A LONG STORY -- PART 2
Two Options

OPTION 1: Remember the guy at Evan's Bible study? He talked to Evan about being business partners in this land deal. He needed someone who could do physical labor and fix about anything. That would be Evan. He could offer the funds. That would NOT be Evan. :)

His proposal to Evan was to have Evan (& our family) stay in the existing home and fix everything up. We could live there for the two year process, which after 2 years, he would sell it, and we could share in the profit. Looking at it from this perspective, it doesn't sound like such a bad deal. There were pros and cons to this option.

Pros:
* Free living expense for 2 years, out of town, on some beautiful land.
* Able to get completely debt free and actually come out ahead from the sale of our home.
* Possible money in our pocket after 2 years

Cons:
* Lots of Evan's time working to do a pretty detailed job on this house -- time away from family
* Pretty high risk involved after looking through all the numbers to actually make enough money to make it worth our time
* No place to live after 2 years
* Live in a messy home that is constantly being remodeled

OPTION 2: Remember the friends who wanted this land in the first place? They were still interested. AND, the current owner said he would consider selling, but only if they would include our family in the deal somehow (which they already planned to do). How we were "blessed" to be in the middle of this is beyond me, except that God had His hand in this whole thing. You see, both parties involved wanted to help our family get out of town and had very generous motives. The first option would have been short-term, but hopefully blessing us financially. It did include some risk on our part.

The second option is this. Our friends want to "sell" us 20 acres of this property in exchange to have Evan do minor repairs on the existing home as well as manage, lease, and irrigate the remaining property. (There are 80 acres total.) This couple's opinion is, why waste 2 years of your life when you can have what would fit your family best now? Their hopes are to build out there someday as well. We have even talked of having a "community garden" where we could share in the labors and the profit -- maybe even share a milk cow together! (Though I haven't quite convinced Evan that a cow is a good idea....yet!) We all have different gifts to bring to the table. Evan's gifts are physical labor and know-how as well as a bit more spare time than they have. Our friends' gifts are financial. It reminds me of the body of Christ. When people work together using our different gifts, a really good thing can result.

One thing we all have in common is to better reach this hurting community for Jesus. God has a plan for this property that goes way beyond what any of us could imagine, I think. We all just need to be open vessels to hear His voice and use the blessings He gives to reach the lost for Him -- not just to benefit ourselves. Our prayer is that God will show us exactly how He wants us to do that.

Since these two options were laid out before us, option 1 has been removed, and option 2 is in the works. Our friends are in the process of purchasing the land. Our first step? To begin working on fixing up the existing home, so we have a place to live once our home sells, while we begin the building process. That home will eventually be sold with about 10 of the acres.

I told you this was confusing...and a LONG story!

To be continued...