Could God Be Up To Something?

Well, we are back! We went to East Tennessee to find a place to live in our price range and guess what? You’ll have to wait until I get to it:) We took off about 5 AM Monday morning after another busy Sunday of services so you know it was a “happy” car-full. Although we were going to our favorite vacation retreat center in the world, (and the one who has the awesome pastor discount!) it wasn’t going to be a vacation. We were driving nine hours to spend one day looking for a rental home and drive nine hours back the following day. Brutal! We told everyone we were going to look at the “prospects” we found, what we didn’t expect to find out was that there was none to look at when we arrived. Our extremely helpful real estate agent basically struck out adding that there were usually a bunch but this time there was nothing in our price range except a little house that was way too small for us and a “possible“ place for rent from some guy named Doug who owned a store in town. We were very depressed after arriving around 4 PM. We decided to drive around town and find the rentals for ourselves. Three hours later we found nothing but “for sale” houses and only one rental we couldn’t even afford to drool over. We got back to the cabin totally bummed out. The only thing left was to try to call Doug, whoever that was.

Well we looked up the business in the phone book and tried to call...no answer, it was closed for the day. Let’s just say that it was not the “happy camper” family that went to sleep that night. We did a lot of praying and I got up early the next morning still praying. Then we called the business again. Doug answered and said that he did have a place for rent but we couldn’t see it. It seems it was vacated (abandoned is more like it) by a family staying there from Texas after Katrina. They really roughed the place up and left it full of junk and he said it was too messy to show. I felt that propriety was a non-issue at this point and I said that we really needed to see something before we went home adding, very emphatically, that we did not care how messy it was!

Now we had been praying for a number of things regarding a place to live. We really wanted our own place, not an apartment. We did not want to live in the larger city in the area but in a more country setting. And, we wanted to be allowed to have our cat with us (she’s been with us ten years...gee whiz, give us a break!) . Then, getting really greedy, we wanted the kids to have their own rooms still. And when I felt like pushing it to the limit, I would “remind” the Lord that we felt he was leading us to start a home worship service and we would need space in our living room to do that. All this for $500 a month or less! Yeah...that’s what I thought too...crazy!

Doug agreed to show us the place and gave us the address saying that it was a three-bedroom (one point!). We got there and found an older but pretty well maintained manufactured home on a pretty mountain road and through the trees in the back yard we could see mountains in the distance (two points!). We walked in and found a large main living room/dining area combined (three points!) and a huge screened in back porch (bonus point!). When I asked about pets he just said, “no problem”. That was it, no pet deposit, no distasteful bitter “sorry, no pets” just, “no problem” (five points!). I like this guy already! Then he showed us the hot tub in a separate porch area (he just broke the grade curve!). Don’t get the wrong idea, it was just an older mobile home and not the Hilton. BUT TALK ABOUT AN ANSWER TO PRAYER!!!

So to make a long story longer, Doug and I shook hands on the deal, we paid our deposit and are moving in ten days. We get to keep the cat. And since we are up in the mountains, we will be adding a dog to the family (which my son has longed passionately for ever since he was old enough to imitate one). We have enough room to do lots of stuff, near the city (10-15 minutes) but still out in the country, have a mountain view (and a hot tub...woohoo!) and we are wondering how we could have ever doubted the God who called us out. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. More than this answer to prayer is the affirmation of the truth that God is orchestrating everything, He definitely goes ahead of us and we don’t have to worry about my job or how we will be cared for. He is our sustenance...

Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:3-4 NKJV).