The Lesser Homes of Colorado Springs

I was considering that in light of the fact that we are still living my parents and have an offer on one house for 3 weeks, I would share some of our more...memorable experiences with all of my faithful blog readers.

Our top 5 worst homes:
1. The home with the Taliban caves littering the basement... seriously, this basement had more nooks and crannies than we knew possible. I think at some point we walked underneath the neighbors home. Less than $85,000

2. The house with the rat feces all over the basement floor and the "conservatory" off the back of the basement. Perhaps the rats entered the basement through some sort of hole in the conservatory. $99,000

3. The home in Old Colorado City that you needed several clean breaths of air in order to view... seriously, who allows the cats just urinate everywhere and never clean it up. $119,000

4. Our first love... from the outside at least. Beautiful 2 story Victorian that was a feral cat den and where upon walking into the kitchen, it was also possible to view the basement. $62,000

5. Townhome with ceiling from upstairs on the floor, all carpet gone and a sneaking suspicion of mold.

We hope that you enjoyed your tour of the worst homes in Colorado Springs, visit us again for the house that we actually buy (trust us, much better than all of these)

Hope for Africa

Plans for our trip to Africa in June are falling into place and I can completely see that this is where God intended for us to be in June. We have numerous fundraisers coming up for local folks and if you want more information on those just let me know.

For those of you who do not know, part of the reason that Ben and I fell in love is because we realized that God had placed the continent of Africa on each of our hearts before we had even met. What a gift it would be for us to take this trip together. Please visit our trip blog here to find out more info about where we are going and what we are doing. I will continue to post here about what God is doing in our hearts and where we know he means for us to be.

Moving

We moved today, into my parents house.

We are living here in the interim while we keep looking for a house and saving some money. I realized as we carried everything down 3 flights of stairs today, that in nearly 2 years of marriage we have accumulated a lot of stuff. Not necessarily junk or stuff we don't use but just stuff.

How much of our lives are consumed by junk? This short time in my old bedroom will certainly teach us to be thankful for space but also for the things that we need and do not need in our lives.

Our realtor mentioned that we should go as high as we are approved to go with the lender in our price range (we are looking about $80k below our approval) but why? Why do we need as $200k home when really our lives are not the house we live in, or the things that we own but the life that we lead and the love that we give. The offer we have out now is for a 1008 sq. ft. house (our apartment was 775) and I am excited, not because we will have so much more room but because we will have a place to call our own. We will have a place where I can paint the walls weird colors and have my children in the bedroom. We will have a place to love each other, grow a family, and work for our future. The dream is that after this house we will live in Africa. This is our first house and perhaps our only house.

I am excited to create memories in a place where other families have done the same. I am excited to make something our own and accept and love its imperfections. I am excited to make a stance against the materialism of America by not buying the dream house but buying a characteristic house, a house that we can call our own.

Bummed

We did not get the house and we are pretty bummed... it is hard to play ball when you are bumping right up against the maximum. Ben says there is another house... I say, I wanted that one.

There is a plan and somehow we will find a home for all 3 of us.

Keeping it in

Yesterday we put an offer on a house...
Trying not to get too excited...
Since we may not get it...
Obviously, since I am blogging about it and losing sleep about it, I am getting too excited.
Lord help us!

300 Voices- Providing Water for Africa

I copied this post from jodyrlanders.com- we are joining in this effort because we know that it is good. We can change things in this world when we join together as a group of people who believe the world can be better then it is. Join us in this cause- make the difference in a village of people who desperately need a cup of water. Being Jesus in this world by giving people clean water.

Washing the feet of African people by giving them clean water for a life time.

“Never underestimate the ability of a small group of committed individuals to change the world; indeed they’re the only ones who ever have.” (Margaret Mead)

OK, here we go.

Sometime in December, I did some rough math. I was all excited because I thought I was onto something. I wondered, “So if we raise $60,000 every year at Water For Christmas, how many years would it take us to give Liberia clean water?” I furiously typed numbers into the calculator. Hit the equal button….

300 years.

Hmmm.

That’s a little discouraging.

But it haunted me. And I couldn’t shake it.

We have to use this. This is too important.

I might be busy in 300 years. And more importantly, the thirsty cannot wait that long.

Wrestled with it. Heard from so many of you that said, “Now what?”

And settled that we simply will kick it up a notch…or 300.

We will expand our borders, involve more people…300 times.

And then it won’t take 300 years, we can do it in one year.

So here’s the plan. Stay with me.

We need 300 people.

300 people to make a committment to 300 Voices…Water for all Seasons. This will be a commitment of $20/month. (that’s $5 a week, $240 for the whole year). WFC fund will stay open all year. We get 300 people to commit to $20 a month for 2009 and that’s an additional $72,000.(Did you get that? For your $20 a month, combined with 299 others and their $20 a month that is $72,000 in 2009. That’s 15 wells!) That’s a lot of money. For little sacrifice personally. (as always, 100% of money goes to charity: water. They use 100% to drill fresh water wells and clean water solutions).

But beyond that the idea is to keep water on the hearts and minds of a 300 person team. For where our treasure is, there will our hearts be. So we give all year. We pray. We dream. We plan. And then in November 2009, we kick off Water For Christmas with a team of 300. (Now, you are not committing to anything as far as next years campaign goes…you don’t have to do anything. But I think you will want to. But there will be no obligation to be involved in Water For Christmas 2009).

This is how it will work:

water4christmas.com is being developed. And will be ready for launch later in the year.

But for now, go here to sign up. (Kari has been working extremely hard to get this ready. Many, many thanks.) Give us your name and location. We will start of list of people around the country who are committing to Water. (you can do your donations with $5 weekly, or $20 a month, or a $240 donation for the whole year–whatever is best for your budgets). We will not bombard with emails–but if you want monthly or weekly reminders to donate we will do that. If you don’t do online giving, and would like to mail in checks, you can still do that by making checks payable to Charity Global with Water For Christmas in the memo line. (mailed to 150 Varick St. 5th Floor New York, NY 10013.) I will even send you a set of 12 envelopes if you want to do a monthly $20 donation that way.

We will have a counter showing how close we are to getting 300 people.

There’s a new blog badge for the 300 Voices…use it if you want.

Anyone can join us. Talk about it. Blog about it. I know many of us who participated in WFC 2008 were having a hard time shaking it. A hard time letting it go. So this is for you. But even if you were not a part of WFC at all but would like Water to be one of the things you give to in 2009, you can still join us now.

At this point, all it means is a $20/month commitment. The giving is just to force a us to put action behind our causes. And provide clean water for thousands in the process. And then ideally in November 2009, we have people whose treasure has followed their heart and they are ready to go. We reach 300 times more people with awareness about clean water. The money is multiplied. And clean water will erupt from the dirt of Africa’s floor.

We will be one voice. 300 strong. For clean water. For life.

By signing up you are simply saying, “Water matters.” And we believe that enough to give $20 of my treasure each month. It’s that simple.

I want to make it clear that this is merely part of who we are. It’s simply part of loving people the way Jesus taught us to. We cannot love thirsty people without giving them water to drink.

I wouldn’t do this if I wasn’t confident in you guys. I’ve talked to you on the email, on the blogs, in the churches, at the schools. I’ve heard the stories of others that I don’t know. And I just believe there is a force here. A force we can combine and channel. And use to make big impact.

I’m so excited to partner, to team up. 300 times.

Now there will be resources available and developed throughout the year to help us all at WFC time. But right now, I want to see if we can build a team of 300. Simply 300 people willing to give to Water throughout the year. $20 a month.

So. You want in?

Go. Sign up. We’ll add your name to the growing list in the sidebar. (we have to input them manually so it may take a couple hours)

(There will be continued updates about all the WFC wells throughout the year. It looks like I may personally be on the ground in Liberia to report back to you about how the Water money is changing and saving lives. And clarify further why we can’t stop. Why we must keep it fresh on our hearts and minds. Even if it’s only $20/month. Times 300. )

(photo taken by charity: water staff in Liberia.)

And clean water will erupt from the dirt of Africa's floors.