Free to Follow...

There's a peace that comes from taking the step of faith that God has put before you. We've declared our dependence upon Him and Him only once again, and the freedom that has brought is wonderful. Sometimes when He takes us through a trial, we have to "clean house," so to speak, and we've done just that. We want to remove anything that could limit God in the work He wants to accomplish through us. We believe God is about to open some new amazing doors for Kingdom Flight, and can't wait to see where that leads.

Along those lines, here's a picture of Brad the day he flew the new Kodiak plane up in Idaho this month. The Kodiak has the perfect profile for what we want to accomplish, and will take off and land on dirt strips with ease while carrying any cargo we might need to haul. It is our prayer that God would supply a plane such as this to help us reach the lost and needy in remote areas in the days to come.

Truth or Consequences

I love truth. I really do. I used to live a life that was overshadowed by deception. Not so much on my own part willingly deceiving (although I'm sure I did that, too), but by believing Satan's deceptions. Even as a Christian for many years, I did not understand that Satan's primary role against believers is to be the accuser of the brothers (Rev. 12:10). He hurls lies against us and whispers them in our ears all day long, and many of us believe those lies and live in defeat - God could never use you. He's finished with you. You've blown it too much this time. He won't come through for you this time - you'll have to take care of yourself. What if God takes it all away? There's too much going on in the world for Him to care about my life.

I thank God for the day I finally got it that Satan always lies, God cannot lie, and I could discern between the two by measuring it up to the truth of God's word. I love the liberty of living in the light and in the truth. Satan's lies make us want to shrink in shame and avoid God and others. God's truth sets us free from shame.

With all that's been going on with us, while we were spiritually and physically exhausted, Satan has tried overtime to heap shame and fear upon us, but I thank God for His truth that casts out those lies. II Corinthians 10:3-5 are some of my favorite verses in the Bible:

3For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We are choosing to take every thought captive and not just let it go wild by ruminating on it. We are choosing to live in the truth of what God says about us, not what Satan would want us to believe. God is still sovereign. He is our provider. He is our defender and vindication. I thank God for the peace that comes from listening to Him and not to the accuser. He is good and faithful, and His love is overwhelming.

Okay, sermon over. I'm not a preacher, and I don't pretend to be, but I just wanted to share what God has been teaching and reminding us. Maybe you're battling Satan's lies, too. Don't believe them!

Changing horses mid-stream, we wanted to share some of the pictures from the fundraiser we enjoyed at Irvine Sports Park right before we left for Mexico a few weeks ago.


We had a great, sunny day at the park, and we met lots of people with great hearts who were interested in getting to know the ministry of Kingdom Flight and support the Casa de Una Esperanza girls home. Our friends Mary and Crystal offered to host this event and did such an amazing job of organizing the whole day and providing lots of food for everyone! We had egg races, three-legged races, water balloon tosses (which of course erupted into water balloon fights!), and my favorite was the watermelon-eating contest. I tried to represent true Southerners to the best of my ability, but I got edged out by Samantha, whose mouth I just cannot compete with!


Brad has posted a new gallery on the Kingdom Flight website, and you can also enjoy pictures on our friend Iggy's blog. We truly appreciate all who came out and supported us, and we look forward to what God will do as a result of this purpose-filled day of fun!

Brad and Lesli and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week...

Anybody remember this book from their childhood? Substitute the word "day" for "week," and that's pretty much been our week. We returned from Una Esperanza yesterday afternoon, and I must say, it was one of our toughest trips ever.

Caution - this is not a post for those who believe Christians are supposed to have it all together and never have a bad day. WE ARE NOT PERFECT AND NEVER WILL BE PERFECT OR PRETEND TO BE SO. I think I still have grit in my mouth from being knocked down in the dirt. It's been hard to get up out of the dirt for the last few days. I feel like I'm only struggling to my knees in faith today.

We are under attack from every side. The Tarahumara seem to be upset with us for rescuing Mariquita and say we have overstepped our boundaries. Others are upset that we have chosen to close the ministry center to the public during certain hours in order to maintain a safe home for the children living there right now and provide a home atmosphere. Some are jealous that their children are not living at the ministry center and are trying to cause trouble. There are border problems that are now forcing us to wait two hours each day to get back and forth across the border. School starts for the girls next week, and the expenses far outweigh our current resources. I lost my Bible. There are other attacks that I can't even mention right now, and this all came to a climax on Thursday, which happened to be our 11th anniversary. I know I'm whining. It's just exhausting sometimes to try to help people, and no one even says thank you as you give and give, and then get knocked down. It sobers me to know that this is how I must treat God sometimes, forgetting to thank Him and just looking at my own "rights."

When we left Una Esperanza the other day, Chelo said one word that pretty much sums it all up - "Guerra" - war. It is warfare, and we recognize it as such, but that doesn't make it any easier to bear this week. We're not out of it yet, and it's still coming from all sides. We need some clear-cut direction from God on our next steps. We're tired and have no strength in ourselves. Prayers on our behalf would be readily appreciated...

Today, I'm deciding to go on the offensive. The enemy has declared war, and that's okay, I'll stand in the truth against his lies. He has already been defeated on the cross of Calvary, and all he can do is spread lies that don't stand up to God's truth, so I will speak truth from God's word as His sword is my offensive weapon. I will take up the shield of faith when I can't see exactly where the fiery darts are coming from. I stand in the knowledge that it is God's will to bring all to a saving knowledge of Him, even if they don't know it yet. I will stand in the knowledge that God is always good, even when I can't see His hand at work in my situation. I will praise God for His faithfulness and His sovereignty, even when my emotions would shout lies that my life is out of His control. I thank God that He has equipped us for every good work, even battling the lies and schemes of the enemy.

I've lived in fear in the past, but I refuse to live at that address anymore. I've moved, and I'm not going back to that neighborhood, even for a visit. God is faithful, and He will deliver us and He will be our defender as we humbly seek to follow Him through this valley.

The one bright, shining moment of this trip was that Noah learned to swim...so I thank God for that today.

EDIT ADD: We did have a wonderful fundraiser at the park the day before we left on this trip - I'll report on that later!

Snug as a Bug in a Rug...

Well, I'll try not to complain when Brad and I get stuck with a standard-sized bed in a Mexican hotel anymore. These six kids and a 15-year-old "big sister" have been sleeping on these two twin mattresses on the floor for about a week, and will be doing so until later this month when the bunk beds are delivered.

We just returned from a quick, five-day trip to Una Esperanza to check on the kids and get things moving on our new convenience store. Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE), a student organization from Texas State University, is partnering with us and funding a neighborhood store to help foster self-sustainability in Kilometer 33. Despite thunderstorms and lightning, Juan and his sons broke ground the other day and the footings and concrete floor should be in place by now.

In addition to the four girls we had before, we now have another eight-year-old girl, Juanita, and her almost three-year-old brother, Victor, living at Una Esperanza full-time. Little Juanita has lived at the ministry center off and on in the past year, and she seems to be so happy living with the other girls. We hadn't planned on a boy, but Victor's smile is heartwarming and he seems to be adjusting well also.

We brought the girls two new bikes and a wagon, and boy did they have a ball playing with them! Chelo took the girls downtown and got them all haircuts, and they looked so adorable. While we were there, we also had a de-licing day, trying to get that issue under control, which is an ever-present problem. The kids really are responding well to their new routines, and the girls are so enjoying wearing clean clothes each day. Mariquita used to wear the same outfit for four or five days when we would be at Una Esperanza. She was so dirty much of the time. Now, we have to restrain her from wanting to change clothes two and three times a day!

Many, many needs come along with feeding all these mouths and washing their clothes. The actual cost of this room has far exceeded the projected estimate, so we are just trusting God to provide for these kids. He keeps reminding us that this is definitely beyond our ability or capacity, and He is our provider! We went to Sam's Club and spent a bunch stocking up on food for the kids and trying to introduce some healthy food into their diets. Chelo's outdoor washing machine broke while we were there, so we'll have to get her a new one. She still dries the clothes on a clothes line, but the thunderstorms last week kind of negated her efforts to stay up on the laundry!

We also have made room for big Juanita, a 15-year-old girl who has been on our staff at the ministry center since January as a helper with a feeding program. Juanita is one of the few Tarahumara who have accepted Christ as their Savior and is serious in her walk with God, and she's kind of going through the fire, so to speak, right now. Her dad is an alcoholic and left the family several months ago to live with another woman and start another family. In response to his actions, Juanita's mother began an affair with another man and moved out, leaving Juanita to take care of her two brothers and a cousin who lived at their house. No one in the family has been supportive of Juanita's decision to follow Christ, and many in the community have become outright hostile toward her because of her stance for Christ. She has recently received threats of physical danger because of her decision to follow Christ, and she is now living at Una Esperanza, acting as a big sister to all the little ones and taking care of them during the day.

Please keep Juanita in your prayers. I truly believe that Juanita is a catalyst for change in this community. We prayed and held her the other day as she cried. She is so burdened for her people to know Christ, and it's not easy for her to respond with love to people who are physically threatening her and attempting to disparage her reputation in the community. I believe that the love they see through this changed young woman will win others to Christ.

I'm reading a book titled Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli right now, and it's really impacting me. Truly living our lives to know God and demonstrate Him to others is messy. Thank God He doesn't require "perfect" Christians who have it all together. He sees our hearts and sees beyond our failures and our trip-ups. He loves us and can still use us. As I look around our little community of Kilometer 33, I see some who are trying to look "religious" and are of absolutely no use to the cause of Christ, and then I see those who are faltering and embarrased when they fall, but at least they're authentically trying to know God and follow Him. Those are the people I want to hang out with, to call my friends. I thank God that He still chooses to use me even when I mess things up and don't appear very "spiritual."

On a lighter note, Noah finally lost his first tooth on this mission trip and was quite proud of his snaggle-tooth smile! You can see many more photos from this trip at the most recent photo gallery on our website. Thanks for your prayers and support!