We bought a new car!
Its an ‘05 Mazda Tribute, great gas milage, only 75,000 miles on the car and below blue book price!
Its the nicest car either of us have ever had.
Thank you, God, for providing all that we need!
We got some clarity on the situation with our condo today. Turns out the bank as NOT promised anything in terms of moving forward with the short-sale.
I guess we started celebrating a little too early. 
The bank HAS responded and IS reviewing our request but has not yet come to any conclusions. They could still come back to us with a note to pay. Meaning, we would have to pay the bank a certain amount of money after the short-sale. The amounts are usually very high.
So we keep waiting.
And we remain in transition.
But it feels like now more than ever we need prayer as the bank is in the final reviewing stages and should be letting us know fairly soon (I hesitate to say “soon”) whether or not they will go through with the short-sale and how much they have appraised our property for.
Will you join us in prayer about this?
by Christiana
First of all, this picture doesn’t really relate to this entry but I thought you’d enjoy it. 
We got a call from our realtor’s office yesterday saying that the bank has accepted our hardship short sale request and is moving forward with the sale of our condo! Its still in process but the fact that the bank is actually responding speaks volumes!
I’ve heard that these things can take unexpected twists and turns at any moment. We’re praying for smooth, straight sailing. Yet we also know that God can navigate through the roughest waters and take us safely to the other side!
Derek’s sister and brother-in-law, Sabrina and Micah came over yesterday with paperwork that they were asked to fill out, sign and send in along with a $5000 check. That means the bank is considering their offer on buying our home!
Its hard not to start celebrating as all this news seems so promising!
Best case scenario, the bank accepts Sabrina and Micah’s offer and we go into escrow next week! That means we could move to San Diego in weeks!
There are of course many other scenarios.
We continue to trust God’s perfect timing.
by Christiana
Mexico truly is a beautiful place. The landscape, the culture, the food and especially the people. This past weekend, our NeiuCommunities team, along with a hand full of young adults spent the weekend in Ensenada, Mexico.
Casa Esperanza is a homeless shelter for women and children. Many of the residents there have fled abusive relationships and have found refuge at the shelter. We spent the day Saturday with the women and children there. Our hope was to add beauty and color to their home, symbolizing the beauty of God’s love for those that live and serve at Casa Esperanza.
We weren’t there to get a work project done. We were there to share our lives with the women and their children. In the evening, the women gathered and through interpreters two of us shared our life stories and two of them shared their life stories.
Derek was in charge of selecting and purchasing the paint. The day before we left for Mexico, Derek had made the purchase of paint and supplies and left it in the trunk of his car over night. That night our car was stolen (see my last blog entry) and so was the paint.
We bought more paint on our way down. The colors turned out to be perfect.
Some of the NieuCommunities gals, my mom, Naomi and I had gone thrift shop hopping the to find some pictures and decor to bring with us to Casa Esperanza. We wanted to help create a sense of warmth and welcome to the main living and dining room.
Thrift stores can be wonderful places to reuse and recycle things that have been given away. These women often feel used, tossed aside and forgotten. Symbolically, we wanted to express God’s redeeming love for them, showing them that they have worth and purpose.
We served alongside a missional community of Mexican families that call themselves “Reflejo,” meaning “to reflect Jesus.” These families are committed to pursing God together, serving together and sharing life with one another. It was an honor to serve with them and learn from them.
After a long day at Casa Esperanza, we headed over to Juan and Lidia’s house for a delicious tamale dinner. Juan and Lidia live on a hill top overlooking grape fields, ranch properites and beautiful rolling green hills. They opened their home for us to all spend the night with them.
Sunday morning we worshiped together under the trees as the wind blew and the sun shone above us. There’s something profound about singing together outside in beautiful places.
Our Mexico adventure ended with a two and a half hour wait in a long border crossing line of cars. We played games and made the most of it. Naomi did especially well, stuck in a car for a total of 4 hours, more than half of which we were practically stopped in line.
This partnership that’s building with NieuCommunties, Reflejo and Casa Esperanza is very exciting. I’m sure this is the first of many more trips to come!
Our car was stolen last Saturday. We’ve had a pit in our stomachs for a few days now, remembering all the things we left in the car, realizing what this might cost us, trying to figure out alternative transportation options etc….
Any time something is taken from you like this, you can’t help but feel violated.
We were in San Diego this past week and weekend, spending time with our NieuCommunities team. NeiwCommunities was hosting a group of young adults on a “Road Trip” to consider the possibility of moving to San Diego and joining us in ministry. A part of our schedule was a 2 day, weekend trip down to Ensenada to serve in a homeless shelter for women and children.We woke up on Saturday morning, ready to leave for Mexico and our car was missing.
After a lengthy police report, we left for Mexico as planned, trusting God to provide for us.
On Sunday morning we worshiped God together on a beautiful hillside in Ensenada, reading through Jesus’ sermon on the mountain in Matthew 5-7. Our faith was strengthened as we entrusted the whole situation into God’s hands. Jesus emphasizes that our treasures are not in this world. He assures us that God will provide for all that we need. As we seek His Kingdom first, all that we need for abundant life will be given to us.
So here are the nuts and bolts of our situation:
Last week we sold our other car to my brother and sister-in-law, Chaz and Rebecca. They needed a car and we were looking to sell one of ours and live with one car for a while. We had planned to eventually buy another car with bigger storage space for Derek’s music equipment.
This means that now we’re officially car-less! We’re borrowing a car from one of the families in San Diego until we hopefully hear from the San Diego police that our car was recovered.
Its been 4 days and so far no news.
Not only did we lose our car but we also lost the things left in our car. Some of Naomi’s toys, our baby carrier, a tennis racket, Derek’s hiking boots, his every day shoes and his flip flops, our camera, some CD’s and a couple books. All replaceable of course but not without cost.
Will you pray for us as we trust God financially in this? We know that this is not the end of the story. God’s story is much bigger. We trust that somehow good will come of it and we won’t let this get us down!
I’ll share more about our time in Mexico in another blog entry.
by Christiana