We always found it crucial to receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit in all our missionary work including on what day to cross the border into Mexico since it was not always easy to obtain a six month permit from the customs officers without giving them a monetary gift. (That has changed now and people pay a legal entrance fee for their vehicle with a credit card.) At that time the Holy Spirit said, “Leave Thursday morning.” Yet I was so captivated by the teaching of Kenneth Hagin’s satellite seminar at a nearby church, I began to justify myself by saying, “I’ll stay just one day longer,” knowing full well that prayer, the guidance of the Holy Spirit and our service to God the Father have no value in his sight if not accompanied by explicit obedience to his Holy Spirit. (To obey is better than sacrifice. L Samuel 15:22)

The problem started Friday morning at the border where a swaggering customs officer exercised his authority by demanding I take every thing out of the tightly packed car for inspection. It took a long time and I became very impatient with his very unusual procedure. Finally we were able to leave but it was only the beginning of the trouble that lay ahead. About three hundred miles down the road, we incurred rare strong head winds and something snapped in the transmission which slowed down our speed considerably. The Chrysler dealer mechanic in Matehuala couldn’t make things improve the next morning so we had no choice but to proceed on wings of prayer and we made it to Queretaro, Qro to Avenida 57, although we had to push the car the last 20 yards through the gate. The final outcome was a broken down transmission with no parts available in Mexico.

The following week Joanne and I said goodbye to each other and evangelist-pastor Alberto Gonzalez towed the car back to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Harold, the missionary mechanic at Mechanical Excellence, told me that I needed at least six hundred dollars in advance to purchase another transmission. When I told him I only had five dollars to my name, he replied, “The Lord will supply. I’ll go ahead and order one.” To which I agreed. Now it was time for “waiting on the Lord” and I spent a lot of time in prayer in the prophet’s room. One morning the phone rang and a man’s voice asked to speak with Joe. When I told him that Joe was on a service call in Corpus Christi, he asked to speak with Bonnie. “Sorry, but Bonnie is in Dallas,” I replied. Then he proceeded to tell me that he and his wife had just returned from a journey through Europe and they had visited his forefather’s town, Vlijmen in the Netherlands for where Baron Van Vlijmen had to flee during the Spanish Inquisition to the U.S.A. He added, “Now my wife and I are sick in bed from all that traveling.”

The Lord quickened in my heart to say, “That is no problem for the Lord Jesus. He is the healer. Can I pray with you and your wife for your healing?”

He gave his consent and I just prayed a short prayer of faith for them and said goodbye. A few days later he called back and asked Joe, “Who is the man in your house who prayed with me when the Lord healed us.”

When Joe told his dad why I was there he said, “Write a check for one thousand dollars to Albert and I will reimburse you.” Two days later I returned to Queretaro and made the journey back in nine and a half hours, singing, “Grace, grace, only God’s grace” and “My God shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” “

De Jong, Albert. Two Soldiers in God’s Victorious Army. 2002, p. 139-141.