How God provides for our needs and surpasses our imagination...
Summer 2022 we had friends from Switzerland visiting us who, like us, were attending a Bible school in the USA. We chatted a lot about God and the world and, among other things, how they were living in the USA. They described their one-room apartment and that they stored their suitcases in the trunk of their car all year round because there was no room for them in the apartment. While they were sharing this with us, Johann was already picturing that our living situation would be somewhat similar. We did some research on Google about the housing situation in Colorado and quickly realized that there wasn't much more than a one-bedroom apartment in our budget. With a whole movie already playing in Johann's mind, the Spirit stopped him: "Don't limit me with your thinking towards apartment size and budget! I have prepared something different for you than you imagine at this moment." That same evening, Johann shared his experience with Betty. We repented of our thinking and decided not to limit the spirit in our housing situation. So time passed until the spring of 2023 and we let the matter be.
In February, a former German student advised us to post on the official Charis Facebook page that we were looking for a place to live. So we did an introduction, added a picture of the three of us and waited for feedback. We looked online for an apartment, but were very open to a shared house. Most apartment listings in Woodland Park were over our budget, and with a baby and being a married couple, a shared house is not that easy to find. Most shared houses are for singles and then of course all-female or all-male. Betty regularly looked at the housing offers in the group and also made inquiries with some. Everywhere came rejections. She connected with a young couple from Canada and we decided to look for an apartment together in Woodland Park. However, for various reasons, this did not work out. Every closed door tried to discourage us. Although we also kept thinking about the Word we had received from the Spirit, it was often not so easy to stand on the Word and trust God. We would have preferred to live in Woodland Park to keep the commute to school as short as possible. Eventually, we did decide to be open to housing in Colorado Springs. So Betty scrolled through the Facebook group again and looked at the housing ads in Colorado Springs. One shared housing ad specifically addressed married couples. Although the ad was older, Betty wrote to Kimberly to ask if she could provide more information about the living situation and whether it would be possible to rent the room with a baby. Kim responded that the house was 300m2 and had a garden with a swing, etc. Moreover, the largest room was still available. This was ideal, we thought, especially for our growing son. We prayed about whether the house and the monthly rent were right for us. A day later she answered a few more questions and after checking with the other couples if they were okay with a baby moving in, she agreed. We were just happy to be able to check off one more point. A few days later, Kim wrote Betty that there was a changing table and dresser in the house for Elijah. This further confirmed to us that we had made the right decision. God provided us through Kim with a high chair, playpen, toys and even a car seat for Elijah. The door for this home was wide open and we could hardly wait to meet Kim and also the other couples in person. But it wasn't until we arrived that the whole picture of how God had led us to this house opened up to us. We can see that it was right and important not to limit the Spirit and that He has a great plan for our housing group, and the goal of all of us is not to miss it.
See for yourselves how God has led us all into this house...
This is how Kim experienced our admittance:
Hallo, my greatest joy is the Lord and trusting in his leading of the Spirit. Sometime in April, I was looking on Charis Facebook page to see who was looking for rooms to rent. We are a little further from the school so I was praying to the Lord on who to except in our home. I knew instantly to go Coed. I asked the Lord to show me more because I didn't want any concerns from anyone. Then he said married couples. So I got right on Facebook and put up an ad. I got my first couple within 2 days. The Lord led them to come to our home. A couple day's later I saw Bettina's ad that they were coming to Charis from Switzerland, and they had a 👶 baby boy Elijah. He put in my Spirit that Elijah was very important to Him and that his name was God-given. I also knew in my Spirit that Johann and Bettina were the ones God wanted in our home. I called the owner of the home to see if we could have a baby in the house. All couples were required to be students, so I also had to ask if it was ok that only Johann would be attending Charis. I called Beth the owner right away, and she said it was not what we agreed on. I had only met Beth once and it was God who brought us together so I didn't push the issue. I felt grieved and heartbroken that I couldn't respond to Bettinas post I said Lord I know they are the ones. Two days later Beth called me and said if you think it's ok that they come who am I to deny a child of God. I was so excited that God had impressed on Beth's heart to let them come. I went back to Charis Facebook page to find the ad from Bettina. I couldn't find it anywhere. I now had rented all the rooms except one and kept looking for one more couple. The Lord was not showing me any other couples to put in the last room. I kept looking for Bettina and still couldn't find the ad. I turned away so many couples. Then one morning I woke up and cried before the Lord because He is so faithful. There was a message from Bettina to me on my phone that said:
Hi Kimberly. I saw your post for the room in the rental you are staying. Is it still available? Could you give me some more information about the price and living situation? My husband and I are coming with our baby boy. We just need one room, as our baby sleeps with us and probably will until he is about 2 years old. Would that be a possibility? Thank you so much. 😊 Blessings, Bettina.
I flew out of bed and said Yes, Yes. I only needed to let the other students know before responding. So I quickly called them. The first response was Yes absolutely 💯 👏. The next couples wife wanted to ask her husband and he said yes I'm only seeking the Lord nothing else matters. She said because she works from home and sleeps next to Johann and Bettina's room there might be a few concerns but who am I to deny a child of God! Yes and Amen. It's wonderful that you can Love someone before you ever meet them. God is so faithful ❤ my son giggled at me when he called and said how are you doing mama? I said great Johann, Bettina and Elijah got here today and he asked how was it? I stated I love them. ❤ they have been such a blessing and Elijah brings much Joy. Now after a few days there is so much more to see of God's Goodness and after sharing of our testimony of our call here and so much similar words from the Lord we can only sit with our eyes wide open in waiting of His Marvelous Plan. And Rest in his leading. Amen!
Lorrie and Andrews Story
In March 2023 we decided to follow God’s call and go to Bible College in Colorado, so we started looking for a place to stay. We were thinking to a small flat or renting a RV as we were aware of high rent cost in Colorado. It never crossed our mind to rent a room in a shared house but God’s ways are most of the time different than ours and He would always show us the best way for us. My husband started praying for a place up to $ 1,000 a month that has everything included so we don’t have to buy furniture or kitchen items and it is up to 45 min away from the college campus. We were researching about RV when a friend from England called me to tell me that she had a dream and I was living in a big house on a hill. Initially I thought that the dream was about us buying a new house in the future but later during that day something happened: while I was checking my facebook, I saw an add of a lady that was looking for Bible College students to share a house. I told to my husband that I suddenly feel drawn to live in a house with other Christians students. He told me to message the lady and see if they accept us. The house was all what my husband prayed for and suddenly I realized that it was also the house from the dream: big house on the hill. Lady accepted us and on August 14th we moved and God confirmed one more time that this was the place where He was directing us to stay for the time in Colorado.
Lorrie shared more details of her friend's dream with us in person. We see how some things have already become reality and are excited to see the whole picture fulfilled.
Victoria and Joshuas Story
In Dec 2022 we had a wonderful family come into our lives that eventually became our spiritual parents and spiritual brothers and sisters. They are the ones that turned us back to hearing from the Lord for ourselves and revisiting the Charis call that we heard the few years before. it was there that really realized that it was the call of God on our lives to go to Charis and to move to Colorado. So we both quit our jobs and staged everything so that we could start leaving. We ended up getting blessed with the finances to go to the 2023 campus days and it was an amazing experience. It was there that everything started to fall into place. There was a tuition discount going on 10 and we reached out to Julianne Harris about it seeing if we could secure it it turned out you needed a deposit. Which we didn’t have. So she took a minute and prayed with us, and believed with us, for the finances in the Lord‘s will to be done in our situation, the day after was the Charis fair. We took our time talking to people from local churches, reaching out to jobs, and everything else that Charis had opened up for us. Nothing seemed to click though. Victoria was in line to meet Mike packet, and I was confused as what to do next. I started walking around by the fireplace just praying in the spirit trying to hear from the Lord on what to do next and what was his plan for us. Out of nowhere, Julianne Harris comes running towards me, exclaiming, that I needed to come with her immediately, and that her family had had paid both mine and Victoria’s tuition for the whole year. We were so excited! I am mediately ran to grab Victoria and tell her the good news. It turned out the family had been hearing from the Lord back in December 2022 and he had told them that he had wanted them to pay for two peoples tuition. The Lord had already been setting up for our provision Before we even knew what we were supposed to be doing. A few days later, we got back to Michigan super excited and energized for what God was doing in our lives but we still had housing to figure out and jobs. We end up seeing a post on Facebook in the Charis community bulletin about a basement apartment that’s available and it was very affordable. We gave a call to the lady who advertised it, And after talking with us a little bit, she tells us that she heard from the Lord and that she believes were supposed to be staying in the apartment. She told us that we need to hear from the Lord ourselves, but she was very confident that we were the ones for the apartment in the basement. We take our time, and we immediately feel in our hearts that this was the place for us.
We start to pack up everything we can leaving most of our stuff behind, we filled up our car with everything we needed And we sat out for Colorado. We get to town and settled in, but it takes two months for us to secure jobs in Colorado. The Lord took care of us anyway, and paid our rent for the full two months and provided us with money for food and anything else we needed. When we finally get jobs secured, they are absolute miracles. I get a job at Sam’s Club where they didn’t have issues processing my background check, and Victoria gets a job as a shift lead at a cookie store. We are so grateful for the amazing blessings that God has given us, and the amazing provision he’s provided for us. We believe we will always be in the right place at the right time doing the right things with the right people.
God is great
He has thoughts of peace over us. He wants to give us a future and a hope. He also has thoughts of peace over you. He also wants to give you a future and a hope. Give it a chance and let yourself be led by him.
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