For those who care ... the housing situation

Here's the email I sent to my dear friend Desiree the other day. It will explain what's going on with our housing.

Hello wonderful Desiree!

I miss you, and I mean it! It's crazy how quickly you have escalating into being one of my favorite people. :-) I hope that you are having a wonderful break in South Dakota, and that the weather in Hot Springs is super nice. HOWEVER, if you return with a tan, our friendship might be strained. It snowed here tonight. I do not get Minnesota weather.

I appreciate your prayers so much; I admire your devotion to prayer, Des.

Here's the deal. I'll make it concise, although it started last JULY.

July 06: we get a notice from the city of Arden Hills saying that we are only allowed to have four cars in our driveway (a bit difficult with 8 vehicles!). We freak out, but our landlord says no problem, don't worry about it.

December 06: we get a second notice from the city. Landlord says no worries, working on it. Not a big deal.

March 07:
Sunday: we get a third notice from the city. They are serious and will issue citations if we have more than four vehicles in the driveway starting Monday, March 19th. I talk to one of our landlords (who was fixing something at our house). THIS NEEDS TO BE DEALT WITH. CALL THE CITY TOMORROW AND THEN CALL ME. I wasn't super worried because the landlords seemed calm about the whole thing.

Monday: crap hits the fan. The landlord calls the city and ... there's no way around it. Sorry, four cars in the driveway. So we can put two in our garage and 4 in the driveway, but we have to do a workaround temporary thing with two cars til we figure things out.

(Monday also includes jackie lea laying the SMACK DOWN with the landlord.)

Now: we are waiting to see what is going to happen. It seems pretty clear that only 6 people can live in this house from here on out, but if the landlords don't decrease the rent, then we might have to move.

I love the house, but I'm open to other things.

I've been sharing Bible verses with my students lately from 2 Chronicles 20 and from the Psalms. The first has people wanting to make war on the king of Judah and he basically says to God, "We are helpless against this great multitude. Nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You." And in Psalms, it says, "I will counsel you with My eye upon you." What an amazing complement the two are! Our eyes are on God, and His eye is on us. As believers, we should feel so cradled and secure in that.

During this ordeal, I am trying to trust God and hold on to those verses. I don't want to just tell my prospective students to trust God and then not do the same myself. I think that He is making me more comfortable and okay (and even excited!) about the possibilities that might come from this! How exciting is that!!!!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS. Please don't stop!

Rather overwhelming, eh?

And yet, God's eye is upon us. I want to keep mine on Him.

I love you, Des. Keep praying!!! About our housing stuff (Karin's in Guatemala and has no idea any of this is even happening!), and about your housing stuff, and about Haley's housing stuff, and altogether, that God's perfect will would be done in our lives.

You know what? He sure is good. And I do trust that He will work things out.

Love you lots and see you soon!
jackie lea