All Things for Good - Jeremiah Raab

Despite many setbacks, the 66 men, women, and children who took part in a recent Labor Day mission trip to Mexico kept their heads up high.
The travelers, led by Price Harris and sponsored by the Price Harris Evangelistic Association of Shreveport, were scheduled to leave Calvary at 4:00 p.m. on the Thursday before Labor Day, and head south to the Rio Grande Missionary Help in Laredo, Texas. They would then spend the next two days traveling across the border to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where they would evangelize to the Mexican people there face-to-face, and also through a block party that would be held on Saturday night.
But, seemingly as a taste of what would come, the first incident occurred. In the parking lot at Calvary, the buses waited for 30 minutes past departure time for a young woman to arrive. When she was finally contacted by phone, she told them that she had gotten mixed up and thought they were leaving Friday. She was in Monroe at the time so the group was forced to leave without her. Harris said she told him, “I guess I didn’t need to go on this trip.” Also, she would be the first of many that weekend to quote Romans 8:28.
Approximately 12 hours later, they arrived in Laredo, but their relief in finally getting there was short-lived. One of the buses ran out of gas just a few miles away from the RGMH. Thankfully, a gas station was in view, so the other bus pushed them to the station, where they filled up the empty gas tank. But since the bus had a diesel engine, it would not start immediately. Several men began to work on the engine, but 2 ½ hours later, it still would not crank. With the good bus, most of the people were taken to the RGMH where they finally got some much-needed rest. The several men that stayed behind were not as fortunate.
At noon, the group gathered their things and crossed the border into Nuevo Laredo. Their first stop of the day was an orphanage, hidden away in one of the local neighborhoods. It had a large fence surrounding it, which surely gave the children comfort. One of them, a small boy with his name, Gerrardo, painted on his shirt, kept saying “Thank you, thank you,” followed by a bow. He was a born entertainer.
After reigning them into a large room at the back of the complex, the group had a small service. They put on a puppet show, a message was preached, and songs were sung. One could hear the children’s voices echoing gospel songs from outside the gates.
The next stop was the neighborhood in which they would hold the block party the following evening. On this day, the group had planned to go door-to-door, handing out flyers explaining the time and location of the service. But on the way, another glitch came their way: rain. When they reached the neighborhood, a steady flow of water had already begun to run down the streets. The flyers would not go out that night.
By the next night, with rain still in the forecast, it was decided that the group would hold their block party at another Neuvo Laredo orphanage, the Casa Hogar Elim, which was run by a woman named Guadalupe Carmona. She started the CHE 23 years earlier, with some of her former inhabitants presently at the university-level. At this time, she had approximately 100 children living there.
“Our goal here is for every child that comes here to know the Lord Jesus Christ,” said Carmona.
The children were treated with candy, puppets, music, and the gospel. Carl Carrigan, president of N.I.T.O.E. ministries and a long-time participant of the Labor Day trip, taught the children about salvation using the same street evangelism techniques he has used all over the world; in places like New York City, the Phillipines, and Belize. Carlos Mesa, pastor of Calvary’s Spanish church in Shreveport, preached the gospel message to the children.
Several members of the group prayed and talked with particular individuals after the service, and it seemed that the block party had been well-received.
“Only heaven will reveal how many were saved as a result of the witness of the 66 people who lost a couple of night’s sleep to be missionaries for the weekend,” said Harris.
By the end of the weekend Romans 8:28 was being repeated constantly: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
During the Sunday morning service, right before the group left to go back home, Pastor Mesa told everyone not to expect things to go exactly the way they wanted them to go in life, because they would meet disappointment at every turn. But rather, he said, to trust the Lord and know that His way is best. It was something the group needed to hear on this trip, and even more so at that particular time: a couple of hours later they would be changing a flat tire in San Antonio.

(The Labor Day Mission planned by Price Harris Ministries is designed to give a fast, safe, and inexpensive look at another culture and the opportunity to be a witness.)