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By: Mary Cooney on: July 9, 2012
Story Type: Story    

Ruth's Trip, Part 1

 
Being a missionary wife has many challenges, not least of them being a mother. Ruth Philippi's journal reveals her character as a young mother traveling through Mexico with three small children. Paul Jr. (4), Judy (1.5), Janet (1). 

Day 1. Saturday, December 31, 1960, McAllen border crossing. Praise the Lord. They only went through three suitcases!

Day 2. Sunday, January 1, 1961. How good it felt to start off with clean clothes after a long day yesterday. In no time Judy spilt her milk all over me. Soaked. You can imagine how I felt the rest of the day. That afternoon we stopped under a cactus and had our devotions. Glad for even a cold shower that night. (Guaranteed to be a hot day!)

Day 3. Monday afternoon a bolt broke on the trailer. The roadside workshop was dusty and after 3 hours the kids were filthy. I washed baby bottles, made supper, cleaned up the car and the kids. Paul kept watch as they fixed the trailer. When they finished it was dark and nowhere to stay in town. We drove on. Paul was very tired, so I took over driving. We crossed some mountains and I ran into fog, rain and plenty of curves! When Janet woke up crying I let Paul take the wheel. We finally pulled into a place near Jalapa and slept for a few hours.

Day 4. Tuesday morning was rainy. We bought some coconuts, oranges and papaya.  About twenty miles past Vera Cruz the fan belt broke. Paul took a bus into town. Stranded in the rain, the kids and I waited in the car for two hours. By the time Paul returned, it was late, so we went back to Vera Cruz. We finally found a nice cottage by the ocean.

Days 5 and 6. Wednesday began fine. Around 2 p.m. we heard a horrible crash! Stopping, we looked back to see our trailer on its side, both the front and back broken open! What a sickening feeling, to see all our possessions strewn over the road! Happily very few things were ruined. How thankful we were we had the toilet and other breakables inside the car. About a minute after the accident, a truck pulled up. He was empty and offered to carry our things to Juchitán! As we drove away a rainbow appeared in the sky! A precious reminder that the Lord was with us. In Juchitán, we found the workshop was run by Christians! Next door was a hotel where we stayed. The first night I cut my leg on one of the damaged trunks. The wound needed stitches, but not knowing a doctor, we just taped it shut. The next morning we heard a radio playing songs from our Mission Radio Station in Guatemala.  I cried for joy.

Day 7. Friday. By three in the afternoon the trailer had been repaired and we were able to travel 160 miles before stopping for the night.

Read Part 2

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