2018 Pan American Highway Trip
Costa Rica Trip
By Steve Rehner MFM Director of Business Development
The headlights were in my lane until the last possible second; fortunately the semi was able to finish passing and return to his lane before hitting us head-on. This was one of many “little” adventures we experienced on the Pan American Highway trip. In July, 2018, twelve men joined me driving down the Pan American highway from the U.S. to Costa Rica.
This was definitely a different type of mission trip. Our goal was to raise money for Small Business Development projects. We traveled in six cars, crossing the borders of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and our destination, Costa Rica.

The big issue regarding the drive was the civil war that had been raging in Nicaragua the previous months. We had been very close to canceling the trip due to the conflict, but in the end felt that we could carefully cross the country. The plan was to cross Honduras and enter Nicaragua while it was still daylight and then spend the night in Managua with missionary friends. However, the lengthy border crossings delayed our entry into Nicaragua until after 11:30 p.m. So much for traveling to Managua during the daylight. It was a three-hour trip to Managua, and we arrived at 2:30 a.m.
After a short two and a half hours of rest, we left Managua at 4:30 a.m. for the Costa Rica border. It was like the Lord brought in a cloud of protection over us, as a fog settled over us that was so thick I could hardly see to drive. This fog hovered over us until we were out of Managua, and then we had a safe two-hour drive to the Costa Rican border. Nobody who wanted to harm us could have even seen us. One of our team said he saw guys with masks along the road, but with the fog they could certainly not know who was in the cars going by them.
