(And the revelation of a Divine plan unfolding over the past 3 years!)

Background:  In 1977-’78 Mike and I surrendered our lives to Christ, through the ministry of Deeper Life Ministries. By 1978 we already had a 2 year old and a young baby. We were living in a lovely townhouse in Kingston, Jamaica, that we’d just bought through a lease-purchase agreement with a bank. We were quite pleased with it. However, as Mike began to learn from the Scriptures, one of the first teachings that really sunk into his spirit was about returning a tithe to God – 10% of the income with which He’d blessed us. Mike was a young technician, I was a young teacher, we had 2 infants and all the attendant expenses, and NOW we had a mortgage for the first time in our lives. So we were on such a tight budget that Mike couldn’t see us making ends meet if we gave 10% off the top, back to God. What we did and the fullness of the testimony that ensued was told in TGIF: Thank God It’s Friday, at pages 167-175, entitled “A home on the altar.” To cut that exciting story short, we gave up the house and became renters again in order to start tithing, but there were three unexpected results. First, within a year God had bestowed on us a large house for our fast-growing family (3 children by then); secondly, we became facilitators of housing for some others; and finally, we have never again been in want for housing. Over the years we learned that the 10% was just a baseline – a starting point of faithful giving to God’s work.

Fast-forward about 37 years, to 2017 when we downsized to live once more in a townhouse – this time in Ottawa, Canada, quite close to our youngest son and daughter and their families. Two years later, our son and his wife told us they were moving out of the city to a little town we’d never heard of, about an hour’s drive away (at our speed). That wasn’t really welcome news, but they said the LORD was leading them and they were following His lead. So off they went. In the three years since then, we haven’t been able to visit each other often (Covid not helping); but Mike and I came to realize that God had indeed led them there. Quickly they overcame an initial language barrier as well as the challenge of being the only family of colour in their immediate neighbourhood, and soon they were enjoying excellent relationships within the community.  Last Christmas they ordered ten of my Carrot Medley Loaves as gifts which they distributed to their ten closest neighbours. One lady texted her thanks to my number on the label, thinking it was my son’s number. She identified herself, her husband and their address, which was a different street address from our son’s home.  We exchanged a couple of messages, including a link to my blogged carrot cake testimony, before we realized the mistake and ended with final pleasantries. Her parting remark was, “Your journey is very interesting; thank you so much for sharing.” I relayed her thanks to our son, but neither he nor I thought any more about it.

This summer Mike and I began to feel an urge to leave the city, so we embarked on a survey of houses for sale in the suburbs within 30 minutes drive east of Ottawa. With a list of our current requirements – some now health related, as well as considerations of comfort and price-point, we searched in vain for about two months. After taking our agent traipsing around the countryside to show us several houses, we saw one advertized in the same town where our son lives. It was priced right for us, but we’d never before thought of moving so far out of the city. Hesitantly, we arranged for a July 22 viewing, but were disappointed because the house didn’t prove suitable for us. However, that same afternoon as we turned around to return home, our son told us that a ‘Coming Soon’ sign had just been placed on his neighbor’s lawn across the street and he would alert us when it changed to ‘For Sale’. We did a drive-by before returning to the city and saw the bungalow on a corner lot of the road facing our son’s home – with a different street address but still next-door.  However, from its appearance we thought it would surely be listed above our price point.

Two days later our son contacted Mike again, to say he’d asked the listing agent for an idea of the asking price and she’d given him a ball-park figure. It wasn’t within our desired range, but not too far out. It would take a bit more faith, but both our son and his wife were already on a campaign of encouraging us to consider that house. On the morning of July 26 the For Sale ad went online with 30 great indoor and backyard photos, and confirming a price we could consider. The photos showed that if this was the house God had for us, He’d gone way above and beyond the simple wish list we’d placed before Him! Needless to say, we and all our local family members began to pray for God’s will regarding this house.

Our son was traveling on a hectic work assignment, so our communication for the next couple of days was mainly with his wife, and she expressed even more eagerness for us to pursue this house than he had. Meanwhile, we had continued to search the ads for less distant opportunities. On the afternoon of July 26 we were actually doing a drive-by of another advertized country home, when our daughter-in-law finally convinced us of her eagerness, on the phone. So, by the following day we were viewing the ‘next-door’ home with our agent. The following morning I called an intercessor friend and told her of our urgent need for divine guidance, and the specific reason. My call reached her as she prayer-walked, and then I sent an urgent prayer request for wisdom to the whats-app group of friends that she leads, but without giving the specific reason.  By that afternoon we had received enough Divine reassurance to submit an offer to the sellers, along with a letter explaining our relationship to their neighbor. (The letter was the suggestion of our daughter-in-law.) By that same night we had negotiated through one counter-offer to have our second offer accepted, with the mediation of agents at both ends, (because in routine Canadian real estate negotiations sellers and buyers only communicate through their agents).

Given the ‘bidding war’ trends in recent Ontario real estate dealings, we realized that this was an absolute miracle – for the owners to settle so early rather than waiting for higher bids!  No-one could quite believe it, except when we reminded ourselves that our Abba (Father) was King of the Universe. It was only as we signed the official documents that He brought something else to our attention and amazement. The names of the sellers and the address of the home were somehow familiar – yes… yes… yes… I searched my phone and there it was! The wife was the same lady who had texted me – a stranger, by mistake – to say thanks for the Carrot Medley Loaf that our son had given her last Christmas. Neither he nor I had made the connection before, but the sellers would certainly have – from our letter!

In the business days of the following week, we got green lights all the way. First the sellers immediately had something repaired that might otherwise have raised issues on an inspection report. Then the house inspection, septic inspection and financing arrangements all went well, so that by midweek all the paperwork had been completed – pending the closing in a few months’ time.

Now, while disregarding the recently unfavourable trends in the sellers’ market and interest rates, we’re looking steadfastly to our Abba, YHVH Jireh, for the timely sale of our townhouse to complete what He obviously started. And in the meantime, guess what? For our young real estate agent who has served us very well indeed, as an earnest of all that’s coming to him, we brought him a Carrot Medley Loaf which he said he thoroughly enjoyed, and sent him a link to my Carrot Medley Loaf testimony to share more with him on the goodness of our God! 

———————————————————————————

[This testimony was shared privately in August, only with family and intercessor friends, pending the manifestation of the ‘done deal’ – God’s work completed in this matter, when the sale of our townhouse would free up the funds to ‘close’ on the new purchase. I refrained from sharing publicly in August to avoid possibly jeopardizing the confidentiality of the process and the participants; but now, in early October, God has brought our sale to pass a whole month earlier than we anticipated; so now I can post this testimony here. Soon I’ll be able to pen the sequel, about the circumstances of our sale. It’s quite a God-story, waiting to be written.]