The Property that Found Us

Per request I would like to tell the tale of how we came to have the property that houses: the church, the international office, a small guest home, the elementary school and our home. You can see an aerial view of the property on a previous post: You Are Here.

Once upon a time a family came to live in the city of Cochabamba. The house they rented was large enough for them, the office where three people worked as a ministry team and their dog. All during the time that the ministry was growing the kind missionary man was searching for a location to put the team since the dear missionary woman was feeling crowded. By the time an office was found there were twelve people stuffed into that house working, home schooling, cooking and living on top of one another, oh, and the dog. The new office was perfect.

Eventually the team grew so much that in addition to the international operations there was a church. The church location was down the street from the office in a tiny store front. The office space was so big that they had room to spare so the church came to the office property and were very happy to have room for a nursery, a children’s ministry and a large meeting room for worship.

Sometimes the kind missionary woman would stand at the window on the back of that meeting room and gaze out at the unkempt lot with an abandoned building beside that jutted up against the property and she would think that it would be nice to have the building for expansion. Little did she know that the day some corrupt grounds keepers staying on that rundown property were caught stealing the instruments from the church by climbing over the back wall and thereby creating an opportunity for her and her husband to meet the owners of the place out back that the ministry would indeed be occupying that very spot not very many months later.

The owners were sad to not have trustworthy people renting their property so they came to the kind missionary man and asked him if they could renovate it for him so that he could rent it. Seeing a great opportunity the kind missionary man agreed to the offer and helped to oversee the changes that the place needed so that it could become an orphanage and a better place for the church.

While those improvements were being made the office building changed hands and there were new owners but the renters stayed the same. The new owners saw that the building of one story could be made into two. They approached the kind missionary couple and asked them if they could renovate it for them so that they could have a nice apartment. The kind missionary family had been living in the home that they had always been in there in Cochabamba and the roof was leaking in seven places because it was an old home so they decided that this was a good opportunity to live in a new home. Seeing a great opportunity they agreed to the offer and the kind missionary woman helped to oversee the construction of the new apartment which included designing the layout of the kitchen which made her very happy.

Not very many months later all construction was finished and all moves made. The location in a very accessible part of town running the length of the block from one street to another was (and is) a very good thing. Some changes have been made since the initial establishment of a centralized location, one of which is moving the orphanage to a home and bringing in a school. There will be more changes in the coming years. But for now they are all living happily, even the dog because there is a yard.

The end… for now.

P.S. To God be the glory, great things He has done, is doing and will do.

Tagged as: Bolivia, Cochabamba, family, home, ministry, missionary