Where we have come from Part 2

We were, at one point in our tempestuous history as a family, homeless.  Don't get me wrong:  not the 'living on the streets, begging for food, sheltering under an overpass' kind of homeless.  We were sheltered by the family we inherited as part of joining God's Kingdom, church family, family by The Blood rather than blood family.  With two kids, both under three, it was not an easy time, but I don't want to make out it was that difficult either.  It was the discomfort of close community, of being guests, of having no space to call your own, of uncertainty and anxiety about the future and the pride-breaking charity of others.  It was good in the way that the gym is good: hard work, discomfort and results you cant see immediately but you feel down deep in the fiber of your muscles.

During this time I was confused and not a little dismayed.   We looked at housing but my wage only allowed us to consider places that literally made my wife cry.  Dripping, black and furry damp, cold with no internal heating, single glazed windows where the breeze visibly lifted the curtains when the window was shut  Not good.

So I went out one day on the farm we were staying at, took my Bible and, like Jacob, said to God "I'm not moving till you bless me", sitting down and struggling in prayer as I asked God what He wanted me to do.  An hour passed, then two, and all I was getting was bone cold and further discouraged.  I attempted to build a kind of alter, realizing as it collapsed that I was still trying to do something to reccomend myself, my cause, to God.  To blackmail Him really.  Finally I surrendered, sat, opened my Bible and read, ignoring my own voice, ignoring the doubts and fears that battled with my faith.  I read and read.  Another hour passed.

But by now I was not seeking God for what He could do for me.  Nor was I trying to recommend myself to Him with my actions.  I was just seeking His face, seeking Him for Him.

At that point, 7 years ago, he asked me clearly what I wanted, then gave me a vision for "a house of many rooms, that The LORD would build, where the orphan would find sanctuary".  His vision, my heart's desire.

This did not answer my questions.   It did not get me and my family a home of our own immediately.  It seemed impossible.  But He spoke, and the rest became suddenly less important.

We have been praying about this vision ever since then.  Asked others to pray.  Asked Him to bring about what He said He would, never moving a step in our own strength to attempt to make it happe, as we had no strength to bring it about without His action on our behalf.

Now I sit in a 'Kingdom built' house, many roomed, and one we hope to make a peaceful place where anyone abandoned by family can find new family.  We offer it as sanctuary. 

And this is just the beginning.