From: “Mike Richardson”
Subject: And now for the rest of the story from Mexico-it is a good one!
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2010 20:44:15 -0500

Over the last few weeks I have thought a lot about Matthew 6:34. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow shall be anxious for its own things. Sufficient to the day is the evil of it.”

I have really tried to do what this verse teaches but the truth is that I have failed miserably. I have fretted and moaned to God about the road. I have done everything within my power to get the job done. But it was obvious that since the machines had not arrived by this morning, that it was going to be hard to open up our entrance before the conference. So we began to
follow through on our plans to cut trees and brush down across the neighbor’s property and access his driveway. While his drive has always been bad, it was not damaged by the rains and we felt like we could get out that way.

About 10:30 this morning a lone backhoe driver came up to the house and asked me what he was supposed to be doing. I showed him the worst spot on the road and left him to be doing the arduous task of digging it out completely so that the new pipe could be placed and then we would have to rebuild the area. I knew that this backhoe would be unable to complete the
job this week so I told my other workers to continue clearing the other “path” and then drove up to San Juan to see the man in charge of the work. On my way I passed another five pieces of heavy equipment that have been working on the roads.

When I arrived I talked to Javier a few minutes and then returned to the house. All six of the drivers had started working on our property! That’s right six machine working all at the same time. Two backhoes, a CAT Motor Grader, a large Compact Roller, a dump truck, and a truck to water the roads before the Compact Roller rolled over it.

They worked all day like busy little beavers building a dam. The dump truck brought 14 loads of fill. The back hoes were digging and moving the dirt, the CAT Motor Grader was scraping the driveway and the Compact Roller along with the water truck was giving me a smooth drive road. About an hour later the trailer showed up with the large pipes that we were planning to install.

While the tractors were all working the Engineer called me over to talk. First he told me that he would prefer to build a concrete pass for the water instead of installing the pipes that had been purchased. (That pipes were his ideas to begin with so I listened carefully to what he was saying.) He explained that the pipes could get stopped up with a tree or something large
that washed down. Then he went on to say that if we used the concrete that it would leave the hill a little bit steeper to drive up but that the water would just run on top of the concrete. That way almost all risk of future damage would be eliminated. In the end we decided on the concrete.

Then he went on to tell me that he had seen us on the television this morning. I am not sure if I mentioned this but about a week ago the large TV station in this area made their way to our house and interviewed Pam and me as well as a few of the kids. We were able to tell them why we lived in a place like this — to bring the hope of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. I went on to compliment the work that the Presidente and other government official were doing. I took the time to explain that even though they were not yet to our house that they were doing a very good job. I added that I appreciated that the Presidente was a man of honor and was administrating his area of responsibility well.

While I did not see it, the Engineer told me that all of that was on the television this morning at 7:00am — the gospel message, the reason we lived here and our appreciation for the work that the government was doing here. I wonder if you might be thinking what I thought. At 7:00am a news report was made on the TV about our situation and at 10:30 six large machines
showed up at our house.

More than anything I think:

God is good all the time.
All the time God is good.

The men worked all day. When they left at 6:00pm they were about 90% through with the work except for the concrete. They said that they would finish the tractor work in the morning and pour the concrete in a few weeks.

Oh, lest I forget, since we had started to open the other road by hand, they decided to give us a hand and do it with their machines. So now we have two driveways coming in and out of the property instead of one!

God is good all the time.
All the time God is good.

While we are very happy to have normal access restored, we must not forget that our house is in the middle of the canyon so about half of this valley is still without normal access. I will keep you informed as we continue to make progress.

In Christ,

Mike