Yesterday (April 21) was the one-year anniversary of the dedication of our miracle home. It was also my YWAMiversary (18 years in YWAM!). I found myself reflecting on not only the incredible, exciting, miraculous things that happened to get us into our home, but also the hard, frustrating, and stretching times. God was in all of it. I would not change any of it. Often, when I share our home story I am struck with longing to be once again in the insecure moments. Through this journey, we had to walk closely with the Lord. It would be and was so easy to fall back into that bad attitude and hate the process again. Instead, I drew close to the Lord and when questions were yet to be answered, breakthrough was yet to happen, He was close.
After our friends and we paid for the land we began the next phase. This included figuring out how to sub-divide the land, actually sub-dividing the land, developing the land, paying lawyers to help us put the land into our names legally, planning succession, finding architects, drawing up plans, figuring out building materials, meetings, meetings, paperwork, and more paperwork. Yes, it was as arduous as it sounds.
Let me break it down. We had an idea of how to divide the land, some above, some below, but because of road access, the city would not approve that plan. Then we decided to do townhomes, but the city would not approve the permits we had for that kind of structure. Once we were set on the boundary lines, we had to decide on the size of the homes. All of this had to be discussed and decided in a group with our six families. Imagine trying to figure out these things with your spouse or a family member, someone who has a different way of viewing the world and different priorities for the use of the home. Even though you are working together and have many of the same goals, you are two totally different humans. Now imagine that plus 10 other people with different families and priorities. Many days there was a wonderful comradery, walking alongside one another, some days there was tension as we were all stretched through financial strain, long timelines, and group decision-making on something that was so close to the heart—our homes! Our community project was named Hope Vistas and we desperately needed hope.
This part of the journey ran for about a year and a half. During this time we were constantly bombarded with more money due to the paperwork, and groundwork before we were ever able to break ground. It was incredible—and scary—and fantastic—and stressful. We would find out some amount of money was due and just at the right moment, we would have that money. Other times we would receive some money and the next day that money was due for payment. It is like I couldn’t catch my breath from payments due but then God would take my breath away with how he provided for EVERY NEED.
Like a high-intensity interval workout, it was exhausting, but slowly my faith grew and strengthened in time. Ephesians 2:8-9 says that faith is a gift to us. It wasn’t something I had to conjure by the strength of will to be the magic combination to make God provide for us. He just provided because He said He would and He loves us. Yet those payments for the groundwork were only part of the gift. He was also gifting me strong faith. Little did I know how much I would need that faith groundwork as we entered the next phase of our miracle home project. Part four gets wild. Stay tuned!
Comments