The beginning of a breakthrough...?

As September began drawing to a close, I found myself once again facing the prospect of imminent homelessness. These past six months have been so unstable, with my not finding a new home and having to move to new temporary accommodation every couple of weeks. Then, something very interesting happened last week.

I was preaching in the morning service at church and I mentioned that our enemy, the devil, will try to use the difficult circumstances of our lives to tell us lies about the character of God. If we're ill, he'll try to tell us that God can't heal. If we pass through some trauma, he'll whisper to us that God doesn't protect. If we're homeless, he'll try to convince us that God doesn't care and that He isn't a Provider for us.

A visitor to the church heard me give the example of my own situation and she came to speak to me at the end of the service. "I have an apartment that I'm not using at the moment," she said. "You're welcome to live there until you find something more permanent."

And so, for the first time in this homeless journey, I find myself with the prospect of having short term accommodation that can be for a few months instead of only for a few weeks. It will give me a small measure of stability and relieve me of the stress that comes from never knowing where you're going to be living next week.

There are plenty of things about this little apartment that are not ideal:

• it's on the other side of the mountain range, 30km away in the coastal town of Fuengirola... so I'll be quite far from everyone and everything that I know.
• it's in an area of narrow pedestrian streets near the beach, so the nearest places to park my car (apart from pay-by-the-minute beach parking) will be about a mile away.
• it's on the second floor, without a lift, so carrying my suitcase or my shopping up all those stairs will be quite a challenge.
• it's only one floor of a little house that's been divided into three, so there's no separate bedroom; the sofa bed is set up permanently in the cute little living room.
• because it's furnished, my own furniture and books will need to stay in storage for now.
• it's in a street that's likely to be noisy with tourist restaurants and bars. (A policeman acquaintance warned that he'd been called out a few times to break up fights!)
• there don't seem to be any places nearby where the dog could run off-lead...

Yes, there are plenty of reasons that could make you say that this is not an ideal place to live... and yet I feel incredibly thankful for this medium term change from our nomadic lifestyle. I see it as God's provision while I continue my search for longer term accommodation, and I want to embrace the quirks and strangeness of it as a new kind of adventure.

It means, for example, that some travel will be possible for me again, as I'll have a place to leave my clothes and stuff while I am gone. I have two short ministry trips planned over the remaining months of the year, as well as a visit to my family in Scotland.

And so a new adventure begins. Next week, I'll have been in Spain for fifteen years... but I've never lived in a coastal town in a tourist area. I'll continue to look for a new home on the other side of the mountain, but I'm grateful for this little apartment that can be my base for a while.

Coping with contradictions...

If you've read what I posted yesterday (see below), you'll know that I was reading Deuteronomy chapter 8 and reflecting on why God sometimes allows delays and wandering. Today, as I moved on to read chapter 9, there was an interesting sidebar reflection in the Bible I was using.

To put things in context,  Moses is continuing with his words of wisdom to prepare the people of Israel for their upcoming entry into the promised land. Almost like a "vaccination" against self-congratulatory pride, he tells them that God will give them possession of the land not because of their own goodness, but because of the Canaanite tribes' wickedness. To reinforce this, he reminds them of their own wickedness and rebellion along the way, including the episode with the golden calf, and how he, Moses, had prayed to God to have mercy on them.

The sidebar in my Bible speaks of how disorienting it is "when God seems to be going against the calling or guidance He has already given to you" - like asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, or telling Moses that He was going to destroy the people for their rebellion.

Of course, neither of those unthinkable things actually happened, but the big question is: How do we respond to such intense times of testing and seeming contradiction? Do we "walk away" or do we hang on to what God has previously said?

The author of the sidebar writes, "These situations call for resolute obedience, unbridled faith and a commitment to the promises and purposes already revealed." But those who don't walk away from such moments of testing "are drawn higher into God's purposes and plans."

I can relate to the dilemma that this sidebar alludes to. As I wrote yesterday, I believe that God wants me to continue to live and work in Spain, yet He doesn't seem to be opening the door for me to find long term accommodation here. Why not? He is so much bigger than the current socio-economic housing crisis in the nation and could easily demonstrate His power by providing housing for me despite the crisis.

Even as I wrote that in my journal, I had to remember something that happened back in 1985. After some years of working overseas in Europe and Africa, I came into a season of transition and returned to the UK to seek work as a language teacher in a Scottish high school. But I arrived back at a time when the falling birthrate and the surplus of available teachers had led to widespread unemployment for secondary school teachers. Many of my friends from University and College of Education were on unemployment benefit because they were struggling to find teaching posts... Yet, within just a couple of weeks, I'd already had three job offers for the new school term that lay ahead.

Of course, my being sought after in a time of such unemployment was partly due to my overseas experience that had given me such proficiency and fluency in both French and German... and that experience had come as the result of a previous step of costly obedience that I had taken at God's prompting - a step of obedience that had seemed risky and had met with opposition at the time. But now God was rewarding my obedience and proving His faithfulness.

He could do that again in this housing situation. The fact that He hasn't done that yet means that I just need to keep trusting Him and not walk away from what He has previously shown me. 

Please give me grace and strength to do that, Lord.

Why all the wandering ... ?

Continuing my daily reading in the book of Deuteronomy, this morning I came to chapter 8. Right in the first few verses, Moses reminds the people of how God led them in the wilderness and he explains just a part of the reason why God allowed them to wander around so much and change location so often: He was humbling you and testing you to prove your character and find out whether you would obey Him. That explains why God's provision often came seemingly "at the last minute." He wanted to see if the people would still obey what He'd told them, even when they were already starting to get hungry.

In fact, the people failed the test again and again: they grumbled and complained, they said they wanted to go back to Egypt; on one occasion they even made themselves a new god, in the form of a golden calf. It didn't take much to nudge them into rebellion and make them forget what God had asked of them. 

In the light of history, it's easy to look back and judge them for their bad attitudes, unthankfulness and unbelief... unless you yourself have ever been in that same position of being humbled and repeatedly brought to the end of your own resources. I have to confess that I can identify with the sense of desperation that led to their failing so often. It's hard and humbling to wander around the wilderness with no permanent home and not to be able to change your situation or provide for yourself in any way.

So many times on my homeless journey this year, the next temporary accommodation has only come along at a few days' notice, when I was getting close to the point of despair and to contemplating the humiliating prospect of finding myself with nowhere to go. It would have been SO much easier for me to pack up my things and go somewhere else - like moving back to the UK or to a different ministry location in another part of Europe.

But God had led me to Spain fifteen years ago and He hadn't yet told me it was time to leave here. The big question was whether I was going to keep obeying the last thing He said to me or whether I was going to panic and try to find an easy way out. You don't need much faith to obey God when everything is going smoothly for you. Faith only fully kicks in when everything looks impossible and you just have to hold on to the fact that God will continue to be faithful to what He said.

And so I had to smile when I read (in verses 7 - 8) the description of the "good land" that God was giving them. Of course, it's a description of Israel, but it's uncanny how it could be a description of here in Andalucía. "A land of fig trees and pomegranates, olive oil and honey." I pass all four of those every day when I'm out walking the dogs. (Yes, even the honey, as the bee hives are often set up in the forest.) "Grapevines, wheat and barley, underground springs that gush out in the valleys and hills." That's an accurate description of this region of Spain... and the town I've lived in since moving here is particularly well known for its underground springs.

Moses told the people that God had led them through a long time of wandering around - so that they'd never think they had achieved the promised land by their own efforts. I've seen too that eight months of house hunting have brought no result at all. It seems that only God will be able to break this stalemate.

But until then, the important question is whether I can trust Him and continue to obey Him - even when it's hard, even when it's humbling, even when it looks impossible...  

My prayer is that I will be found faithful, and that this will open the door for me to experience the faithfulness of God.

Dealing with delays...

This week I finished reading the book of Numbers and began reading the book of Deuteronomy. The book is structured around three sermons or speeches that Moses made to the people of Israel while they were camped in the wilderness, just to the east of the River Jordan. He talks to them about their past and also about their future.

In this first chapter of Deuteronomy, we discover that the journey from Mount Sinai (where the people received the 10 Commandments) to the border of the Promised Land would normally have been a journey of only 11 days. Instead, they had wandered in the desert for 40 whole years, and Moses wants this new generation of Israelites to understand why.

And so he retells the story of the people's unbelief and rebellion when spies went to scout out the land forty years previously. He wants them to know that this long delay was not God's fault, but theirs.... and now they have a chance to do things differently.

As my home-hunting journey drags on and on, I regularly ask the Lord if there's anything I'm doing or anything I'm not  doing that is causing this long delay. I've been searching for eight months and I've been homeless for almost six months. Why is it taking so long to find that most basic of human needs - a place to live?

I've sought to be sensitive and obedient to God right from the beginning of this process, but I think it's still important to stop and evaluate regularly. Am I still on track? Am I still being radically obedient to each next step that He shows me? Is there anything more I should be doing to make the breakthrough come closer and faster?

Yes, I know that dozens, even hundreds of people are in the same position as I am, but it's still my responsibility to be faithful to what God is sharing and showing in this difficult time. I won't be held accountable for how others respond, but I am responsible for what I personally do or don't do during this process.

Reading in the Old Testament Psalms this morning, I came to Psalm 130 vs 5, which says: I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I put my hope.

I've often had to wait for answers to prayer; that happens to all of us and there are many possible reasons for why it happens. But being homeless is a more vulnerable kind of waiting than I have ever known in the past. This morning I prayed, "Lord, please don't let me slip into hopelessness as well as homelessness: help me to keep putting my trust in who You are and in what You've said. Give me resilience to wait for the solution that You're going to provide amidst this crazy social and economic phenomenon of widespread shortage of housing. Let me never embrace unbelief like the people of Israel did, but help me to trust always in your love and faithfulness."

New laws, new challenges.... new opportunities?

 As August draws to a close and September is just around the corner, Maiki and I are preparing to move to our seventh home of this year. We'll be going to dog-sit Maiki's buddy, Ecco, (who starred in the Valentine's Day video with her: click here to watch the video.) That'll be fun, but unfortunately it'll only be for ten days, while Ecco's owner and a friend with cancer are walking part of the Camino de Santiago. From September 10th, we'll be homeless once again and looking for our eighth home of 2023.

In a blog post at the end of June (click here to read it), I explained the factors that had led to the current housing crisis in Spain. A few things have happened since then... which have led to new challenges but possibly also to new opportunities.

At the beginning of this year, a main obstacle to my finding  housing was the fact that landlords were requiring renters to take out an insurance policy in case they found themselves unemployed and were unable to pay the rent (which is what happened a lot during the pandemic.) However, the insurance companies were refusing to issue such policies unless the rental contract and utilities were less than 30% of the renter's salary. This meant that to view a flat with a monthly rental of €1500, for example, you had to prove that your salary was almost €5000 a month. Completely unrealistic for most people looking for rental accommodation, and totally impossible for people like myself who can prove no salary at all.

In May of this year, it became obvious that something needed to done. Renting a flat or house was something that was now only possible for the very rich. So the Spanish government passed a new law. In "stressed housing areas," they said (places where the average rental was far above 30% of a normal person's salary), it would be illegal to insist on this requirement. The law further stipulated that the estate agent's fees should now be paid by the home owner and no longer by the person who was looking for a place to rent.

This initially suggested that house hunting would begin to look more hopeful for people like myself. While there would be no change in the actual cost of renting, it would again become accessible to people with a more normal level of income.

But the law came with its own backlash: some landlords, those who owned their homes outright, were willing to take the risk of renting to someone who wasn't "well off,' but many homeowners, including those who perhaps bought a property for the purpose of renting it out to pay the mortgage, just weren't willing to take the risk of renting to someone who might default on the payments and put their mortgage at risk. So, now there are fewer properties available for rental; you can search for weeks and there's simply nothing..... or you find just a handful of options with a genuinely extortionate price tag.  As some landlords have decided not to rent out their houses any more, those who are still offering homes for rent can afford to demand higher payments.... knowing that there will be foreigners, usually Scandinavians or Americans, who are happy to pay the high rents, finding them to be no more expensive than what they were paying back home.

The bad news is that this means there are even fewer rentals available than there were at the beginning of the year. The good news is that some of those properties no longer being rented out will very likely be put on the market and be for sale over the coming few months.

So I'm continuing to keep up my search for a place to rent.... but I'm also increasingly open to the possibility that my long term solution might involve having to buy something small for myself. That's a scary thought in some ways; I've dreamed of owning my own home, but never imagined it to be something that would be possible for me, living on a lower than average income.

But I'm getting so weary of moving house every month and not having access to all my stuff (furniture, books, clothes...) and I'm open to whatever solution God may bring across my path. 

Thank you for praying that I will have strength and wisdom for the weeks ahead.

And then there were two...

 

Today's post is just to give a final update on my Teddi...

and to say a big thank you to everyone who sent best wishes and prayers when I shared that he was going into surgery this morning.

In the end, the tumour was inoperable as it went too deep into his tongue. This morning we had to put him to sleep after all.  I'm at peace that our vet proposed at least checking out whether surgery could be an option; I don't need to wonder about whether I made the right decision to end his life. Teddi had a long and full life - almost all the years that I've lived here in Spain - and I'll have many happy memories of him.

So, now our little family has become very small: only Maiki and myself as we continue to look for our new home here in Spain.

Thanks for your prayers.

Teddi's going for surgery...

Poor Teddi (my cat) hasn't coped well with our enforced nomadic lifestyle this summer. Every time we've moved house, every time he needed to be put into a cat carrier and driven somewhere in the car, every time he had to get used to a new house, he has found it very stressful. 

At one of the places we stayed, we were looking after friends' dog, a big boxer. He was very sweet, but he wasn't used to cats. Teddi needed to be enclosed in a small room where he spent most of the time hiding under the bed, because the boxer barked at him if he appeared in the doorway (even though I'd put up a baby gate to keep them separated.) He's doing a bit better now that we're back in Alhaurín and have a house all to ourselves; we're house sitting while a friend is on outreach in the Ukraine.

But last week, Teddi suddenly stopped eating dry cat food and would only eat soft wet food. I began to wonder if he had toothache and soon I noticed that he had terrible bad breath. On Monday this week, I took him to the vet and she discovered that he has a huge tumour under his tongue. That's what's been making it difficult for him to chew or swallow. As he's getting elderly and already has some kidney issues, it looked as if surgery would be too risky, and so I've been preparing myself to grieve and to put him to sleep. He's already lost a kilo from eating less, and it wouldn't be fair to wait much longer... even though he's generally happy and snuggly as always.

Today his blood tests came back and the vet phoned me to say that it's really not too bad: that his kidney failure is well under control and he has a good chance of living more years. As mouth surgery is so expensive in the veterinary hospital, she's suggested that she does it herself - tomorrow in our own vet surgery - to see how much of the tumour she can remove. If we're lucky, the root of it won't be too deep.

I'm not going to do a biopsy, because I already know that I'm not going to subject my old boy to chemotherapy... but I've decided to follow the vet's recommendation and have her operate on him tomorrow morning to at least give him a chance. As she pointed out, if she herself does the surgery, operating to see if we can give him an opportunity to live longer will not really cost much more than just euthanising and cremating him without giving him a fair chance to recover.

If all goes well, this op might be the end of the problem and Teddi can enjoy some more senior years. Alternatively, if the tumour comes back in the future, that would be a clear indication that it's time to make the decision to say goodbye and put him to sleep.

So, early tomorrow morning, 8.30 Spanish time, my sweet boy will go into surgery.... and my thoughts and prayers will go with him.

I'll let you know what happens.