Your Hand Hath Provided (House Update)
Before we moved to Kenya I was very concerned about finding a house. Every time people would ask how to pray for us I would go into great detail about how I would appreciate prayers for our house search when we arrive to Nairobi.
Spoiler Alert: We have been in our house for over a month. Praise the Good Lord! I had a friend ask me about the details of how God led us to the house recently so I wanted to share the story here- 1. for the benefit of others who might be curious as well and 2. For my forgetful brain to have a written record of how God has provided. I am way to quick to forget the way He answers our prayers abundantly and I often need written reminders for it to sink in my brain how great of a provider He is.
I often think that when I ask God to make something clear to me (like which house to move into) that He will be loud about it. I hope for billboards that point a certain direction and dreams that leave me with all the answers in the morning. However, the longer I’ve journeyed with the Lord the more I’ve understood the “still small voice” that is mentioned in Scripture. The way God speaks is often subtle and quiet and I need to slow down and be attentive lest I miss it entirely.
We had gracious teammates allow us to use their house when we first landed in Nairobi. They were away for the summer and we were able to stay there for two weeks until they returned. Their house was comfortable, beautiful and a great landing spot for us. It was also nice to have a “deadline” for our house search. We knew we had two weeks to find a home before their return.
We started seeing houses the day after we arrived in Nairobi. Our hope was to find a house that was walkable to the girls school. We soon learned that was going to be impossible with our budget, so we decided to expand to a house within about a 10 minute drive from the school. We drive to the school 3 times a day because Audrey is in half day preschool and we were told traffic can be extremely stressful, so living close to the school is ideal.
The first house we saw seemed perfect. It wasn’t too large (a huge desire of mine!). Houses in the area we were looking in are very big and I wanted something that felt manageable and not too flashy. It had banana and avocado trees in the yard and a great green space for the girls to safely play. We saw multiple other houses, but my heart was drawn to the first one.
The first step when searching for a house here is to see it with a realtor and then if you really like it, you get in touch with the landlord. They will only meet you at the house if you agree upon a rent price. If not, it’s not worth the landlords time to meet you at the house and give you more information about it. We saw this house two times with the realtors and then contacted the landlord. The landlord would not budge on the price and it was listed for way too much money. Rent prices have gone up, but this was a clearly unreasonable asking price for what the house offered. We prayed about what price would be reasonable and both Will and I had the same number come to us after praying. We knew we weren’t to go over that amount. The landlord said it wouldn’t work for her and didn’t meet us at the house.
I was pretty crushed because this seemed like a great fit. It checked most of our boxes and seemed like it was going to work. When it didn’t, I knew God had something else for us. I also sensed that I wasn’t supposed to push for the first house any longer. God had made it clear what rent price to aim for and there was no use in trying to make it work when it wasn’t supposed to work. To be honest, this is the place in my walk with the Lord that takes the most faith. My natural reaction is to want to make things work and call it God answering prayers. But that’s not faith. Faith is choosing to trust God even when things don’t seem to be working out the way we thought they would.
When we realized the first house wasn’t going to work, we knew we needed to choose from one of the 4 other houses we had seen. God made this laughably obvious. One of the houses had a pool (amazing… but no. Not going to try to manage a pool in Kenya and with a toddler… oh and Will and I know zero about managing a pool- that matters too ;)), One of the houses gave us both a pit in our stomachs when we walked through it. It shouldn’t have given that it was beautiful, but we both just knew immediately that it wasn’t for us. It happened to also have a snake actively being killed while we were viewing the yard- we took that as a sign that it wasn’t for us (insert cringing face here). The other house left no impression in my brain as I’m trying to reflect back… so I guess that was ruled out quickly?
The house we landed on had everything we were looking for in a house and more that we didn’t think to put on the list. It happens to be right next door to friends of ours who we have known for many years. Our children are able to play and ride scooters together and that was a very unexpected provision and gift from the Lord. The house is larger than I had hoped for and honestly, that has been a struggle for me to work through. It’s uncomfortable for me to live in a large house in Africa. I don’t like the optics of it. I have needed to have the Lord remind me of why He has placed us in this home. In those reminders, He has shown me over and over again the reason He has us in Kenya. Having a safe, comfortable home helps us walk out that purpose. When I try to complain about the size of the home, I am missing the significance of what God is calling us to. This has been an important shift in my heart and has moved me (and is moving me) from complaint to gratitude.
I’ve been thinking about the old hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, when I think about our house hunt. The line that stands out to me is:
| “Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!” Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided— “Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me! |
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