When I went to talk to David it was with resignation. It was the acceptance a piece of driftwood feels when half lodged in the sand, each successive wave makes its relentless blow.

The fridge was out. Again.

For about a year the best it could do was for the freezer to act as a fridge and the fridge to act as a cooler, then every few weeks either the compressor or the temperature gauge or the motherboard or something else would go and we’d be be scrambling for a refrigeration technician to have a free spot for us.

This time, none of our regulars were available. So, through the grapevine, we got in touch with one from a town a half hour away. He came and did a great job fixing the fridge. As he waited for ice to melt in the back, he started looking around and noticed verses hanging on the wall in English. He knew enough to read and generally understand them, which prompted a conversation between he and David about salvation. He said he was a believer but as he left he said, “You’ve left me very thoughtful and with a lot to ponder.”

A few weeks later, my washing machine quit draining. We called him again and he came. Once again, the conversation turned quickly to salvation and baptism, works and tithing.

Then the fridge gave out again.

The possibilities of a study in their home came up, but with no definite plan.

A couple days later, the washing machine deprogrammed and refused to respond to any amount of frantic button pressing. He came once more, worked hard at it and magically got it back in working order.

As he was finishing up and the conversation invariably, by now, had turned to him asking David all his theological questions, he brought up the studies in their home. And so it was agreed. Sunday at 5 pm.

They live in a town about 35 minutes away from us. Atasta: the town of 50 speed bumps, squeezed in between mangroves and two large lagoons, its homes precariously dangling over the water on one side and crashing into the Interstate highway on the other.

We’ve driven through Atasta for the last 15 years, knowing a few people with connections in either Carmen or Emiliano Zapata. We’ve delivered literature there yet never was there an opening in the gospel.

For the last several months we have been in a waiting stage, ready to start a new work but with no contacts or invitations. We had considered moving to a city 4 hours away, had thought of working in another area of Carmen, had decided to just start visiting homes one at a time in the next town (Nuevo Progreso) just looking for someone who was interested in the true gospel.

But the Lord decided to use my fridge and my washing machine instead.

I wish I could fully express this here, yet I feel words fail to capture the deep emotions those few unpoetic words mean.

It is over 100 degrees outside, inside about 95. Our electricity is awful. Existing is almost all we can bear. And then my fridge goes out. Then the washing machine. With all the heat and sweating, those are the two appliances I most need. Cold drinks and lots of fresh clothes. And one after another (with the water pump in between) they give out.

In my weariness and weakness, my heart cried out to our Heavenly Father, “Oh, why? I am barely hanging on, barely functioning. Why did you allow the electricity to take all three this week?”

When David got home from his first study with him, then I knew. The Lord had to bring him across our path, had to expose him to us several times. This man has been through the religious mill, has been hurt and defrauded and deluded again and again. Trust had to be built, even over the back of a hot fridge.

They invited our whole family for delicious fried fish yesterday. The kids played soccer and fished around in the canal in the back that borders the mangroves, while I watched them and looked out for alligators.

He has asked for the studies to be every Sunday and Thursday. David has finished several studies on justification and is now commencing a new series. Please pray for this family, that the Lord would clear the cobwebs of religious confusion from the hearts, that the light of the true gospel would reach each member of the family and that the Lord in His mercy would allow some day a New Testament local church to be established in Atasta for His honor and glory.

Since then we were able to get volt regulators installed for the whole house which has helped lots with the electrical issues. But God didn’t allow us to get them until R….. had been reached. He closed every other door, allowing us to suffer discomfort and stress and frustration because His ways and thoughts are so far above our own.

I am glad now my fridge gave out so often. I am glad my washing machine failed.

I am glad because those few days of mine are nothing compared to their eternity.