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| This is our wonderful realtor, Tere, walking down the front steps of "our" house. |
I have been posting updates on the house purchase on Facebook, but have come to realize that often I miss peoples posts, and perhaps some of you have been missing my posts, too. A good number of my supporters, also, do not use Facebook. I apologize for not keeping you all better informed.
About a week ago I went to do a walk through of the house, and took Dick with me so he could finally see the house. I had been the only one here who had actually seen it, and I was a bit concerned that maybe it was not as good as I thought it was. (You know how easy it is to come to doubt yourself---or at least for me not to trust myself and/or my memory!) I am happy to report that Dick fully approved of the house, and, after measuring doorways and rooms agreed that it would serve us well. We found a few things we asked to have fixed by the owner, but we are moving toward the date of our move which we have set for the last week in October.
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| This pool is right outside our front door. It has a shallow seating area in the circular part that will be perfect for our guys. We we somewhat surprised to find that the water was fairly warm on the day we were there! |
Before all this can happen, though, we have another payment to make, due August 1. We have the majority of this payment as cash in hand, but still need around $1000. Please pray with us that God will provide the extra funds needed to make this payment on time!
If you have ever thought of supporting us, or Casa de Esperanza, this would be an excellent time to do so. For just $85 you can purchase one square foot of our new home. Would you consider helping us give our guys a permanent home?
We already have 471 square feet paid for, and will be paying for at least 153 more square feet in August. That leaves us about `1375 feet to pay for before February, 2016 when our final payment is due.
We would like to have as much of the house paid for before we move in to lower the rent we will be paying between move in and the final payment. The rate we will be paying is 1% of whatever balance is due at the time we take possession. The more we have paid off, the lower will be our rent.
I have to be honest. If I let myself think too much about this, I start to wonder if I have made a colossal mistake. Yet, whenever I pray about this, I get prompted to move forward with confidence. When I talk to more experienced missionaries here in Guatemala, I am told that they can't believe what a good price we got from the buyer. It still is $30,000 less than anything else I have seen come one the market which might even be comparable.
The somewhat discouraging part is that as I am looking into the possibility of taking out a mortgage if we don't raise the full amount by February, I am finding it to be complicated. First, the house is in a condominium, and even though we will own the actual land the house sits on, the banks are hesitant to give mortgages on these properties. I'm still talking to different companies, but, since I don't want to take out a mortgage right now, they are not very helpful.
Secondly, the owner of the land lives in the US and the payments are made by transferring funds from one US account to another. This makes Guatemalan banks hesitant to even talk about giving us a loan, even though we will have a valuable piece of property to use as collateral.
Third, I'm not sure that I am always totally understanding these conversations. I need to find an good accountant here who speaks good English and can help me with this. My Spanish is so much better than it used to be, but while I have learned the vocabulary for car repairs and educational concepts, my financial vocabulary is lacking, and in Spanish, the ending of a single word can significantly change the meaning of what is said.
Ideally, we will find one or more people in the US that will give us private financing if we need it. I can't imagine how this would work, but I know it can if God moves in this way. Please pray that if God is moving anyone to do this, they will come forward.
Of course, I know God can provide these funds in an instant. (Who would have thought that, though His people, he would raise $50,000 in one weekend?) I don't want my preparations for "what if" to get in His way. On the other hand, I don't want to be irresponsible. Pray for balance in the way in which I am dealing with this.
So there you are. This is where we are currently standing with the house. I am anxious to see what God will do next. I want to be open to whatever He leads us to do in partnering with Him to make this happen.
How about you?
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