My little family in the BIG woods: March 2010

In our small group, we have been studying Deuteronomy and God's faithfulness to the Israelites as the went on their journey from Egypt, their wandering, and on the cusp of entering the promised land and taking hold of the inheritance that the Lord had prepared for them. One of the themes is remembering those faithful times with monuments for the coming generations. We are in such a time of obvious faithfulness...the Lord has and is moving on our behalf, and I have been encouraged to document it, so here goes.

We came to Minnesota a few years ago and moved to the middle of nowhere. It is beautiful and still and big and wide here. I know why I fell in love with it. I know even more why Ben did. But in addition to those things, it is too still. Lonely even. At least for me, who is the primary "at home" person. It is too far from what I really love. I have been blessed with amazing, out of the ordinary community here. And they have been my sanity in a lot of ways. However sometimes it feels like I see them from the other side of the fishbowl...the outside. You see when gas prices rise and little kids have naps to be taken and other concerns, it is difficult to access that amazing network. It takes an hour of packing up and driving to get to and from anywhere--which means I need to bring snacks, meals, and all kinds of things just to go out for a 15 minute errand! And the gas! A 15 minute errand? Yeah right! I learned a long time ago to bundle my errands, because we can't afford to go into town every day--I tried that. :) So as much as I have been blessed here, I was still having a hard time.

Ben has been so diligent in completing school while we have been here. He has worked his tail end off, and the Lord blessed us with the opportunity to move to Iowa, into a town, with Ben moving up as the Camp Director at Pine Lake Christian Camp.

It has been a possibility for almost 2 years. And we were eager to jump at it, but then the practical stuff started looking almost impossible! Turns out we bought our house at the absolute peak of the market. We cannot expect to sell it for less than a $30,000 loss. That's nearly 1/3 of it's value! I was so disheartened to find this out.

We went to visit at Pine Lake in November, and I remember the current director, Roger, praying for God to move mightily and reward our step out in faith. I thought--yeah, that would be amazing, but how will that work out? What could possibly keep that huge financial loss from happening? Well, never put God in a box! I know all the reasons it wasn't going to work, let me tell you now how it is...

Our bank agreed to a short sale, which basically means that they are going to suck up whatever is lost on the house instead of us...leaving our credit intact. They will mess with lowering the price and all that jazz. Then the Lord brought a friend back into the area looking for a place to rent, and our house is the perfect fit for her and her daughter! And Ben's dad offered to help do the handyman type stuff for them while we are away.

Then we found a house in Iowa for sale that we really liked but couldn't afford until our house sells...and we set up an appointment with a Realtor to look at one we might be able to afford. While looking at and deciding that it wasn't for us, we found out the house we liked was being rented. We asked when we got back if they would be interested in renting it to us. And their current renters were moving out the week before we need to move in--what timing!

Oh, and did I mention that someone approached us about buying our second car--the one we had decided to get rid of, because we won't need it when we live in town?! Crazy!

Everything about this has been so amazing! Proving the Lord's faithfulness again and again.

We are in the middle of getting ready to move, and it has been a zoo! Please pray that the moving and getting all the work done on our house so it is ready for our friend goes smoothly, and then that we are able to get plugged in to the community down in Iowa quickly. I'm positive that the Lord will continue in His faithfulness, but praying always helps!