What a blessing it is to be able to receive food from Feed My Starving Children. This is such an extension to His ministry that allows us to reach further out and meet the physical needs of His people (Matthew 9:36).
One of the true blessings that God has done through this ministry is the partnerships and friends we have made along the way. One such friend is the Guillot family, who have been so encouraging through prayer and their friendship when things can get tiresome. My bro Jay Guillot was able to accompany me on this FMSC food delivery and supplied us with much needed physical and mental strength. We could not have done this with out him.
With the food delivered to Los Fresnos, TX, I headed out to Ponchatoula, LA to rendezvous with Jay. After a killer meal at their home we loaded up his chum and took off towards the food. Our agenda was to get to United in Christ Ministry to see Brothers Mark and Chacho. This is the spot that we always have the FMSC food delivered to. In this area we get food to two drug rehab centers, several feed houses and the fishing village of Mesquital. From there we load the rest of the food up and drive it four hours west up the border to Nuevo Laredo. We were blessed with 5 pallets of food which translates to about 35,000 meals. We loaded up two pallets for the ministry work in Matamoras and did what we always do, pray for safe delivery and safe passage through the border.
The border is a funny place. I have been crossing that border for eight years now and still do not understand how it works. The Mexicans do not even know how it works. They make up the rules daily and they seem to change them daily. This day would be no different. We have never had any problems with this particular border crossing but that would soon change. As we crossed over we were asked to pull over which is a normal request. They looked inside the van took the van keys and the game was on. They said come with us. I really do not know why or what the the hassle was all about only that they were very serious about what they were about to do. Chacho is Mexican and is a naturalized citizen of the USA. He speaks perfect Spanish and has been working this border for ten years. He also was totally confused. No one ever gave us any reason for what was going down. They confiscated the food, the van and shoes that were collected to give to children. We kept asking why and all they would say was we did not go through the proper procedures. When we asked what the proper procedures were they would only reply “we are only doing our job.”
We were detained for about eight hours with no clear reason why. We were basically arrested for bringing food to children in Mexico and they did not dig it. We were eventually given two choices, we could leave the food and the van and get out of the country or we could leave the food a pay a heavy fine for the van and leave the country. I asked about the food and they said the food would not be released back to us. I asked about the shoes and they said they would burn them because they did not want their people risking getting disease. These were 95% new shoes. Of course my diplomatic reply was, OK you do not want your people to risk getting some sort of foot infection but it is OK for your children to go without food. That would have made a great Master Card commercial because when that was translated to them they freaked out. It was priceless.
From that point we refused to talk to them anymore because they were basically ignorant to the true needs of their country. So we worked our way up the superior ladder only to find they were clueless also and they all practiced the same lines, “you did not follow proper procedures,” and “we are only doing our job.” We had to pay a fine to get the van back. They kept the food and the shoes and no one would or could ever give us the instructions for the “proper procedures “. We know God has a plan for this food and hope and pray that it finds the people who need it most. Trust me there is more to this story I just do not have the patience to type it all in. Call me and I can fill in the rest.
We did get the rest of the food delivered to Nuevo Laredo, where we should have been hassled because that is the place where we always seem to have trouble. Piece of cake. We got food to Casa Hogar Elim orphanage and to the feeding house out in the colonia where Mission Bautista Comino Nuevo Iglesia is. News spread quickly about our problem and a lot of people on both sides of the border are expressing their concerns. Praise God from whom all blessings flow even through the trials and tribulations from man we kept our groove on and never gave anyone any reason to think we anything other than a follower of Jesus and a child of God. God is good all the time. Amen. Thanks Jay for your perseverance and standing by me.
Kenny
GMSM