Tijuana Angel

For he will command his angels concerning you

to guard you in all your ways  

Psalm 91:11

 

 

    

The sun set as we drove the highway towards Tijuana in the pelting rain. We squinted to look for the turnoff sign for the border crossing. As I looked and looked I felt like I was supposed to pray for an angel to be standing right at our turnoff to show us the way. That seemed a bit odd but I prayed for an angel and kept looking for the tiny sign. You see Baja is at it's best of third world charm when it comes to roadsigns. Sometimes you will be looking for a street only to find that a new and different sign has been posted inches in front of it, the sign has fallen down or is just plain gone. So search we did for that one little sign.
      Tijuana has had it's share of trouble right now. We had thought we would get there before sunset but torretial, flash-flood rains had changed that plan. Our choices at this point were to camp near Tijuana (which we had read was not very safe) or to push on through to the border, so on we went.
       The first sign indeed was missing but at the last second we saw a sign further off the road that said San Diego. As we turned off the higway onto the dark and narrow streets Georgia said, "Ew...what's that smell?"  The rains were quickly flooding the Tijuana streets and we could smell raw sewage as it washed down from the hills and pooled in the intersections. We needed to find the border fast if we were going to get out. So we prayed and slowly drove down those now deep dark streets praying again for roadsigns where we needed them.
    I wondered about the angel as we gunned our minivan through one intersection almost as deep as my window, and then we saw another sign for San Diego! So we followed the sign, breathing a sigh of relief thinking we had made it safely to the bright lights of the border, only to realize that we were in the wrong lane. A big cement divider was stuck in the way....we were at the border but now our lane was turning away.
     We knew this was not good, it meant trying to find our way through darkened Tijuana at night with roads that were flooding and closing fast. Again we prayed and searched for roadsigns. We looped around, me frantically looking at maps and Doug looking for street signs. Frustrated, we sat at a red light watching the water pool up in front of us when all of a sudden, there was a rapping on Doug's window!
      A Hispanic man dressed in dingy white and holding newspapers was looking in at us. I thought for sure he wanted to sell us something and my heart raced with fear as Doug rolled down his window. The man looked at us and in English said, "You looking for the border? Turn left now!" The light turned green and we quickly switched lanes while yelling, "gracias!" out the window. Sure enough in another minute we were sitting in the correct lane safely under the bright lights of the border crossing.
        I have so many stories to tell and am editing pictures today but this is the one I woke up thinking about...God cares so much more deeply for every tiny turn in our lives than we could ever imagine. I cannot wait to listen for what He has next!