What a joy to share this news with you! After sporadically looking at the real estate market for the past couple years, we gained a good understanding of how the market has changed over that time. We officially purchased this land on November 19, and are looking to raise $16,000 by February to begin construction. We feel tremendous peace about this purchase and all that the LORD has for us in this new beginning. Here’s a Google Maps link so you can see the satellite image: https://goo.gl/maps/Dj5kQ1LawFJE4JDf9
First, here’s a little background. Jessenia originally saw this piece of property one year ago and immediately liked it. Several months later, she came back to it and took me to see it. I liked it as well, and the asking price had dropped from $60,000 to $38,000 as the owner needed to sell.
But we were still intent on finding a property with at least one house on it already, so we moved on. When Covid-19 hit hard, we put everything on hold and stopped looking.
Now, I need to share some of the personal difficulty I mentioned in previous posts, as it was a stimulus to this purchase. We found out at the end of September that Jessenia was pregnant. We were not expecting this news, but it certainly got us thinking about the future. A week later, Jessenia started bleeding a little bit. This obviously drove us to our knees as we continuously sought to give the baby and our fears and doubts to the LORD. It was a pretty remarkable process. The depths of emotion and crisis of faith were profound; but greater the unspeakable joy and gratitude the Holy Spirit so often provided as we relentlessly pursued Him. In October’s post I mentioned how our prayers often resembled Psalms, starting out in anguish and torment only to be filled with praise, joy, and confidence by the end. God truly IS Awesome.
By the time we received the news that the baby never developed into an embryo, both Jessenia and I had relative peace. We had told Jeruahel, who was super excited, and it broke our hearts to think of her disappointment. But in fulfillment of our prayers, she took it with beautiful innocence and continues to talk about when God puts a baby in Mommy’s belly for real.
Of course it was still tearful and tragic for us. However, through the pain we had come to the LORD in a new way, and come back to Him in a renewed way. The unity we felt as a couple was unparalleled in our prior experience. His Grace was more than sufficient for us, and there was a genuine sweetness to our interactions that aren’t customary for us. After initially feeling uncertain about having another child, Jessenia came through both certain she does want another one, and filled with gratitude to the LORD for Jeruahel. I, too, am certain that I want another child, and after giving Jessenia’s body time to heal, we will begin trying.
Amidst the ceaseless prayers, our future home was brought to the forefront again. Jessenia’s cousin showed her a piece of property she wanted to buy, but it wasn’t very nice. Jessenia took her cousin to this property, where the owner was willing to sell lots. By this time, the price of our lot (1/3 acre) was down to $30,000. Jessenia was ready to make the purchase. While I was praying, the LORD filled me with peace and provided excitement over the prospect of this land. We went to see it several times, met the owner, checked all the paperwork, and proposed the purchase to our board. They were excited about it, and especially had tremendous peace given that Jessenia and I were actually united in this purchase–something that hasn’t happened often. We all continued to pray and offer it up to the LORD, and He continued to lead us forward. The faithful support through so many of you gave us the confidence to take the step of faith, and now we own the land, with Jessenia’s cousin as our first neighbor.
Hopefully you can see in the pictures that the land is essentially a long rectangle. It is 1,410 square meters, or about 1/3 of an acre. It is in the same area of Managua we’ve always been. It is 3 miles from the children’s school, and 1 mile from where we plan to send Jeruahel long term. The purchase was made as one piece, but we will internally divide it as the back half for the Bains and the front half for EdificaSion. The plan is to build a wall around the entire property and then build the ministry house on the EdificaSion side and the Bain house on our side. There will still be plenty of room to do more on the property as the LORD leads.
Financially, we will also pay for things half and half. We Bains have been saving for years, and with fundraising for EdificaSion we hope to be able to build the wall and houses together in 2021. Right now we are finishing what I will call Phase 1–the land purchase and legal fees of getting the property title in our name. Beginning early 2021, we hope to have raised enough money for Phase 2–clearing the land and building a wall around the perimeter. As soon as that is finished, we’ll be ready for Phase 3–building the houses. A simple financial breakdown for total costs is as follows:
Phase 1–land purchase and legal fees– $31,000. All major fees paid and documents submitted. *Expecting title to be ready and property taxes assessed in January.
Phase 2–clear land & build perimeter wall–$16,000. Hope to start February 2021
Phase 3–build houses–$50,000. Will begin as soon as funds allow.
Once we are able to move into the new houses, we will save roughly $12,000/year on rent! It would essentially pay for itself after 8 years. It would certainly be a blessing to be able to raise this money and build the houses in 2021. We have had a few year end donations come in that seem to be in response to this purchase and the need to build. Thank you. As you can see above, we are hoping to raise $16,000 between now and February to clear the land and build the wall. We continue to trust the LORD for His Provision for all we need. We wouldn’t be here without the faithful support of so many of you, and we thank the LORD for you. Please pray and consider how you might be a part of the next phase of our ministry as we follow the LORD’s leading.