Homeless and counting....

It's an awful feeling to watch the days ticking by and to know that, in only a few short days' time, you have nowhere to live.  The friend who usually looks after my dog when I travel had said that we could move into her tiny flat as a temporary solution while I continued the search for a new home.... but then her landlord said no - that he didn't want two people and two dogs in such a tiny apartment!

It was devastating to see the very last option suddenly disappear... but, even without a place to go to, I still needed to find a storage place for my furniture and all my other belongings. So on Friday, I set out to look at two possibilities: one was a large tent on a friend's property on the edge of town, and the other was a large basement underneath a big house that another Christian organisation uses as a guest house, a respite house, for missionaries serving in hard places. Hopefully one of those locations could be a temporary home for my furniture, even if not for myself.

The lady with the yurt/tent suggested to me that the garage basement would be an ideal storage space for my furniture and that would allow us to make the big tent into a temporary home for me and my animals. I was so thankful for this friend's generosity and the fact that it gave me a real alternative to finding myself "on the street," but - as I already mentioned on 17th March (see this post) - I was pretty nervous about trying to keep my cat inside a tent on a property with two guard dogs wandering around. But it had become the only option and I was grateful for it.

Later in the day, I set off to see the house in town, the one with the large basement. Sure enough, it was perfect, with plenty of space to store my few items of furniture and my many boxes and suitcases. Ironically, it has palm trees on the property and it's in the part of town called "Springs" - that I mentioned in this post of 2nd January. At least my furniture was going to be in the place of springs and palm trees!

But then something completely unexpected happened. “We don’t have any guests coming here during April" said the American missionary who lives on the property, "Partly because I myself have a ministry trip to the Ukraine in the middle of the month. You could stay here for the whole month of April, and that would give you breathing space to continue your search for a more permanent solution. Your stuff would be right nearby in the basement, and your dog and cat are both welcome.”

I just cried. The news that I and my pets had a secure place to stay in town - even if it's only for a few weeks - lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. It's not a long term solution... but it gives me a respite, some more time to keep seeking God's permanent solution to my need for a home here in Spain.

A strange little detail in the story is that a Scottish friend had written to me a few days previously, saying that while she was praying she had an impression of me in a "spacious place" where my animals were welcome and that had a "chapel" in it. This missionary guest house that has offered me temporary refuge not only has a prayer room within the house itself, but also has a little chapel-like room down in the basement. It may not be my permanent home, but it certainly seems to be God's provision for the short term.

Thank you for your ongoing prayers as I continue to edge my way forward in this perplexing situation of not finding a long term home here in Spain. I know that God is always faithful and there must be a good solution further down the road.