House Hunters International

There is a show that Dave and I like to watch on YouTube, called House Hunters International.  It's a reality show where a person or couple moves somewhere outside of the States and the cameras follow them on their quest.  They always look at three houses, throw around some clever banter about the pros and cons of each, pick one, and then there are some quick shots of the chosen house three months after they move in, and usually the people do a voice-over about how subliminally happy they are with their choice.  The show is 25minutes long.  

This past week we did our own version, but the difference was that we were not aided by a local real estate agent, nor were we followed around by a camera team.  On Wednesday we drove our trusty new Jeep, Matilda the Tank, and arrived at the lake in time to look at three houses before dinner time.  One had previously been used as a yoga studio, and the walls of the other two were covered with art of Buddah and other stuff. All three houses had a dark presence over them, the second house so thick with demons I could hardly breath inside.  We knew we'd have to keep looking. We prayed together as a family, slept at a friend's house, and started fresh the next day.  

Day two we looked into 15 houses.  Every one has some sort of inexcusable flaw.  Either they were too expensive, too small, moldy, no yard, no windows, full of demons, too expensive, no parking, had a weird layout with the bedroom separate from the rest of the house, or had obvious dangers like rickety stairs or no railing on the porch.  Most houses had a combination of a few, or all of the above.  

It was incredibly frustrating, but we stuck with it all day, driving from town to town, calling every number we found of anyone with a rental property.  By the time we returned to our friends' house for dinner I was ready to pack up the truck and leave forever.  I told Dave I thought maybe God was closing the door for us to live at the lake.  My ever-steady husband said, "I think we just have to hang on.  God isn't done yet."  I reluctantly agreed with him, but I felt very discouraged.  At that point, including the houses we looked at during the DTS Outreach, we had seen 23 properties.

The next morning we decided to relax, that we needed a break from the stress of house hunting, so we took a boat across the lake to a village to take part in an organic farm tour happening that morning.  We hiked up the mountain to the farm and enjoyed learning about permaculture, and petting the goats and dogs. We had lunch out and then went back to our friends' house early to rest.  

As soon as we got there, our friends told us they had a house for us to see.  We drove over before dinner and found THE house!  With a big yard, four bedrooms, no mold, and surrounded by peaceful trees and coffee farms, we agreed to live there on the spot!  The house is owned by our friend's uncle, and he offered us a really low price because we are missionaries and he wanted to rent it to people who would use it for God's glory!  We are even allowed to have chickens if we want!  

We are now at the base, getting the last of our stuff ready to go.  We prayed for so long that God would give us a nice place to call home; and now He has!  Unlike a TV show, it took 23 houses instead of 3... But God never forgot about us, and was leading our family to a place we can really make our own.  

Number 24 the win!  We move in two days!  

  Dave and Z eating dinner at our friend's house after a long day driving around.