The Story of Selling our House
One of the goals Brandi and I had as we embarked on this journey to move to Poland is to be open and honest with people as we move overseas, as we live overseas, and hopefully, as we make an impact in a part of the world that we pray will be our own. Often times, you get to hear great stories, or tragic stories, at the completion of the story. We felt it was important to express our experiences in the now. As a result, one of our bigger challenges so far was the sell of our home, and the struggle I had personally with that. It’s well documented and you can read about it here. This is the story of what ended up happening. It’s a pretty lengthy one. Let me backtrack a bit. Our house was a beautiful home that we redid in a really nice neighborhood of Abilene. Unfortunately, we had bought the house about five months before our first trip together to Poland in June 2016. By the end of June 2016, we knew God’s next step for our life was going to be in Krakow. So that means we only enjoyed our home for a little over two years. During that time, it really became a home for us. I don’t know if I have felt that at home in a house since maybe high school. We’ve had hundreds through that door. It’s been a place of refuge for us and for me, especially. As I told you earlier, to have struggled selling our house was the last thing on our checklist of potential headaches as we transitioned to Poland. Yet, almost four months in, there we were, still owning a home. That leads us to a series of events that only the Lord could have put in place. By the end of May, I had started to come out of the “why God?” Phase and into a more confident “God is going to come through/This is going to be a good testimony/Nothing worth having is without a price. A key part of this was a word given to us by one of the Beltway Elders as they prayed over us. It had to do with resources and the ability to push in for more than what is expected. As he spoke this word over us, I felt the Lord prompt me that the house was our sowing into this promise. It’s been one of the best resources we have had over the past two years. It was a reminder of the scope of God’s perspective verse our limited understanding. Couple this word with the night before, a group of friends came together to pray over the house and there was a consensus that God was going to do something great. As one of our friends put it, “God is going to do something cool.” So armed with this renewed confidence that God was going to do something great, we prayed and trusted through uneventful showings. Fast forward only about a week or so, we had a scheduled meeting with the Beltway AV team. Originally planned at our house, we had to switch it up and have the meeting at the church office. While there, I happened to run into the guy that took my place, Berry. We happened to end up on our house, and I mentioned that we were going to probably drop the price again, this time to x. After leaving the office, we had another meeting across town and I get a call from Berry. He said at the new price, it made perfect sense for them to pursue our house. Immediately, I remembered the word given to us a couple of weeks prior. I smiled at the symmetry of God’s plan. What better way for us to “sow” into the future nations that would be impacted coming out of Abilene than to transfer our house to a couple that would do that. To leave a legacy in Abilene and to be apart of an incredible God story for both us and for Berry and his family, it’s like God has a plan. As we closed, and looking back just nine days before we leave for Poland, I realize how perfect God’s timing was. We sold it on the perfect day for that to happen. The day we signed the papers, took one last walk through our neighborhood, and said goodbye to our house was one of the more challenging things we have done as a couple. As Brandi aptly put it, “We aren’t just walking away from the house, it’s like we are leaving the American Dream behind. Good, fulfilling jobs, beautiful home, and life as we know it has disappeared”. That’s the beauty of Jesus, taking us on the unexpected journey of selling a home to purge us of the assumption we were capable of doing it ourselves, redeeming our frustration with a legacy well beyond what we hoped for, and proving that once again, His timing is perfect. As we close this season of preparation, a couple of things have really stuck out to me:- You will never be fully ready for what God has for you. We leave for Poland in nine days. The last four days, I don’t think I’ve been more excited nor terrified of anything in my life. And I know so little/should’ve done more/am nowhere near qualified to be doing this. And I think that’s probably a good thing.
- God really is in control… and you are not. I’ve helped a lot of people step onto the mission field in the past few years. We put a great plan into place over the past two years. And the amount of stuff out of our control despite that is overwhelming to name. Despite that, I couldn’t be happier with how God has orchestrated everything. It really is Him. And when you walk through some of those interesting moments, you come out of them shaking your head and asking, what just happened? How did God do that? It’s pretty powerful.
- Pain is not necessarily bad. We intensified this journey to the mission field at the end of January. Over the past seven months, we’ve hurt. Our emotions went through a Six Flags of roller coasters. Our understanding of the faithfulness of God was challenged, and He came through. Dismantling the life we have built together in Abilene, and selling everything but the dog (and six boxes) is not a joyful process. And looking back now, the resolve that we have, the team of people with us, and the sacrifices that are necessary to put ourselves where God has called us to be are lessons I would not trade for the world.
