Tim and Sue Sanford Connecting YOU, through aviation, to tribal church planting... 
Hi Everyone,
It’s a great day to be in AZ! The kids are out washing the cars (ours and Nan & Pop’s) inside and out but wouldn’t you know I just looked out the window and a rain/dust storm is heading our way. Isn’t that just how life goes sometimes? When we need rain, just wash the car and it’ll come.
Tim & I just got back this past weekend from a couple of days in the Mountains together. Drew had gone camping with some friends, Marie was at Volleyball camp, and Ben was at Agape Youth Ranch (horsemanship camp), so we took off one night late after work. We arrived at our campsite at about midnight and figured out that our pump for our water wasn’t working. We had gallons and gallons of water but no way to pump it out. Not a good thing in the desert. When we got up the next morning, Tim worked on it and got it fixed and we had an AWESOME couple of days hiking and reading. A friend of ours had surprised us and fixed our generator for us so we even had air conditioning up there some of the time! It was such a gift from the Lord. When we were packing up I was telling the Lord how thankful I was for the time of camping with no real mishaps. Those times for us seem to be few and far between. He must have been listening to my prayers with His tongue in cheek knowing that we were going to hit a tree on our way out of the campground!
I was trying so hard to navigate like a man would in guiding Tim out of the lot. He tries to teach me each time we go but I can’t quite get the hang of it so far. It reminds me of the song in "My Fair Lady", "Why Can’t a Woman, be More Like a Man?". I think it’s to help men learn patience. So, try as I might, we scraped the tree and it bent the generator muffler pipe, bent the bumper, tore off a piece of stuff that holds the thing together in the back (I know, I’m not very technical) and scraped it up in the back. Tim said it was amazing how he goes back and forth in just minutes from loving the RV to wanting to burn it to the ground. Being a 1981, it tends to have problems even when I’m not navigating. I tell Tim all of the things I work on in the RV never have any problems. The curtains and seat covers look really nice and never fail! He doesn’t think that is very funny.
But I wouldn’t trade the two days for anything in the world! I was so thankful for our time together with no cell phone service and no one around. We really did get to rest while we were there so thank the Lord with us….and pray for our poor RV.
Ben has been working each Monday this year at Agape Youth Ranch to earn a scholarship to their advanced horse riding camp. It’s a two week camp where they learn to improve their riding skills, learn to rope and learn to vault (stand on a horse hands free while it’s moving). They also help do all the chores and they use the skills to teach them more about their relationship with God and character building. It was a great experience for him and a really huge boost to him after his hard year in school with peer pressure. Here is a photo of Ben carrying the American flag for the closing ceremonies. He was voted to do this by the other campers. He was so nervous he would drop it in the dirt…
Marie has been babysitting, practicing for volleyball, going to volleyball camp and baking bread this summer. She is trying to earn enough money to pay for her own cell phone for the next year. Her bread is so beautiful I had to show you a photo.
Drew has been home since May and he has been trusting the Lord for some fires to earn money to go back to Bible school. He did get to go out on one fire in June, but then we have had the wettest summer that we have had in years! Usually the lightning from the monsoon season here starts a few wild fires in the mountains (we’ve been evacuated from camping before because of this)and it is good money because you can work 16 hours a day until the fire is out. It seems a bit weird asking the Lord to start some fires so he can work, but I just ask for them to start in the mountains where no one lives to clear out the undergrowth. In the mean time, he has been volunteering here at NTMA helping on the maintenance team working on a project, volunteering at the fire station when they need help, and volunteering anywhere else that needs help. The Lord is doing neat things in his heart while he learns to trust God in what He wants for him to do. He is trusting the Lord to finish Bible school, then go to school to be a paramedic, and then continue on with NTM and go overseas. Would you please pray for fires, or if your not comfortable with that then paying jobs here in the desert or clear direction from the Lord as to what he should do? He has a return flight back to Jackson on August 12th so we are trusting the Lord to help him know what to do before then.
To those of you who were interested enough to read this whole long letter…thank you. Thank you for your love and care for us and your prayers and for loving us enough to be our partners together in this ministry.
We love you too,
Sue for all of us
