the House Project 

October 12th, 2025

"My plans, not yours." 

Plans and visions

We would like to create a place where people can come and feel safe, where the peace and the presence of God are tangible. We see worship nights in our upper room, where we can come and pray and worship and build up each other, practicing spiritual gifts. We see meals cooked for church lunch in our kitchen (we eat together every week). We see friends, young and older, come by and grab some coffee or tea and be encouraged. We see neighbors coming over and sitting by the fire as we talk about life and hope, and freedom. We see young adults come and live with us as they transition into a new season and are in need of counsel and help.  We see team meetings held in our dining room and mission teams staying in our guest rooms. 

We see a lot of possibilities. But what will happen, the Lord knows. Please pray for us that every step of the way, we would prayerfully consider what is next and have the wisdom to make the right decisions. 

Challenges

We moved into our house exactly a month ago. It has been such a blessing to harvest our own fruit (that we have not yet worked for), and explore all the potential it holds. Although many evenings, as I lie down, worrysome thoughts flee my mind, about how we are going to do this, how we are going to get all the tasks done, and how we are going to finance it, not alone maintain it. And every time, the Spirit touches my heart and reminds me of the way we got this place, how that was a miracle, He reminds me how He has been sustaining us for years, even when our support level was critically low, how it's His ways and not mine, and I don't have to find a solution to everything.

It has been challenging to communicate in 2 languages (many times I feel like I lost them both). The house requires more extensive renovations than we initially thought. Many things we hoped could wait; they will need to be done sooner. For example, fully redoing the kitchen needs to be done now, and very soon we will need to change the boiler that is supplying the heating for the whole house.  The bathrooms will need to be renovated next year (the upstairs shower is hard to use for adults), and the floor needs to be leveled before we can put any flooring down. The inside doors don't really close, and none of them can be locked, so many will need to be changed for privacy. As anyone who owns a house knows that these things just come with having a house; however, these are just things we were not expecting. :)

The next step for us is to finish the kitchen as soon as possible and clean up the dust everywhere so we can actually have people visiting us. 

Since many of our friends mentioned that they would like to help us in some way, we put together a registry and a list of things we will need to settle into our new home and serve those around us. If you are interested, you can find more info here.