“When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “‘If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”
~ Exodus 13:17
Hi James and Ellen,
Ask your dad what he remembers about the South America Mission summer team that was in Bolivia in 1981. There were a dozen or so college age guys and gals on the team plus a couple of South America Mission field team missionaries, your dad and Aunt Lynn. Your grandmaa and grandpaa led this summer team. What your grandpaa remembers the most about this summer team is the final leg of about a four week trip that this summer team took through eastern Bolivia to spend time with Christ-follower fellowships of guys, gals and kids that are affiliated with South America Mission. The last stretch of the trip that this summer team took through eastern Bolivia began in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez. When this summer team arrived in Concepción and because no one on the summer team had eaten chocolate for days, the team went on a chocolate hunt – going to the different kioskos or tiendas that were in Concepción hoping to find something chocolate to buy to eat. When it was time to leave Concepción for Santa Cruz – which is where your grandmaa and grandpaa were living and which is where South America Mission has their mission base, your grandpaa had to find transportation to get to Santa Cruz. It would take a couple of days to get from Concepción to Santa Cruz. After your grandpa asked around for someone with a truck who would be willing to take all the guys and gals who were on and who were traveling with this summer team from Concepción to Santa Cruz, he found a guy with a small truck who was planning to go to Santa Cruz. The small truck was about half filled with unshelled corn. There was also a medium size pig in the back of the small truck. There was enough room for the guys and gals on the summer team, the field team missionaries, your dad, Aunt Lynn, grandmaa and grandpaa to sit on top of the unshelled corn that was in the back of the small truck. There were issues with the small truck from the get-go. The truck’s spark plugs were not all firing. Once the driver of the small truck was able to fix what was wrong with the spark plugs, the truck ran fine. It was around midafternoon by the time that the small truck took off from Concepción for Santa Cruz. Your grandpaa remembers when it got dark listening to and watching one of the summer team guys pointing out different constellations to one of the summer team gals as they were lying on their backs next to each other on top of the unshelled corn on top of the gal’s open sleeping bag and under the guy’s open sleeping bag. The gal told your grandpa later that when it began raining that she did not have the heart to tell the guy who was pointing out the different constellations to her that her sleeping bag was waterproof and that his sleeping bag was not. It fortunately did not rain as hard as it sometimes does when a cold front moves into eastern Bolivia. The Rio Grande is a wide river that your grandpaa had to cross each time when he went back and forth from Santa Cruz to and from the rural resident Bible education and leadership training center that he and your grandmaa implemented in Concepción. Just as the small truck got to the Rio Grande – which was around midnight, a cold front also arrived. Because the guys who pulled vehicles using ropes across the Rio Grande in boats or barges thought that it was too dangerous with rain falling – which could make the fast moving water in the Rio Grande even more treacherous to cross, to load the truck onto a barge to pull it to the other side of the river in the middle of the night, the driver parked his truck next to the Rio Grande. Your grandpaa remembers another summer team gal getting out of the truck with her oversized air mattress and then after having your grandpa blow up her air mattress, sleeping under the truck. The gal told your grandpa the next morning that she woke up with a pig pulling on her air mattress. Another summer team guy developed a very painful boil on his tailbone at some point between the Rio Grande and Santa Cruz that made the rest of the trip to Santa Cruz a really miserable time for him. When the small truck finally arrived at the South America Mission mission base that is in Santa Cruz, the mission base’s gate was locked. Your grandpaa remembers one of the field team missionaries saying as she climbed as fast as she could over the locked gate – because she had to go to the bathroom so bad, ‘I will never ever go on another trip like this’.
If you know that a trip is going to be filled with all kinds of challenges, would you make the trip? Exodus 13 recounts God – as God the Father, leading the Israelite people group guys, gals and kids out of the country of Egypt in a cloud pillar during the day and in a fire pillar at night – taking them on a roundabout exodus to the land area that He was giving them to always have to live in as their very own land if . . . verse 17 says “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “‘If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”’ God – as God the Father, led the Israelite people group guys, gals and kids south along the west coast of the Sinai Peninsula – possibly going all the way to the north end of the Gulf of Suez, before He miraculously opened a path through the Red Sea allowing His specially chosen guys, gals and kids – the Israelite people group guys, gals and kids, to pass through the Red Sea into the Sinai desert.
Do you sense that God – as God the Father, is directing you through God – as God the Spirit? Do you sense that God – as God the Son, is right there going alongside you as you are being directed by God – as God the Father, through God – as God the Spirit? God – as God the Spirit, will direct you as you trust in God – as God the Father.
Exodus 13 (830)