Continued In 1981, we were able to pick up the church parsonage and move it north four miles to a lot we had purchased. Part 2 tells our continuing story in hopes that God would encourage you in your quest to become homeowners.
We had bought a one acre lot north of the church in the country on 24 Mile Road for $11,000 (that was lot of money then—1980). With a united church (we thought) behind us, we joyously set out to do something we had no experience in doing. But we had help.
It is true that our efforts two years before had moved the needle—people had a general awareness of our desire. But a spiritual truth is that when we pushed our agenda, little happened. But when God gave us grace to wait until someone else took up our cause, then we had to run to catch up.
We hired house movers. The exterior brick was knocked off (brick may look solid, but it is not securely connected to the home and came off with a few well-placed sledgehammer blows. It was all off in about three hours. The house looked naked like a plucked chicken). A friend dug a basement hole and the house rolled up North Avenue to 24 Mile Road.
I invested a few hours each day working on the basement. With the aid of a professional brick and block man in our church we built a basement under the house (see pictures).
But the board chairman was unhappy. About three months into the house moving project the chairman and his wife left the church. He had been chairman for all seven years I had been there. His wife sang the solos and directed all the banquets and VBS. I thought the place would sink.
Maybe he thought I was investing too much time on the house and not enough on the church. Funny that he had not been unhappy about me serving the church 60 hours a week for the first seven years I was the pastor. But I was too intimidated at the time to have peace about it. Still, I kept working on the house and the church did okay during the six months I was making it livable.
Our home was a great blessing to us. When we left five years later we had a nest egg, which has now resulted in us having a paid off house. How gracious the Lord has been to us.
And God loves you dear young (or middle-aged) couples waiting for that first home. Marilyn and I know ourselves to be sinners, yet God has allowed us to be homeowners. The Lord has a vested interest in His servants “not begging bread (Psalm 37:25 –meaning reasonably taken care of). The laborer is worthy of his hire—Luke 10:7. Marilyn and I believe home ownership is normally God’s will for His servants. Being a renter all your life does not make financial sense (unless one is middle-aged and set in their housing pattern and/or one will not be in a given location for a reasonable period of time). All things being equal, in most cases, home ownership is reasonable, logical, and not against Scripture.
Email us, providing your phone number and we will get back to you about home ownership. There is more to be said, shared, and prayed over than can fit in an article like this!
Keith & Marilyn Kaynor
[email protected]
Recent Comments