Tuesday evening Kathi and Judy arrived in Merida, their plane coming to rest next to Air Force One. The Ahinas and I met them at the airport, had dinner then left them to rest. The next day was interesting—particularly in the evening. The Legters had informed us of a special concert of Yucatecan choral music which was to be held in the Opera House and was to be directed by an ex-seminary professor whom I know, so we all decided to attend. Just before leaving the Legters’ home, as the sun began to set the sky filled with the brilliant colors of a tropical sunset. Hard to capture in a photo, but as you can see, I tried.

Then, just as we were leaving the house, something I have heard of all my life but never experienced happened—the locust came. The only sound was the sound of their wings beating, but the sky darkened as a cloud of who knows how many millions descended. About five inches long, an ugly brown, and unstoppable, they landed on everything. For some reason they were not eating, but had they been in the mood the vegetation of the area would have disappeared. Deuteronomy 28 records the warning of God for disobedience, You shall carry much seed into the field, and shall gather little in; for the locust shall consume it…. All your trees and the fruit of your ground the locust shall possess. Joel 1 prophesied, What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten. And in Exodus 10 we read, So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts; they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again. They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail-- everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.

The next day the locust were here until around 11:00 am. Then, rising together in the same way they had arrived, they left—swarming in a cloud and moving on to another part of the city or suburbs. Having experienced this I can see clearly how horrific their appearance must have been in times long gone by, and in parts of the world today. Merciless, uncontrollable and devastating…

We left the seminary grounds that evening and went to the Ahina’s home for a wonderful meal of a typical Yucatecan dish which Antonio’s mother had spent most of the day preparing. Hollowed out mounds of Edam cheese filled with ground beef and a cheese sauce. Then mango cheesecake for desert. Delicious, but filling is not an adequate word to describe it…

Then to the concert, which was excellent. An acapella choir singing Yucatecan love songs. Some Cuban influence, some indigenous, some sounding a bit like Gilbert and Sullivan. Then greeting the director afterwards.

Quite a mixture and quite an evening… In a few hours the experiences of beauty, despair, friendship in Christ, fine food and fine art. Inescapably present, but probably always there if we stop to open our eyes to see what God puts in front of us… Psalm 78:12 In the sight of their fathers he wrought …