By Elizabeth James
Rob Lawson grew up in Whitley County, outside of Corbin, Ky., surrounded by poverty everywhere he looked. He remembers each detail all too vividly: “I went to school each day with kids who lived in substandard housing, and I saw many of them wearing shoes that were so small their toes poked out of the front.”
Rob saw children his age and younger go all winter long without a coat to keep warm, and many of those children even missed meals. “I remember a kid I went to school with — we were friends — when I went over to his house you could look through many parts of the wood floors and see dirt. The actual ground was peeking out in some places.”
These memories always made an impact on Rob growing up, but he didn’t quite realize it at such a young age. Rob explains that his family was by no means wealthy, but growing up in a double-wide trailer made him “the rich kid” to many of his peers. When Rob was in sixth grade, he and a friend were playing hangman one day. “The word he was trying to get me to guess was a four-letter word,” Rob says, “and his hint was that it was a word that described me, and not him: ‘Rich.’ I remember looking at it, and it had never occurred to me that anyone would ever even consider me well off.” Rob shares that, while his family didn’t have a lot, they did have so much more than everyone else.
Today, Rob is a financial advisor at Thrivent Financial and a board member at Christian Appalachian Project (CAP). Thrivent is a financial services organization that provides guidance for those who want to learn how to be wiser with money and also live generously. His admiration and love for the people of Appalachia has inspired him to give back by providing financial direction for some of them as well as volunteering with CAP in addition to serving on the board of directors. “The people of Appalachia are very loyal to one another. And there is a lot of pride, not from a place of arrogance, but a pride in where you’re from.”
Rob has spent a significant amount of time traveling around the country and has met a lot of people from different regions, but he says he hasn’t met another group of people with as much pride in the land they inhabit as the people of Appalachia. It’s something that has always stood out to him — that, and their self-reliance.
Rob’s father was from Clay County, and he had an Aunt that lived up in an area called Stinking Creek outside of Knox County. Rob fondly remembers his family piling into the car to make the trip to visit her. She lived in a one-bedroom home with a coal burning stove and no running water. “I remember she had an outhouse, and she got her water from a well. She raised her eleven kids, and up until she passed away in her eighties, she was still helping to raise some of her grandkids.” Needless to say, Rob witnessed many examples of self-reliance even in his own family.
Rob was drawn to CAP for personal reasons and was very familiar with its presence in Appalachia. He has been blessed and has always found the importance of being generous. “It always bothered me that I hadn’t yet gotten involved in CAP, and I live in Lexington. Then one day, finally, I had a sum of money that I really wanted to give back to Appalachia and the people I grew up with.” When Rob began researching to find organizations that specifically serve the people living in Eastern Kentucky, he quickly realized that CAP fit perfectly within the type of work he wanted to contribute to. “It’s where my heart has always been. Honestly, for several years I have felt the burden weighing on me to actually do something. God really kept pushing me to give to an organization of my choice that would give me the opportunity to give back.”
Through his career as a financial advisor, Rob firmly believes he is able to make an impact on people’s lives every day. People everywhere may have financial burdens, but the people of Appalachia suffer unique challenges. “I have a rare perspective through my job when it comes to some of the financial situations that many Appalachian families face. I see my job as a type of ministry.” Rob always explains to others that, in the Bible, there are over 2,300 verses that relate to finance. “The only thing I think Christ talked about more than finance was grace.”
Our finances can often be a very important part of who we are. Rob points out that if your finances are in order, it can really allow you to live generously. He is truly able to give back every day and help others be able to do the same, all while becoming wiser with their money. When he was younger, he had to be very mature for his age, witnessing problems with money and quickly learning the financial traps to avoid. When it comes to resolving the problems of poverty in Eastern Kentucky, he firmly believes that it starts with education. “I don’t think people in Appalachia always have the same opportunities … they can be so isolated. We need to start making sure our young people are financially smart and start figuring out how we can change cycles of poverty. Education is such a huge piece, and it’s important to give people new opportunities.”
Rob wants change for the people of Appalachia, and his work with CAP is a great start.
