Be a Good Steward
of His Story
A couple of weeks
ago Carrie and I went on the date night “Marriage Cruise” with our church,
River Valley. It was great seeing so
many friends and making new ones! I had
a chance to speak with one of our Pastors, Anthony Richards, and I was sharing
a story with him when he asked me “are you writing these down?” When I explained I hadn’t, he gave me some
incredible advice. Now he’s Australian,
so you have to imagine the accent, “Barrett, you need to write these stories
down, they’re not your stories, they’re God’s stories. He’s given you amazing experiences to share
with others and if you don’t write them down they’ll be forgotten. Just like you are a good steward with His
money for your Mission, you need to be a good steward with His stories, they
are meant to be shared.” Wow, I never really thought of it that way. I could write a book already with the amazing
journey God has taken us on over the past couple years. I plan on sharing a few of them here on the
blog, hopefully you will enjoy hearing them. He is always there, you just
have to pay attention.
Man’s Night and
Lemonade
A few months ago
our church was holding a Man’s Night conference that my son Braxton and I
almost didn’t attend. We are very budget
conscious, count every penny and save as much as we can to apply towards our
mission, so when I heard it would be $45 for the 2 of us to go I argued with
myself (I’m sure you all do it) about justifying the extra expenditure. After looking at our budget and knowing how
much fun we would have I decided to we could afford it. However, when I found out a few of our
friends were going to get hotel rooms so they wouldn’t have to travel back and
forth for the 2 sessions I opted out figuring that would definitely be out of
budget. It was great, awesome speakers,
lots of fun hanging out with the over 600 men that attended. The next morning, during the last part of the
conference, they announced that they would be taking an offering. Apparently there was an opportunity to
purchase the land across the street from the church at a discounted price and they’re
taking a special offering for a down payment.
I thought “boy, I didn’t work that into my budget.” As I prayed about the offering I felt that I
have had so much growth, so much encouragement and loved delivered to me and my
family at this church, I went ahead and gave an offering of $100. I decided
although it would make us tight, I would fast during the day and find other
ways to save until next pay day. I came
home and told Carrie so she could expect to see it come out of our account and
she was happy I gave and completely understood.
Two days later, when the mail arrived, I received a letter
from a mortgage company that held our mortgage 8 years prior explaining that
they had overcharged us for something, I believe escrows. Include with the letter was a check for a
little over $300. You can say this is a
coincidence, but I have had so many “coincidences” in the past couple years I
know different. But the story doesn’t
end there.
The next morning I headed to work, I usually take a short
cut through this neighborhood to get to the highway. This time as I drove through the neighborhood
I noticed some kids selling lemonade. I
remember hearing somewhere that you should never pass kids selling lemonade
without buying some, they’ll be overjoyed that you did and you also might be
the only one to buy some. Problem was, I
never carry cash, and the place I work has a snack bar that I will nickel and
dime myself to death if I carry money to work.
As I drove I searched my glove box and console for change and found 3
one dollar bills. So of course I turned
around to go buy some lemonade. As I
pulled up into the culde-sac , I noticed a sign I hadn’t seen earlier “all
proceeds go to providing clean water in Haiti”…I thought that’s awesome! The kids came running over, smiling ear to
ear, asking how many lemonades I wanted.
I told them I actually didn’t want any lemonade, but they could have the
$3 to go towards their cause and told them I wish I could give them more but
it’s all I had. They ran back to their
parents excited, jumping around like I had given them a million dollars. Later that night, around 10:30, I shared with
Carrie what had happened and we both smiled, just a nice story. Then she said, “you’re not going to believe
this, but I just received an email from someone that is blessing our mission
with a significantly large donation”
“they said they were heading home after having dinner out and both of
them all of a sudden felt compelled that they had to let us know that they
would be sponsoring us, they said it was almost like God told them both at the
same time, contact the Todd’s and bless their mission” we were floored!
The reason I love this story is because it tells some simple
truths. God provides for our needs. Even when I struggled with the $100 He
multiplied it by three, but when I gave my last dollars with joy He multiplied
it by thousands! Now, I never give anything be it love, my time or donations expecting anything in return, it's just awesome to know that we can't out give God, He's the ultimate giver!
Moving Update
We are only 12 days away from our goal date of August 17th. We are so thankful for the many of you who
have joined our support team; it’s always humbling to see friends and family
give to help us and our vision. Below
are the requirements set forth by our organization, Global Outreach
International, and our current status. We
need some big things to happen quickly, please pray that our vision reaches people
and they’ll find it in their hearts to become a sponsor!
Global Outreach’s requirements
for full-time Missionaries:
• 3 months budget in reserve and
85% of monthly sponsorship
Current Financial Status:
• 3 months reserves donated
-Yeah! And $2,570 in monthly sponsors or 44%
What we need before we can
leave: Step 1
• $5,000 in monthly sponsors which
is 85% of our actual monthly budget.
Monthly sponsorship is the easiest way for many people to help, please consider
one of the below suggested levels.
*$15 *$25
*$50 *$75 *$100
*$150 *$200 *$250 *$300
*$400 *$500 *$750
*$1,000 *other
•
New or newer full size passenger van to ship to Haiti; we need a
reliable vehicle for our family as well as transporting the teams that come in from
the states.
Estimated
cost $20,000 + $3,000 for shipping + up to $14,000 in import tax. Total - $
37,000
•
Additional $10,000 in moving expenses, tickets and for items to ship
that we can’t get in Haiti.
Prayer requests and future Soccer
program: Step 2
•
Our Vision to put together the prototype for a national youth Soccer /
Mentorship program will begin as soon as we get settled in Haiti. Please watch for news on this exciting
program!
•
Donated UTV or 4 wheelers – indispensable tools for transportation of
equipment back and forth between our multiple facilities on the property and
outlining area
