“What a great adventure this will be!”, they said. “Think of how fun it will be!”. “What a great experience for your children!”. Truth be told the last five weeks on the road has been all of those things: an adventure, fun, and a great experience. However, often with great adventure comes great challenges. The last few weeks have not come without challenges but for the most part they have been fairly minor. We have been met with car issues, wasp attacks, sickness, and a hail storm in Colorado that left our van with $6000 worth of damages. Thank goodness for insurance! Through all the challenges God has encouraged us to keep going and overcome any difficulty that we confront.
As we have traveled around, we’ve seen the goodness of God through His people. Hospitality is defined as the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, and strangers. We have experienced true hospitality the last few weeks and it has humbled us and made us exceedingly grateful for the Body of Christ. We have been guests in people’s homes that we’ve known and we’ve been welcomed in by strangers! It is so incredible to witness people living out the Bible’s command of showing hospitality. Many have fed us, entertained us, and cared for our family. We have watched our children become so adaptable. They’ve slept on the floor, in beds, in sleeping bags, on cots, they’ve been in hotel rooms, people’s house, or just slept in the car. They’ve learned to have fun wherever they are. It’s been a beautiful thing to watch.
Currently, we find ourselves delayed in El Paso, Texas. What was supposed to be a one-night stop has turned into a week and a half stay. We are tired and our patience is being tested daily. We have not had a consistent place to stay in days. We’ve bounced from hotel to hotel because we thought that surely any day we would be on our way across the border. However, we know God’s providential timing has kept us here.
As we think about moving from place to place we are reminded of Matthew 8:19-20:
“19 Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Jesus knew exactly what it was like to have no place to stay. He knew what it was like to move from place to place. But, none of that mattered because He was focused on doing the will of the Father. It didn’t matter where he slept, or if he slept His eyes were fixed on what was set out before Him.
Whether we have a home or not does not matter. God is taking care of us. We do have a roof over our head and the Holy Spirit to comfort us. And we long to follow our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ wherever that road may lead.
By God’s great plan He put a Brother in Christ from Chihuahua, Mexico, in our path to provide us with some wisdom and direction on entering Mexico. As we have learned and gleaned from his experience, we are seeing that our time frame for entering the country was not God’s time frame. We are committed to enter the country through the proper channels, which is causing our delay here in El Paso. As we are waiting for documents to arrive from California we are seeking the Lord for His wisdom and guidance. We are “seeking from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions” (Ezra 8:21). As we collect all the formal documentation for entering, please pray for us that God would send favor in the sight of the Mexican officials to grant us entrance into the country. There is also a question of whether or not they will grant us a permit to bring our van into the country. If that permit for the van is rejected than we will “throw off everything that hinders us” (Hebrews 12:1), including the van! That may mean that we need to jump on a plane and head down south in order to arrive at school on time.
The biggest lesson learned this month is that God has created the body of Christ to work together and to be a support for one another. We have had to lean in and depend on our friends, family, and the Body of Christ more than ever before. We are used to being self-sufficient and not needing to ask for much help. We are learning that instead of the independence that we are accustom to, God is teaching us interdependence, the idea of being dependent on one another. It has been said, “Independence is rooted in pride, whereas interdependence is rooted in humility.” We have had to humble ourselves and learn to accept the kindness of others. Through it all, we have come to know a deeper appreciation for others and long to have the opportunity to be that support to whoever God puts in our path.
There have been many lessons learned and more experiences had and we wish we could convey all that God has done the last four weeks. We serve a faithful God and love all the “God stories” that He is building in our lives. Thank you for being a part of our story and thank you for keeping track of our family via the Blog. We also want to say thank you to those of you who have reached out to partner with us financially and thank you to those of you who have partnered with us in prayer. We are so blessed to be a part of your lives. Our prayer for you this month is that God would strengthen you to love one another and the Body of Christ more and more so that you would be able to experience the riches of his love, mercy and grace in the Saints, as we have. This is our prayer for you because we are taken back by the love of Christ displayed in the Body of Christ and we desire for you to have the same.
God bless and be with you all!
Love the Mosley Family