July 2012

Hi, Everybody!!

Wow! What a great month... and what a GREAT GOD!! As the mercury soars here in Brownwood (it's 104 outside right now!), so does our faith in God and our expectation in the plan He has for us all. We have truly had an amazing Summer so far and we have truly met God along the way!

As soon as the kids got out of school, we headed West. Just a few days before leaving, we discovered that Couy Griffin was now pastoring a cowboy church in Alamogordo, New Mexico. He invited us to speak for him on Sunday morning and organized a place to stay with some friends of his. Joe and Alisa turned out to be some of the most wonderful people in the world! They have a little guest house up the canyon overlooking the White Sands National Monument and away from the heat of the high desert floor. It was awesome! Our kids were the same age and Matthew and Abbey made life-long friends. Also, we found the church to be so precious and had a powerful ministry time there with them. From there we headed to the Grand Canyon! My kids have never seen America before. The desert was breathtaking... the Grand Canyon was mind-boggling. Then we headed to LA where Heather's wonderful cousins hosted my entire family at Disneyland and we got to catch up with them after being so many years abroad... they are Pastors in Lomita. Heather and I preached a weekend in one the most amazing churches in the world. My head usher from Nicaragua, Marvin De La Rocha, has helped to build a powerful innercity church in San Bernardino. This great church has grown to well over 2000 members in eight years. It is a HOT CHURCH!! It was an honor to speak there again and Heather and I enjoyed powerful services where the Holy Ghost flowed mightily! We then attended a minister's conference we had been invited to and were encouraged tremendously. We stayed with a Philipino couple who Pastor in San Diego and blessed our family so much. My children were also at every service, loved the church there, got to help with the kids there and were treated like little princes and princesses! After the conference we headed back East but went to Yuma, AZ to preach for some minister's we had met at the meeting that week. Wow!! We had such a powerful Sunday morning service... we didn't finish ministering until 2:30. Then drove on to Phoenix where it was 113. OMG! I'm sure glad I'm going to Heaven!! Then back to Alamogordo where we picked up some friends from Ireland that had flown in to meet us there, a precious lady from our church in Galway and her daughter, Hannah's bestest friend. We made a day trip out to White Sands to witness one of the wonders of the world: the mineral gypsum comes up out of the ground to the tune of about 300 square miles in dunes that you can sled down. Very cool!

Something truly amazing happened on this trip, though. And I couldn't wait to share this with you all. About an hour out of Alamogordo on the way back home, the engine light came on in the car. It was after midnight. I ran the little diagnostic button our car has and everything looked fine. I decided to keep going and get my family back to Joe and Alisa's house for the night. It was uneventful. The next morning, however, as I was driving down into town, the engine light came back on... this time the temp gauge pegged HOT. I pulled over. Repeat. I inched our way into town and phoned AAA. They towed our car to mechanic. I got a free day rental and we continued our little holiday, having planned to spend a few days there anyway. Here's where I get to tell you about God! When I got the bill for the car, it was a LOT of money. We were in the desert. We had no help but God! But God is a great Helper! The lady from Ireland brought over an envelope from the church folks and friends back there. It was an offering for Father's Day! Guess what? It was just enough for the car! My point is that God met us in the desert! More than that, we left Texas with only $110 and $54 on a Wal-Mart card and God blessed us with the best family vacation, conference and ministry we have ever had! Ps 78:19 shows Israel questioning wether God could furnish a table in the wilderness. The answer is YES, He can! Yes, He did!

Love, The Sanfords