What does faith smell like?

For those of you who have followed our house story, first of all...thank you. Second, you may remember that we have a basement. It has been empty. We cleaned all the mold out. We cleaned all the mouse skeletons out (after they fell on some people's heads). We cleaned up the sewage that overflowed there as well. (A huge thank you to those who helped with that- you know who you are!) For a year and a half, it hasn't smelled like mold or sewage anymore. But, it hasn't smelled good either. Until this week.

For almost 7 years, we have had a dream for the basement. We want to turn it into overflow Proskuneo office, meeting, and recording studio space. We want short-term and long-term guest housing down there. And, we even want a place where missions teams (15 people or more) could crash for a weekend while serving here in Clarkston. But, instead of being filled with people coming and going, it has sat empty. And, for someone like me who likes to maximize resources and people and space, that just stinks.

We have been waiting. And waiting stinks too sometimes, if I'm honest. In the waiting, we have been saving. We have been able to save thousands of dollars. (OK so most of that is this year's tax refund, but still, that is a feat for us!)

This week, we decided, in faith, to go ahead with the project. We hired a Christian contractor from El Salvador, who is able to almost all the work himself at a GREAT price. And, he came and dropped the wood off on Monday. Everything about the basement is the same, but now there is a pile of wood in it. And, you know what? It smells different. It doesn't smell old anymore. It smells like new, fresh wood. It smells hopeful. It smells like faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

We spent almost all the money we had saved on the initial payment to the contractor. And, now, he is beginning to work on it. We are praying that when he is ready for the next payment, God will have provided more money to give him. Do you want to help us? Click here to donate securely.

As far as today is concerned, we are enjoying the smell of faith in our basement.