Passing It On

This day reminded us of every single person who has helped us through these journeys.

We always wanted to repay you and couldn't. Today we got a chance take some of the love you poured into us and pass it on.

Been a little bummed that we’re not walking more miles than we are. Today we were determined to do better. Got off to an early start; we were off and walking at 6:45am. It was a beautiful morning; cool and overcast. “God, if you can keep like this all day, I can walk 100 miles….welll, maybe 13.”

I was a mile and half into my journey when I spotted a vehicle on the side of the road. Couldn’t tell if it was a truck, van or car but the hood was up and the passenger side door was wide open. As I got closer, a gray haired Mexican man with a cowboy nodded to me and a younger fellow came out from around the back of the car. If he was surprised at my attire, he didn’t show it. I glanced at their plates and noticed they were from Michoacan (state southwest of Mexico City). Niko, his son Edwardo and his parents were headed to Iowa to attend his sister’s wedding. Niko speaks a little English since he works at the American Embassy but I speak no Spanish so I called in the calvary…Lucy! Yesterday we had no coverage from AT & T so it was amazing our cell phones worked.

I love to watch Lucy interpret. Many people can speak two languages but Lucy does both of hers with love. She has the gift of making everyone feel at ease. She found out that they had a fuel pump problem and that he could fix it if they had the part. We offered to take them back to Chanute and get the part.

Since Lucy was the only bilingual person she had to go with Niko & I to town and that left no one in the car that could speak English. We knew people would be stopping to see if they could help because that’s what Americans do. We also suspected they might encounter a state trooper or two, so we left them one of our ministry postcards and told them to have the officer call us if there were any questions.

About fifteen minutes later, the state police called Lucy and she explained the situation. The officer said, “Well I was just checking to see if they were all right. I didn’t know they were with you.” Lucy said she started to laugh and then just thanked him and said “God bless you.” He thanked her very much and she said he sounded like no one had ever told him that before.

On the way back, we met our 13^th police officer of our journey but this time it was because I was in a hurry to get Niko back to his family. I did a California roll through a Kansas stop sign. Doesn’t work. The officer came up and said, “I thought you were suppose to be walking.” He graciously gave me a warning and a brief lecture. He was right. I was wrong. What else can I say.

It took another sixteen mile trip back to Chanute to get a tool (and yes, I made sure I made a complete stop at every stop sign). Lucy assured Niko that we would not leave them until we were sure they were up and running. Let me tell you, where they broke down didn’t even have any cows around let alone people. Between the time it took to run back and forth, get the old part out and put the new part in, it was 5:30 in the evening. Lucy & I remained with our friends all day until Niko got the van running. Lucy suggested we could follow them for a bit to make sure they were alright but Niko assure her they would be fine. Finally it was time to say goodbye…we prayed with them, hugged, smiled and bid them farewell. Dios los bendiga, amigos!