order to obtain information on him.

Now with all that said, you might be asking yourself what our motive might be in sharing this, the latest of our adventures, with you. Could it be just a cruel attempt to make your blood pressure rise, or fall, (as the case may be)? No! The purpose of this email is none other than just to keep all you prayer warriors on your toes! That’s right! (You just knew you were doing something important up there on the other side of that border, didn’t you?)

No, seriously though, we don’t want this news to scare any of you or to scare any further groups from coming down, but we did feel it would be irresponsible not to tell you about these kinds of important changes in our ministry situation, since the neighborhood is just blocks away from our church and since in fact we have just started a home group there. Even before this incident we had started to see all sorts of interesting stuff there, like police convoys going in and out, and even a search inside our friend’s house in a scare about an alleged shooting, though we didn’t actually see or hear anything at that time. Anyway, though, apparently the fighting has broken out in full now, because we did in fact find two bullet holes in our truck the next day…

Our pickup

“It doesn’t look like a drug dealer’s truck, does it?” Oh, well. Anyway, does anybody want to buy a truck? We need to get at least three thousand dollars out of it to be able to buy another decent vehicle… (Alternatively, we could paint it a different color for around $400), but the real problem is that the windows are tinted glass, which is illegal here, but the tinting is not the peel off kind. We are currently looking in to having the glass in the windows changed…

Bullet Holes

From the position of these bullet holes , we can assume that the men were shooting at our tires in order to detain and possibly kidnap us. (You can see from the marks that these were not toy weapons they were shooting with.)

To see a few more photos, see the photo album of our recent adventure

Because of the way they were dressed and the particular drug dealer they were after, we can assume that these men were from the “Zeta” drug cartel faction. Apparently these guys are bona fide terrorists, recruited and trained from youth. The “Zeta” group is actually one of the groups that’s been causing trouble in Nuevo Laredo, and the ones thought to be responsible for the death of the N.L. police chief last year just hours after his inauguration. Recently the “Zetas” have been trying to get attention here in the Laguna because, as we mentioned above, the Durangan police have made them “mad.” (Here you may refer again to the subtitle of the article.)

Anyway, the reason we’re telling you all this is simply to emphasize that there is no explanation for how two highly trained gunmen could have missed taking out our tires with their automatic rifles from a mere three feet away. No explanation that is, other than the grace of God. It’s important to understand that the Zeta group takes no prisoners. The fact that they were trying to shoot at our tires that night does not mean that they were trying to avoid hurting us, but rather that they were trying to keep us alive long enough to get information about the person whose truck they thought we were driving. We tell you this not to scare you, but to honor and glorify God’s name, since we don’t know of any other precedents of people coming out of this type of encounter alive.

But God was with us that night, and we really want to give Him all the glory for His protection. Just the other day God had Kim turn in her Bible to Psalm 3 — She couldn’t remember exactly what the psalm said, until her eyes popped out as she read “But you are a shield about me oh Lord; / You bestow glory on me and lift up my head.” (v. 3) Psalm 10 is another really appropriate psalm.

So… Please pray. As we mentioned above we had already seen the signs that a situation was brewing here but did not know how to read them well enough. Apparently recently there have been quite a few people found dead, even decapitated, or missing, and there have been other sorts of threats like bomb scares and shootings, even in some of the nice residential neighborhoods. Many of the nightclubs here stayed closed last weekend and there has been talk of implementing martial law in some of the dangerous areas.

In response to this we have already adjusted our schedules, and (as we mentioned above) we’re currently working on trying to change the look of our truck in order to avoid any further “confusion” ( ) between us and the people who might be targets of drug terrorist groups. We feel that both of these things are pretty important factors, since most people say it’s still safe to be in conflict areas in the day and early evening, and that the drug cartels don’t typically target civilians, unless they’re relatives of drug cartel members or just happen to get caught in the crossfire.

Anyway, though, we do ask you and thank you for your continual and faithful prayers. Pray for the men who detained us, that God would touch their hearts. Pray for God to provide the finances for us to paint or sell the truck. Pray for the government here, which for the first time in Mexican history is refusing to bow down to the drug lords. And pray for us, since even now God is giving us the opportunity to minister to the families of people who are heavily involved in the drug movement.

Above all, praise God with us, who by means of this incident has clearly demonstrated that nothing can happen to us which doesn’t pass through His hand…

Love,

Larry and Kim

P.S. If you’d like to know more about the “Zetas,” here’s some info from Wikipedia: “Los Zetas”

Photos of the bullet holes in our pickup from when we were mistakenly stopped by members of the drug mafia. They confused our pickup with that of a drug pusher they were going to kidnap. We raced away and they shot at us, and by God’s amazing protection, only two bullets hit us, even though they were right next to us!

Click on a photo to view it larger, then you can scroll back and forth.

Bullet Holes