Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Finally Settled

We are finally settled!!!!  Although we arrived in Guatemala well over a month ago, it was not until last week Thursday that we finally moved into our rental home.   The first thing we did after we arrived was to look at a number of houses available for rent.  After a week of looking we finally settled on a house that was not yet completed, but would be done in 2 weeks according to the owner.   The house was small, but it had amenities that would suit our family like security, playground, swimming pool and basketball hoops.  However, a few days before we were supposed to take possession we were told that the house would not be ready in time.  The owner was willing to let us move in and would not charge us rent for 2 weeks.  Needless to say we did not want to rent an unfinished house.  Instead, we told the owner that we were no longer interested and instead we called the owner of the first house we had looked at and the one we loved the most to see whether or not it was still available.  The reason why we had not taken this house was because we felt that it was not as secure since there is no guard.  Safety is a big issue in Guatemala and for this reasons most people live in gated communities.  This house is not in a gated community, but Lia and I both felt that this was the house that God wanted us to rent.  We had been praying for months about the housing situation.  The owners of the house are missionaries and they had been praying for some time to find the right people to rent the house out to.  When they had seen my posting on the Guatemalan missionary bulletin they contacted us and sent us pictures.  Other people sent us responses as well, but this house stood out to us.  I felt then already that this was the house for us, but I resisted the gentle nudging because of the safety aspect.  Therefore, we initially decided not to take the house.  In the end here we are in this exact same house, because the other arrangement fell through.  I felt a  bit reprimanded through the whole process, because we were making decisions out of fear and not out of faith.  The fact of the matter is that if God wants something to happen to us it will happen whether we are living in a gated community or not.  This does not mean that we should live recklessly because this is irresponsible and wrong.  At the same time living in fear is just as wrong.   We are very happy in our new home and we do feel secure.  God has given us a sense of peace and we trust Him for our security.