New Casa search

This past weekend Jamie and I headed to Columbia to find a place to rent. We had a good list of 10-ish places to check out and were sure we'd find mroe driving around. We got there and had a few hours to look before dark. Immediately we found out our #1 and #2 choices were rented out last week, oh well..moving on. The rest of our list was either not in a safe area or WAY out of our price range. Housing is much cheaper to buy in Columbia than in the ATL and so we couldn't figure out why it was so expensive to rent. Apparently they have some ridiculous taxes on rental homes. By late afternoon on day two we were bummed and out of options.

We continued praying and asking everyone to pray for us. We had about 3 hours of daylight left and only 4 hours the next day before we had to leave town and head back to GA. So, we started grabbing flyers for homes that were for sale and Jamie starting calling them to see if they would consider renting. One realtor Jamie was talking with initially had nothing for us,but then she called back and started asking more questions. He shared with her about moving here to start a church and she began telling him all about her personal church experience and asked if we wouldlet her know when we get started. Then she said she knew a builder in the neighborhood we were looking in and gave us her number. She said she wouldn't make anything off it and just wanted to help us out.

We called the builder and she and her husband showed us a few properties that we knew were totally out of our price range, but she said she was very motivated. Basically, everything at this point had been out of our price range, so it wasn't a surprise. She offered it to us at a price we could afford and it was a done deal just before we had to leave town to come back to GA. Turns out they live there too and she has a grand daughter B's age that lives downt he street too. We are also thrilled that one of the few couples in the church that we have met live a street over from us.

We knew God would provide, we just didn't know what that would look like. I had a feeling it would be a relational connection and it happened in a way that only God would have orchestrated. It was very scary with plenty of panic and doubt opportunities. We jsut kept reminding each other that this is God's thing and if He wants us here He has it all worked out. We just keep doing the next thing He puts before us. Now we have a realtor and this builder couple interested in Awaken Church and realtionships with a few families in our neighborhood and we're not even there yet. How awesome is that?

Thanks God!