Caught in a crisis...

If you turn on your TV these days (something I don't do very often) and especially if you tune in to listen to the news, it won't be very long before you hear a report about Spain's current "housing crisis" or "rental crisis." Social and economic happenings over the past fifteen years - ranging from the financial crash of 2008 to the covid pandemic of more recent years - have led to a situation where there simply isn't enough available housing in the nation. Not only is there an actual shortage of places to live, the few places that are available are out of reach for most.  Rental housing has risen so sharply in price that renting is now a luxury available only to the very rich or to short term renters from wealthier nations. And current home-purchase laws are making it impossible for most people to make the down payment necessary to secure a mortgage.

There are thousands of people all over the country who cannot find a place to live. Even in my local church, there are five families at the moment who are searching in vain to find new housing. 

I know the crisis is not unique to Spain... (if I google "housing crisis," I find dozens of articles about the Spanish situation, but also a good number about the housing crisis in Australia and even a few about a growing rental crisis in the UK)... but of course, I just happen to be one of the people "caught" in this Spanish crisis and unable to find a new place to live... despite six months now of searching for a new home.

I got a bit of a shock the other day when reading a newspaper article about the situation. It referred to the many people in Spain who are living "below the poverty line," and I had to do a double take when I saw that the monthly income level described as the "poverty line" was almost double my current monthly support level.

So, I know that sometime down the line, I'm going to need to trust God for an increase in my missions support.... but for now, I haven't felt that support raising should be my priority. Even people who do live "above the poverty line" are finding it impossible to secure housing at the moment. There is literally none available in many parts of the country. So I've felt that my focus needs to be on finding a new home... and then I'll know how much increase I need to trust God for in my new situation.

As June draws to a close, I'm preparing to move yet again.... this time to an inland area that's about 20 miles from the town I've been living in for the past fifteen years. Some friends from church need to go to the UK for a family emergency and have asked me if I could look after their house and dog while they are  gone, as well as managing a little AirBnB cottage that they have on their property. (Washing laundry, cleaning the cottage, making up the bed for new guests, etc.) This means that I now have a temporary place to stay during July... while I continue the seemingly endless search for a more permanent home.

Teddi, my poor cat, has discerned this week that something suspicious is afoot. He's seeing the furniture being moved out of the little granny flat we're in at the moment (my host family are having to put all their things into storage before going overseas for three months to raise support) and perhaps he's beginning to anticipate the trauma of a third move in as many months. He sometimes just wanders around miaowing loudly as an expression of his discomfort. Thankfully the dog is taking it in her stride and seems pretty relaxed about the whole thing. As long as I am there, she doesn't seem to mind where we are or how often we move. 

As I wrote in a previous blog post, this is what I want to be like in my relationship with God: I want to be able to relax and trust like Maiki, knowing that God's presence is with me even in a constantly changing situation, and not become stressed and panicky like poor Teddi who doesn't handle the changes and unpredictability so well.

Of course, moving further inland to Coín means that I'm going to be leaving all my friends behind. I've already experienced the loss of relationship with people that I used to converse with on a daily basis, but I have at least managed to keep connecting with those people once a week. I've continued to be able to walk some of my former neighbours' dogs, even though it's meant driving over in the car to pick them up and take them to the forest with us. On a free morning this week, I went with a friend and four of the dogs on one of our favourite hikes, up to the mountaintop where the "wolf's lookout" offers us stunning views of the Mediterranean coastline on the other side. But that will be our last opportunity for a while, as we'll move soon to a country area further inland. So I've been saying some goodbyes this week, without really knowing how long that will be for, or even if I'll be able to return to this town again at any point.

In some ways, it seems like singularly bad timing - that I would just happen to become homeless at a time when the entire nation is in a housing crisis. But all I can hold on to is the fact that God is bigger than any crisis and that, somewhere down the road, He has a good solution for me. In the meantime, I'd like to say a big thank you to all of you who have been standing with me in prayer and who have sent little notes to share what you were sensing from the Lord.

Watch this space!!