Watching and waiting...

I can hardly believe that we're at the end of May - almost half way through the year - and I still find myself with no permanent home to move to. We moved on 12th May to our second temporary accommodation, this time with an American missionary family who have a little granny flat attached to their house. It's not for long, though, and soon they too will be homeless. They'll be moving out of that house around 20th June, as their landlord is increasing the monthly rent to a staggering €2700.

But I'm thankful to have a place for these few weeks as I continue the ongoing search for something more permanent. As the weeks and months have gone by, I'm discovering that I'm far from alone in my predicament. At least five other families or individuals in our church are on the verge of finding themselves in the same position, and I even meet random people in the street (dog walkers, usually) who tell me that they're currently in temporary accommodation. It just seems to be a crisis time for housing at the moment.

My search continues, but it's slowing down a bit as summer approaches. Many homeowners like to take advantage of the summer holiday season, when they can rent their house out to tourists for €1500 a week instead of €1500 a month. So I'm still spending a lot of time each week looking at property listings, but there are far fewer possibilities at the moment.

All my usual summer travel (for outreach, etc) has been put on hold, but I'm continuing with ongoing local and international ministry commitments: teaching, translating, writing, coaching...

I have no housing lined up for the last week of June and first weeks of July, but I do have another temporary possibility from mid-July onwards. How I hope, though, that there might finally be a more permanent solution before we enter the second half of the year.