Friends...would you pause today and pray with us? Jan and I have to make a pretty immediate decision on housing. Our rent is jumping $327.00/month come March 10th and we have to give a 30 day notice prior to moving. This is the downside to getting a steal to begin with based on a computer error on the listing like we did last year. Bottom line, by tomorrow we will be indicating to our current housing manager our interest in staying, leaving and on what time frame. We can go month to month, but we cannot afford the rate.
Boulder County is a unique housing market. Average house price in Superior is $400,000. Louisville is a little higher and Lafayette is a touch lower. So, finding a modest home to rent or buy is challenging. Boulder is a whole other animal and not even remotely in our budget. The upside? You can rent these homes at a $400-750 discount to buying them. Bang for buck, renters have the advantage in our neighborhood when it comes to housing costs on a budget like ours. So, we want to rent for another 2-3 years and make sure we find the neighborhood we want to choose to live in long-term and then buy a house when we are 100% debt free. And free we will be indeed come fall of 2009! No consumer debt, no auto debt, no student debt, nothing. That's when we plan to start researching our buying opportunities.
I have caught some crap from family over the years for moving so frequently. We lived in North Platte for 7 years, but lived in 4 houses. But, Jan and I have always been a couple who constantly asks God to lead us in where he wants us to be and that sometimes requires us to be flexible in moving. And, I'll defend every one of those moves as prayer saturated decisions. When we moved to CO, we knew from day one that the apartment we took was only temporary and that we'd be moving again come spring 2007. In fact, all 5 families who moved here with Emmaus Road will be moving in the next 3 months. So remember all of us in prayer, if you will, as we ask God for wisdom and provision to place us exactly in the community and house of his choosing so that we will be neighbors to the folks he has predestined us to do life with.
Specifically, you can visualize this by using Google maps/earth. Take a look at Superior, Louisville, Erie, Lafayette and of course, Boulder. You'll notice that these towns are all a "front range" so to speak to Boulder and are in a great location for doing ministry across city borders. Another exciting thing is Cornerstone Church in Boulder is actually asking people in their congregation to help launch a second Emmaus Road ministry team in the city of Boulder. Yes, you read that correctly...a church is literally okay with members of their church joining another body of believers in the same community - amazing! This, paired with all the families actively looking at homes in the surrounding communities, reminds me that God is strategically placing believers in the county to do his work.
All of this just simply is encouraging to me. I just got off the phone with my wife and we were discussing how great it is to know God has it all planned out for us. He knows where we will be, who we will be living by and what kind of friendships we will be establishing. I can only imagine how excited he is about it all.
Thanks for your prayers!
--Peter
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