I left the house at 4:45 this morning. That gave me five minutes to make it across town and pick up Dan and Erin at their house to meet them at the appointed time. Making it that distance in five minutes is pretty much impossible. The car I was following through town pretty much couldn’t go fast enough for me.

However, being a few minutes late really wasn’t going to be a big deal. In fact, Dan knows me well enough to pretty much expect it. But, there was something bigger pushing me. Lightning was filling the sky. As the lightning bolts struck, they illumined the entire sky. It was not the kind of lightning that occurs in in big zig zag cracks through the sky but instead the kind that, for brief moments, turns the darkness into day, allowing you to see the entire sky.

And, when this lightning struck, I was treated to a view of some of this world’ ugliest. Dark menacing clouds came into view as the light illumined them.

I wanted to get to Dan and Erin’s before the rain hit. I knew that they would have bags to store away in the back of my car. I was going to feel pretty stupid if I arrived in the middle of a downpour when, if I’d been there on time, all would have been dry and clear. As it turned out, I arrived just as a few huge drops were starting to fall. We got a little damp carrying their bags out but it could have been much worse.

So we drove on to the airport. We went through a shower but all was well.

At the airport, we met the rest of our group – Lisa H, Beth, Pam, Ed, and Seth. We all pretty much arrived at the same time. We got checked in without incident. Well, I take that back. Ed was detained a few minutes at security. (They undoubtedly were profiling people because he does look a little suspicious, don’t you think?)

Once we got back to the gate, we sat down to wait for our flight. It was still dark out but, as we sat there, the sun began to come up. We could not miss a beautiful red-orange sunrise cutting through the dark clouds. We could see it out a window where Lisa was sitting talking on her phone, silhouetted by this beautiful backdrop. (Giving last minute instructions to Chris I hope!) As the light outside entirely overtook the darkness, the world was made right.

(Lisa later told me that this was the first time she remembered going on a major trip without Chris in a long time. She is doing just fine. And I think that secretly she wants to kick up her heels and shout "Wow! For once that preacher man isn't following me around!" Heehee)

As I write this, we’re on the second leg of our journey, flying from Chicago to San Diego. During our layover in Chicago, we all seemed to gradually awaken to the bright day and to the reality of the next several days that lie ahead of us.

God treated us to quite a show this morning with the light taking over the darkness, initially in bursts but later in a glorious sunrise. We do not mean to be preupmtuous but we know God’s power is strong. If He can, in any way, use us to bring bursts of hope and light to the darkness of the sex trade and human enslavement … if we can bring encouragement to those we meet who are already fighting this darkness … if He can develop a plan that we can be a part of to eventually bring a beautiful sunrise on this situation in Tijuana … well, we want to be those vessels.

Thank you, God, for your power, for your light, and for your burden to make that light overtake the darkness.