The Big Move
It had been our hope and dream to one day move Hope House into a large facility with room for more young women and for our foundation office. The months of March and April have found us in the process of moving! God has answered our prayers and has blessed us abundantly with a large, beautiful home that will be the permanent home of our Hope House women’s discipleship/scholarship home!
Of course, there is a story behind this! Our dear friends, Sam and Julie Hawkins have lived and worked for 33 years in El Salvador founding and building Vinculo de Amor (Lovelink), a ministry to malnourished babies. In 2018, after successfully handing over the ministry to others, Sam and Julie retired, and began the daunting task of paring their lives down to what they would carry on the airplane and what they could ship in a container. Both Sam and Julie had been experiencing significant health issues, so this was not easy work.
The large house they had been living in for the last 15 years of their time in ES was full to overflowing with 33 years worth of life and memories. A handful of our missionary community here in ES came around them and began to help clean house, give away, sell and pack. It was a process that took months of work. This coincided with David and I beginning to feel God stirring our hearts that it was time to pray for that BIG house.
Now, we knew the Hawkins house very well, as we had spent a good amount of time there. I always said, “I LOVE this house, but, I’d NEVER live here because of the location and the TRAFFIC!!” In fact, I used to think, “What are they thinking living in this area?” Well, one day, during this time, I woke up to hear in my heart, “You will move to Sam and Julies house.” I sat up, shook my head, and thought….”What was that? Of course, I would never move over there!” I shook my head and laughed off the thought. Until….ALL day that thought kept running through my mind. I kept saying, “What? God are you telling me this? Because you KNOW how I feel about living in that area! That traffic is a nightmare, and that area….well, it’s sketchy, ya know!?”
About the location. Back before the civil war in El Salvador, the area, called Colonia Layco, was where the American Embassy was located and was considered to be a very classy area to live in with large houses and a high degree of safety. Well, after the war, the American Embassy moved to a safer place and the inner city began to migrate towards Colonia Layco. This left behind lots of big houses surrounded by high walls and razor wire.
The area is always congested with traffic as there is a major bus terminal close by and a large commercial center, called Metro Centro. However, the very bus lines that bring the traffic, are the lines that all of our women have to take to get to their universities and to their villages. They all have to catch a bus to Metro Centro from our current women’s home, and then, ride a bus to their schools, or to their homes. Also, the National University is literally within walking distance of the Hawkins’ house.
As I began to ponder all of this, I began to take seriously the thought running through my head, “You will move to Sam and Julies house”. Still baulking and resistant to the idea, I began to talk to David about it. He was somewhat dumbfounded that I was even considering it, knowing my feelings about the location. But, the more we talked about it, the more it seemed to be a possibility. It really was a great location for the ministry house. After three days of fighting with God about it, we went over to Sam and Julies one day while they were in the midst of the packing and moving, and told them. They lit up, excited about the possibility of their beloved home continuing to be used for ministry.
As I began to ponder all of this, I began to take seriously the thought running through my head, “You will move to Sam and Julies house”. Still baulking and resistant to the idea, I began to talk to David about it. He was somewhat dumbfounded that I was even considering it, knowing my feelings about the location. But, the more we talked about it, the more it seemed to be a possibility. It really was a great location for the ministry house. After three days of fighting with God about it, we went over to Sam and Julies one day while they were in the midst of the packing and moving, and told them. They lit up, excited about the possibility of their beloved home continuing to be used for ministry.
They told us that the owners of the house had given them a killer deal on the rent 15 years ago and had never changed the price. What were the chances that they would keep the rent the same price? We decided to make that our ‘fleece’. We all grabbed hands and prayed together for God to guide us. Sam sent a letter to the owner asking him to consider us as the next tenants and, in light of the fact that we were doing something to help El Salvador, if he’d consider keeping the rent at the same low price they’d been paying. In response, the owner said, “Of course, if they are your friends, we’d love to have them take over the house, and yes, we will keep the same rent price.” When we received his answer, we were blown away. We knew it would be a stretch and an answer to prayer for him to agree to this, knowing he could get a lot more money renting the house to someone else. In the mean time, God had been working on my heart, and I had total peace about moving to that home. I was AMAZED. God had flipped my heart in just three short days.
The home, as you can see by the pictures, is enormous! Maggie calls it “The Mansion”. It has three floors. The ground level is the large garage and the offices. It is a three-room office plus a small bathroom. It’s perfect. It has an outside entrance so that you don’t have to go through the house to come inside.
Up the stairs you arrive on the main floor. A large living room, a sunken area, we call the pit, a sunroom area, and the dining room. There is a bathroom and a study/bedroom, as well as a very large laundry area which also contains another bedroom, bathroom and storage rooms. There is a lovely garden outside the back porch.
Up the stairs, there is a large living area, four large bedrooms as well as three bathrooms. In total, there is room for about 15 girls!
We broke the news to all the girls at the first event we held at our new house: a girls club informational meeting/leaders training. We told them we would pick them all up at Hope House and bring them to the training because it was at a location that would be hard for them to find. We brought them to the new house, gathered them together and said, “Welcome to the NEW Hope House!!! They were overwhelmed with joy and excitement and all shouted, “When can we move in?!” At the end of the school year, November, all the women will be moving to join us. As one of our friends who recently came to see the house for the first time stated, “Wow, God was saving this house for you guys. It is perfect for your ministry!” We couldn’t agree more. All we can say is, “Thank you! You are faithful Father!”
