God Opens Doors

Today was one of those days when I realized that I am not in this mission thing alone, but that God’s angels are watching over me and putting me in the places I need to be.

I was up to my elbows in medical supplies as I inventoried the Hebron Foundation storage closet in the administration building of the bible school. I really needed another hour of sorting and cataloging before I started to enter the data into a spreadsheet that I could email to the medical team leaders. Pablo stuck his head in the door and said he had a project for me. He wanted me to accompany (read drive) him and an attorney to Comitan, a two hour drive one way.

I hesitated in my reply, because Ginny and I had talked about the danger of my getting caught up in the whirlwind that is Pablo Feliciano Cruz. Pablo is in on the go all the time and if I am to get my work done, then I need to decline these types of invitations because it would take my whole day. But something told me to say ok, so I did.

We left right away to pick up the attorney, a guy named Armando Nagon. He climbed into the back seat of the land cruiser and we headed down the narrow streets of Ocosingo.

First angel moment. Armando was asking me questions in Spanish and I was attempting to answer and not paying particular attention to the streets. There are no stop signs in Mexico, at least that I have seen, but directional arrows are painted on buildings at intersections in black or red. Black means you have the right of way, red means stop. Well I ran a stop sign and a taxi came within inches of running into us. I don’t think you could have fit a playing card between his bumper and my right front quarter panel.

I sheepishly pulled through the intersection followed by the taxi which pulled beside me and the driver starts chewing me out in Spanish. All I could say was perdon and lo ciento, pardon and I’m sorry. He and his wife were both complaining that their little girl had been thrown around in the back seat (another good case for car seats) and needed to go to the hospital. We followed them there, but they must have decided she was ok, because they just drove past and did not stop. So the first angle moment was that I didn’t kill someone in an accident in Ocosingo.

Second Angel Moment. The second angel moment was the rest of the day spent with Armando. In all my years of working in and raising money for nonprofit organizations, I learned and taught that success in this field requires that you must build relationships and/or tap into people that have them. When I came to Ocosingo I had several goals. Three of them were to transfer my membership from my Winston-Salem Rotary club to the club in Ocosingo; Explore and make funding requests from Mexican Foundations, and build relationships with officials in the local, state and national government.

Armando started the Rotary club in Ocosingo! He was very excited about me transferring my membership and my suggestion that we work on involving Rotary International in funding the clinic construction. He is calling a special meeting of the club to introduce me and discuss the project.

Armando has relationships with several of the largest foundations in Mexico City and agreed to “open the door” for me to make funding proposals for the clinic. It will require a trip to Mexico City, which will be pretty cool too. He also is very well connected in government circles and has the ear of the leading candidate for Governor of Chiapas. He also has relationships with the National government that we can use to smooth the way with local politicians. It seem that in Mexico, if someone at the top of government says they like an idea, it is harder for someone at the local level to disagree.

So today, I spent 7 hours with the most influential person I have met so far, planning and talking about various ways to help the people of Ocosingo and Chiapas. He’s a Presbyterian to boot, and he gave me a kilo of coffee! He has a coffee shop as a side business.

So the next time you hear that little voice that say “yes” when you are thinking “no”, take a chance. It may just lead to a God moment.