The inevitable has happened: we’ve run out of money (again). We saw it coming, and had already put Plan B into action: borrow against our unfinished home and land, and use that money to finish the house.
Now the bad news: we can’t get the loan. Three different appraisers have tried and failed to set any value on our unfinished home and the land it’s on… because there is simply nothing comparable to our house, anywhere in LA County (one appraiser really tried). No one does what we’re doing: build new, build wisely, build generously, build something to last for 100+ years, in a poor inner city neighborhood. No comps = no appraisal = no loan.
But when God wants something done, no one can tell him “no funding for you, buddy.”
First, over the past two weeks we have received about $1700 in one-time serendipitous income: debts repaid, lost check reissued, that sort of “found” money. Most of that went to pay our own living expenses, but it was very encouraging. We told God “if you want this house built, you will have to bring the money from somewhere.”
He did! Just last week an acquaintance offered, out of the blue, to loan us $2000/month for five months, interest free until 2008. This is a fraction of what we’ll need to finish the whole project, but it is enough to get us moving forward again! And we believe that, like manna, this is just the portion we need right now.
God will bring the rest. And as he does, he rewrites the story of this house. It will no longer be “the house that Jerry Nelson’s money built”. It will be the house that God built, starting with Nelson money and widening miraculously to include other generous sowers.
It’s not miraculous in a special-effects sort of way. It’s miraculous in an oil-from-the-empty-jar sort of way– this is a schoolteacher supporting us financially, not a real estate developer or even a physician or attorney!
It’s miraculous in a “if they can give so generously YOU certainly can too” sort of way.
And I include myself in that.
It is hard for me to give away a portion of this miraculous provision when I know how much more I’ll need in the future. But Plan C is already in the works: let’s trust and “C” what happens.
