When our landlord visited me while Rusty was in the States taking care of selling our PA home, I was mad. He had not spoken to us in months, yet claimed that his employee had told Rusty that we needed to move out immediately. He said he was just making a courtesy visit to make sure we would be out by the end of the month.
For several months we had known that our time in the “Swiss Family Robinson” style house along the river would be short. After relocating the chickens to the tribal land in the mountain over a complaint from a neighbor and the action of the local “township supervisor,” the landlord’s employees had been gradually taking over more and more space that was the GOAT Center. While we were attending our son’s wedding, they threw our gardener out and began removing our plants. The time for cooperative living here had passed.
But we loved the house. Sure, it was in a quick state of deterioration from the massive termite infestation and the lack of maintenance by the owner, but it was a great space. It was open and comfortable, breezy and quiet and a wonderful place to host people for ministry. Besides, we had begun to look for a place and simply couldn’t find anything suitable.
Additionally, I was settled. We had taken on a tremendous amount of transition in recent years and I simply DID NOT want to move my kids one more time this year. So even though we had moved all the GOAT Center work to the mountain, even though the relationship with the landlord’s employees was growing more challenging, I was determined to “make it work” through the end of the year.
The landlord’s visit changed all that. As soon as Rusty returned we began the process of moving. Even though the porch was so rotten it was dangerous and could not be used anymore, I was still frustrated that we had to leave.
Why would God allow this whole messy situation to happen? It didn’t seem like He cared that I really, really did not want to move right now.
We were out and settled back into the first house we had ever lived in on the mainland, again, before Thanksgiving.
Then Typhoon Ursula visited on Christmas Day. In the days following the storm I found out why God had ignored my requests to stay in the “Swiss Family” house until after New Year’s.
The house was completely destroyed by the typhoon. The walls and roof completely caved in on themselves. If we had stayed there, like I wanted, even if we could have safely evacuated (which is questionable given the speed of the storm and the landslide that blocked the road to exit) EVERYTHING we own would have been destroyed.
We did lose a significant part of the roof on the house we moved to, but our belongings, though wet, were not lost. All of our appliances survived the storm, only a few books were lost (I have hundreds!). Drying everything out and washing every item we own was a hassle, but we still have our household goods and we were able to safely evacuate!
Sometimes the reason for God not answering our prayers doesn’t come for a time. Honestly in many situations we may not know the “why” on this side of heaven. But sometimes, He lets us see that even though His will was painful and not at all what we wanted, it truly was for our good.
I pray that this testimony will also bring Him glory.
