Why Lesotho, Why Now?

To understand why we are headed to Lesotho you have to know a little about the walk of faith that God took me through to bring me out to help start a church out in Buckeye, AZ. It is really the basis for why I'm taking my wife and boys to Lesotho to visit the 3 children we support through World Vision.

God proved so faithful to take care of us in so many ways during that journey. At one point God supplied a large financial blessing that took care of us for over a year while we were preparing to move out to AZ, and while at the same time our family expanded from 4 to 6.

In Dec 2006 my car that was 11 years old and had 169,000 miles finally gave out. I had desired to get rid of this vehicle for years. Before, while we both had good paying jobs my thought was to get a nice sports car. Of course God always had different plans, and constantly prodded me to keep the vehicle even though it had no hub caps. In fact when my son Ben saw any car without hub caps while riding with mommy he would scream that it was daddy's car.

I had been praying for quite some time about what vehicle to buy. When the Altima gave out I found myself purchasing a 2 year old Sonata. The cost for the vehicle was $16500. The very next day while investing the money God had provided the account gained 17k in one day. I remember vividly that God wanted me to pay off my vehicle immediately. Of course I thought I knew more than God. If I could make 17k in one day why would I pay off a car that I had a 3.25% interest rate on. 3 months later I lost 17k in one day. I didn't really connect the dots until I was out here as pastor on a much smaller salary complaining to God about my expenses being to much. God reminded me that I was making a car payment that if I was obedient I would not be making. I began to understand that you can't walk in faith without obedience to the one you claim to entrust your life with.

Which brings us to a few months ago. We were blessed once again financially in a time where our savings were coming to an end. This time I immediately paid off my vehicle, and was so excited that God had given us a savings account with a little over 14k in it. A few days later, I was traveling the quiet road from our community to the City of Surprise, and praising God for His faithfulness and care. Then God spoke to me very clearly, telling me I needed to take my boys to visit the children we support in Lesotho.

You have to know that I have never owned a passport. I have never had a desire to go outside the United States. I lived in Texas all my life and never even visited Mexico.

My natural man wanted to be able to keep money in the savings account for just in case. But after a quick thought about the last time I tried to be a better money manager than God, I quickly called my wife and informed her of what we were being called to do. My wife is incredible. While many wives might have questioned their husbands to death my wife was all in. We set up appointments to get our passports, and soon found a travel agent who could help us with our visit. Interesting enough our cost was going to be a little more than 14k. Just what we had in our savings account.

As we have continued to prepare many people in our church family have asked how they can help. They have provided the funds that we will use to buy the villages' groceries while we're there, and provide school supplies, ect. for the children in the villages.

God has made it clear that although my wife and I may receive new insight through this experience, this visit is really for my sons. I'm excited to be able to invest in my children, and maybe even generations afterward. I dream about how God might show himself glorified in them throughout their lives.

For me as I'm sure it is for some of you reading this, it's still hard letting go financially. I have always tried to control this area of my life, and in reality it has controlled me much of the time. But I'm grateful that God won't let me withhold anything from Him. Because through this entire journey I have learned the less I hold back and try to control things,  the more fun the ride gets!!!