Thursday, February 25, 2010

How we got here - Part 4

Results of buying our home


It is always a good idea to share what God has done in answering prayer, so in this story of getting to Parkville, I would be remiss if I did not give Him glory (see Acts 12:23). God is answering our prayer to get out of debt. When we sold our house in Spring Hill, we were anticipating a subsidy recapture of about $8,000 to be taken out of whatever our proceeds of the sell would be. On the day of our closing we were surprised to see this number was NOT subtracted from our proceeds. After much anxiety (about a possible delay on closing) and a number of phone calls, it was decided that this was no mistake! Hallelujah!


During our house search, we learned the first time home buyers credit (something we would not have qualified for) was extended to those who had lived in their previous home for five years. So here comes another $6,500!

After we closed on the house we bought in Parkville (after the discouragement of not being in our new house by Christmas … or New Year’s) we now qualified for a new HOPE tax credit on our real estate tax, of $1,200!

God came through on a number of fronts in answering our plea to Him for giving us freedom from our debt. All this was coming in during our time in Smithville when rent was only $300 a month plus utilities!


All this allowed us to move and buy some ‘necessities’ and some non-essentials, while still paying off both credit cards and putting us in position to completely pay off our minivan when our large tax return arrives in the next month or two.


Amazingly, if you add up what our debt was (two credit cards and the minivan) it comes to roughly $23,500. The unexpected windfall above adds to almost exactly that same amount! Praise the Lord! If anyone thinks that our God is not faithful, please consider our story. God brought conviction to our hearts, took us to our knees. We then did what anyone would do in that situation. We looked up, to Christ. We trusted He could do it. And He acted! Psalm 37:5.


We’re in a home we love. We are excited about ministry where we’re at. And our debt is well on the way out, with my school loans (and the mortgage of course) the last remaining obstacle.

Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act. (Psalm 37:5)

2 comments:

Mike said...

My wife wisely reminded me that many have prayed for us during this time. We are incredibly grateful for that! While I failed to mention this obvious fact in the very long story above, I will now say that one of the reasons we wrote this was to honor God by letting those who prayed for us see what God is doing with their prayers! God does great things, but He often likes to make prayer the means for accomplishing those great things! Soli Deo Gloria!

Josh and Shawna said...

Mike -- I stumbled upon these four posts via Twitter. What a blessing to read; you did a great job outlining every trial, bit of grace, and unexpected turn. I would to love to catch up sometime, and I'm so happy the Lord is such a vital part of your lives.

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