Ben and Sue Day 46

Monday, October 22, 2007 Day 46

I'm writing this evening sitting at a picnic table at the KOA campground overlooking Las Crucs New Mexico.  It is SO beautiful here -- sun still fairly high in  the sky (4pm), yet I'm staring right at the moon.  It is very peaceful and quiet here and huge cacti are growing just a couple of feet away -- some are 4 -- 5 feet high and their thorns really hurt -- some being 2 -- 3 inches long.

Just about the time I think I can't sit in the truck and drive one more mile and I'm thoroughly bored -- God bring along a day like  today.  Woweeeee! We started out with breakfast with Ian and is lovely wife Christina -- good food, good conversation, good fun.  After breakfast Christina showed me how to put pictures in my daily E-mails (there is GREAT hope yet, Mary !) for which I was so excited and happy.  Ian helped Ben patch up  the broken window.

Then we headed west from Van Horn intending  to make our way to the Grand Canyon.  We were SO close to the Mexican border -- especially in El Paso that we decided to switch things around a bit and go to Mexico rather than continuing on the the Grand Canyon.  You can only do this kind of thing if your children are happily married (you are happily married aren't  you Benjamin and Kat?) and you have time and money (have to save for a long time though.)  So all you Moms who think you'll never be able to have things your own way -- just keep on doing  the great job you are doing and one day before you know it you'll be able to go on the exact vacation you want.

Okay. . . So. . . where was I?  Oh yes -- Mexico.  We drove around El Paso for the longest time looking for a place to park our truck and  trailer but had no success.  We were close enough to the border to simply walk across.  There were lots of parking garages in El Paso -- we could have parked and walked or taken the trolly bus.  But no parking places would accomodate our truck and trailer.  We asked and asked to no avail.  Quite disappointed we headed back to Interstate 10 and continued on our way.  But really neither of us were very happy to have been so close but not able to cross the border.  So we decided instead to drive to LaCruces (about an hour west) -- stop here for this evening and drive back to Mexico tomorrow without the trailer. 

Thank you so so much for praying for us.  Today on the freeway a driver just in front of us lost a big yellow ladder.  Ben saw it and had no choice but to swerve quite a lot to the left to avoid hitting it.  Praise the Lord that the driver to the left but a bit ahead of us sped up, and the driver to the left but a bit behind us slowed down a good bit and Ben was  able to avoid hitting either of them.  Could have been a nasty accident.  Thank you Jesus!  Thank you Ben for being such an awesome driver!

I have been thinking about illegal immigration so much  these past days as I stare at these mountains and desert between the United States and Mexico.  I am sure I would fail as a border guard because instead of making people go back to the miserable/wretched poverty in Mexico I am sure I would be trying to help them find safe haven in America.   Being here and seeing what I now have seen for days crossing Texas and New Mexico -- I cannot shake the thought of poor illegal immigrants risking their lives, walking so many miles often without sufficient food or water to try to begin a fresh ew life in a country they have always only dreamed of.  

One thing this trip has done for me is open my eyes to the rest of the United States.  In my sheltered little life in Sultan Washington I seldom have reason to think hard about illegal immigrants, about desperate poverty and hopelessness in Baltimore Maryland, about so many who lost their homes and families during Katrina and are still unable to rebuild.  You know how it is -- a certain hot topic hits the front pages of the newspaper and it's all  the talk about town for a few days or a few weeks.  Then it fades and another hot topic takes its place.  But now it is so much more than mere front page news to me.  I have been so many places and talked to so many people that my whole world has been so enlarged -- my understanding expanded -- my biases and prejudices questioned.  It has been unbelievably magnificant and I. am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for allowing  such an awesome trip!