Tijuana Taxi Ride

No, it's not a metaphor. Katelynn, Emily, and I, "enjoyed" the adventure of a taxi ride across Tijuana, Mexico, last Saturday. And, no, it wasn't planned. The Bible study group that Janell and I attend organized a brief missions trip to a single moms' day care center in southern TJ. We collected toys and gifts to bring down for Christmas. One of the ladies in the group grew up in TJ and she did most of the talking for us, including reading a story. The plan was to walk across the border and have a bus drive us to the day care center. 45 minutes after the assigned meeting time, still no bus. Before I knew what was happening, our Spanish speaking guide had hailed 3 taxis and we were loading into the back of the small Toyota sedans. Our taxi had 6 people, not including the driver. There is nothing like a ride across TJ in a taxi to strengthen your prayer life. We had a few close calls and inumerable spine-compressing bumps along the way. But, we arrived at our destination in once piece. The girls enjoyed meeting the young children at the daycare (ages ranged from about 2 to 8), although they soon realized that language differences can be a real challenge in the mission field. We made a craft and decorated Christmas cookies with the kids. My girls were especially helpful with the latter.
The trip was a great introduction to missions work for the girls. They saw how God can work through difficulities to touch and change lives. We were relieved to finally walk back across the border shortly after sunset. (The day care center was able to drive us back to the border in their Suburban.) When we got home, Janell asked Katelynn what she thought of Tiajuana. "It's dirty!" was her reply. Hopefully the trip gave the girls a renewed sense of thankfulness as well.