My favorite World Race ministry is the ministry that happens unexpectedly.
Yesterday, I heard a rumor that a Taco run was starting to be organized, and so like a good little Elizabeth, I joined this movement.
We walked to the street to catch a Taxi, but there were too many of us to fit in one taxi, so we split up. My group was on the street the moment we heard the word “Taco”, the other group spent some extra time inside brushing their hair and flossing their teeth. Almost immediately, my group ended up catching a free ride on a school bus, but the downfall was we only had a one way ride. When we got to the Taco place, we realized that it was closed because it was Sunday. So standing on the side of the road, school bus long gone, we made the defeated decision to walk home. We were trying to call our friends, so that they wouldn’t waste Taxi money, but about the time someone was saying that “we can’t get a hold of them”, there smiling, naïve faces pulled up in a taxi. A couple of us decided that we were too hungry to walk, so we pulled the World Race clown car trick #289. We had( give or take a couple) five people in the front seat, and I was in someone’s lap in the back trying not to hit my head of the roof as we nose- dived into potholes/giant lakes.
We were all laughing as we were trying to close the door of the Taxi, when someone asked if there was another Taco place in town. I play translator, and ask the Taxi driver. He says yes, and he agrees to take us there. Then we started playing a fun game called “verbally harass the Taxi driver.” He seemed amused by this game, and answered all of our questions. Allison said, “Hey we should invite him to lunch” so I did, and he agreed to eat lunch with us. When we got to the Taco place, we realized that it didn’t sell Taco’s, but they did have some amazing lime chicken.
So we spent lunch hanging out with our taxi driver. It turns out that He is a believer. He was baptized only a year ago. He used to be an alcoholic, but the Lord has freed him. He works with the Gideon’s and was talking about all the bibles they get to pass out.
We told them about us, and who we were. He said that it was a blessing to get to meet us because he when sees foreigner in town, he wants to talk to them, but he can’t because He doesn’t speak any English. I told him that he was a blessing to us because we love getting to meet our brothers and sisters around the world.
After lunch, he gave us a tour around town. He took us to the pier, and he showed us where they catch turtles, he showed us his house, and where he and his wife work. When he finally took us home, we sat in the car and prayed for him before we exchanged phone numbers and got out.
The day turned out very different that I thought it would, but it is so amazing to me what God does when we get over our agenda and just roll with the punches.
Allison, me, Lauren, and Esther with our Taxi Driver Miguel Morales at the end of the pier. Casey took the picture.
