Pastor's Blog

We left the border and decided to drive until we arrived at the mission house in Pastores.  This was before the days of GPS devices in the vehicles and we would struggle some (especially in Guatemala City) before finally arriving around 1:30AM (I think).

As we entered Guatemala, we had not traveled very far before we were stopped by two policemen at a check point.  They told us that we had to pay the tax on the vehicles.  I told them that we had already paid in full.  They had our papers in hand and guns in the holsters while demanding a fairly significant amount of money for a special tax.  Finally, I told the lead guy that we would give him Q100 ($12) total if he would give us the papers.  He agreed and we were on our way – glory to God!  The rest of the trip was uneventful except for a flat tire between Guatemala City and Antigua but it was in a good place and quickly changed out for the spare.

We slept a few hours and then had a morning devotion on the roof top.  We went into Antigua for some food and then everyone except Harold Morris went to visit Paul & Cristy Leytham and to see the farm (which is where the mission house would eventually be located but we did not have a clue at that time).  Harold would later tell me that he regretted not going with us but he stayed back to study his Sunday School lesson.

What we did not know on Thursday at the border was that 9/15 is Independence Day in Guatemala.  Had we waited to pay the taxes, that could not have been done until at least Monday, 9/18, which meant Larry Whitehurst, Gene Davis, and I would have had to stay in Guatemala as our passports were stamped as the owners of the vans.  (At least Gene could have cooked for us!) Don’t they say something about God taking care of old people and ???  At the time, I wasn’t old!  Just another example of God being our source!