We Met Angels In Mexico

History is replete with angels, or messengers of God, meeting people in a special hour of need, or to communicate a message from God. Since angels are often pictured as having wings, many assume that angels would not appear as human beings. One favorite program at our house is “Touched by an Angel” where the “angels” appear as normal human beings, almost. The real meaning of angel, is a messenger of good news. Thus they do not need wings to qualify as angels and such visitors appearing as humans should not be diminished in our minds one bit the fact of being real angels, sent by God.

Perhaps angels may have come to our help many times but were not recognized as such because of their human appearance. I have vivid memories of such occasions. Once we were traveling from Belize  to the U.S. through Mexico by bus, or so we intended. We were going to use our credit card for tickets and had no idea that it would take angels to get us through. In Chetumel, Mexico where we  wanted to get our tickets, we were informed they would not accept our credit card for payment. They told us we could use the ATM machine in the depot and get cash. But when we tried, we were told we had to give a pin number, which we had never heard of in the U.S. As we were frustrated over this and wondering how we would ever manage a trip, a young man approached us who spoke English. Yet he was Mexican where usually only Spanish is spoken. He explained we would have to call the central bus headquarters in Vera Cruz, half way through our intended travel in Mexico and get approval. We could get a ticket only that far and then we would have to get another ticket to take us to the U.S. Border. With the help of that youth we were able to get the approval to use our credit card. But what would happen in Vera Cruz, in the heart of Mexico?

When we came to that city, we went to the place where a phone call could be made to the local office. But explaining our situation to the desk was another matter. Had I just been able to explain in Spanish, “We need approval from the main office to use our credit card,” there may have been little problem. But we had no such ability to get the message through. Then, standing right behind us was a man who over heard our predicament totally, and told the clerk what we needed. He was then connected to the office and he spoke with them and in a few minutes were we were approved to use our credit card. But that was not the end of it. This “Man” took us to the ticket office to get our ticket for us, and steered us to the next window on the side where we were ticketed not on the regular bus which would have been an excellent bus compared to any bus we ever rode on in our own country, but rather on a super class bus we had never used- for only a little more cost. That man stayed with us until we had tickets in hand. When we asked him then how he spoke English, he gave us an answer of some  town we never had heard of and no clear answer as to why he would speak English. In Mexico we had hardly ever met anyone in all our travels who spoke more then a few word in English. In form, the man  disappeared after our needs were were taken care of.

One could write all this off as just a way God helped us in an unusual way in our desperation. But why should we not recognize this man as sent by God, whether in another task he may have had wings, or not even needed them to be a messenger of God? I remember Son Conrad relating of their traveling where the motor of their vehicle simply refused to run and he had no idea why not. There, at a toll road service station, he had raised the hood, when a man came and without saying much, tinkered with something and the motor functioned normally. The man walked off in the drive-parking space and when Conrad looked up, there was neither man or vehicle in the direction the man took off. I recall another time we took an old car to Belize for someone and in the morning after sleeping in the border town of Brownsville, the car would not start and I had no idea why not. Two men emerged from the hotel and seeing our plight came over and immediately knew what to do: take off the distributor cap and dry it out; and we were on our way.

In the same town on another trip with a Ford pick-up we had problems where a massive pool of oil  flooded under the vehicle as we had refueled for the Mexican road. We went up the border to a Ford garage where we had difficulty even getting the attention of the manager. When he was told our problem, he declared we needed major work on the engine which would take some days and cost us hundreds. We headed back to the Mennonite voluntary service unit where we had spent the night and they told us of a reliable small garage that could help us. This garage, however was very busy, but they directed us to a place not too far away where there was a small garage behind a car parts store. We went there and it seemed only a helper was there who spoke so little English we were not sure he understood what we needed. However, he took out of the car a small plastic item, called a PVC valve and directed us to the parts store up front where we then went and got it. We ended up paying $17.00 for the repair, whether that was for the part or the total work, I can't say. How did we find the right answer to our problem where the wrong answer could have cost us a hundred times the amount needed to do the job? Angels, a number of good news messengers sending us on our way to Belize with no further problems of oil spilling out.

I recall another trip where we were pulling a big trailer behind a car, probably the car that had stalled in Brownsville. We had made an unusual stop at a place for reasons I have no recollection, barely large enough to have a gas pump. As we were stopping there, a man pointed out that the lug nuts of the trailer were coming loose. The wheel was just at the point where traveling would soon have worn the  rim down where nuts no longer could have been tightened. We did what we needed to do, tightening them, probably thanking the informer, and sailed on toward Belize. Why did we stop there? Why was that bystander looking at our trailer wheel? What extreme inconvenience could it have been had we not met a messenger of God to help us along? We might never have reached Belize with that trailer and contents, unless we could have found another trailer in that stretch of the country.

How many other times God led us through that country where catastrophe could have happened! Like when we were stopped by a man in a plain car checking our vehicle for drugs. He had a portable red flashing light on his dash and poked a pistol in his pants as he walked up to our car. For days I did not know if he was for real or not. I had refused  to let him examine our Jeep until I had seen his ID badge again. Even then I took out the keys when I let him inside our truck,  looking for drugs. Or the time we were stopped at gun point by an army or police gang, and they siphon gas out of our tank while we waited the helplessly and protesting feebly. (We could have drive off, but they had guns!) In 7 trips through Mexico, we never had a serious hold up or delay of any kind even in traveling with used and older vehicles usually. God was always with us with his messengers of protection around us, both for the durability of the vehicle and our safety. I am reminded of the Psalmist's conviction, “A thousand shall at your right hand and ten thousand at your left, but it shall not come near to you.”