Tribal Tour- Las Crucas, New Mexico

Last night we found ourselves in light of God’s crazy love and Grace as intimately as He could have revealed it. As if our time leading up to getting a vehicle to use wasn’t enough our Faithful Father yet again blew away our expectations and encouraged our hearts simultaneously.

Let’s back up a night. Our first night on the road, deep into the evening we realized we weren’t going to be able to charge through, like trips in the past. We had two kids now and the restlessness they experienced each night would translate to rough days for us. So we stopped in Blythe, CA. We stayed in a hotel and let the kids sprawl out on a bed, have a continental breakfast, and swim in the morning. It made for an easy day of travel later.

Back to New Mexico story. Knowing we needed to give our kids a restful evening we made the decision to stop yet again. Rolling into the hotel drive way a few minutes to midnight I went to book a room. As Joe, the attendant was asking for my info: a Simi Valley, Ca address and a Texas id. I found I was the perfect candidate for his next comment and question. “You must travel a lot, what do you do?”. Normally jumping at the chance to answer this comment, I paused wrestling in my own mind. Knowing Lauren and two fussy kids were in the car and thinking he just wanted to sell me a choice hotels credit card I hesitated to answer. But a witness in my own conscience testifying ‘be faithful’…
I laid it it out the whole bit, Bible translator, church planter, learn an unwritten language, work with and indigenous people group in a remote rain forrest, language analysis, medical work, make an alphabet, do a community development project, teach them how to read and write their own language, teach how to teach each other to read and write, teach foundationally through the Bible, present Christ for the first time ever in History to them, translate scripture, disciple them and see a healthy mature church raised up among them for the next 30 years of our lives…
His response floored me. “No way” he said, “wait right here I am going to get my manager.”
So here comes David the manager and Joe says tell him what you told me. Not knowing what God was doing I started yet again. When I finished, he said, “do you have a card?” I ran to the car to get a prayer card and ministry portfolio, only to have an anxious Lauren say, “what it going on?”
My response was as honest as could be, “I have no idea, just hold on a minute longer”. Returning back inside David explained to me that he wanted to be a part of our ministry and he wanted to give us his friends and family rate on hotels rooms this night and for the duration of the trip! He hooked us up intending to provide a break on rooms saving us hundreds of dollars during this trip. To Joe and David, love you guys. Thanks for your desire to be in the jungle and be there by sending us. The body of Christ is a cool organism that enables just that type of partnership.

Paisley and Paxdin chillin at the Hotel. And getting ready to play at a rest stop!