One of the reasons we moved to Alaska four years ago was to help start a church with a couple other families. At the time we bought our land, it looked like the church was going to be in the same area we moved to, but others settled closer to town and then a year after meeting in someone’s basement we found a church building.
Only problem was that the church was an hour from our cabin. We found ourselves very much in the wrong area for many things. We drove an hour to church, an hour and a half to Walmart for groceries, an hour or more to many jobs, and an hour or more to visit most church families.
We spent a lot of money on gas.
In some ways it was good to not live close to many of our friends because it made us get to know the people who lived around us. But last spring during lockdowns I was going through post partum depression and felt very isolated from friends.
During that time we decided to look into moving closer to church, and last summer we bought 6 acres forty minutes closer to town and church.
We listed our cabin in January, but when spring came and it was still on the market, Andy and I weren’t sure if we would be building our new place this summer or not. We had talked about living in a motor home while we built, but without the funds from our cabin sale, building would be a long, drawn out process.
Then, in May, some friends had an opening in their rental house and asked if we would like to rent it. In many ways that solved most of our problems!
The rental is only two miles from church, ten minutes from town, and much closer to our building site than the cabin is. Plus it takes all the pressure off selling the cabin and getting our new house move-in-ready before snow flies.
A few weeks after deciding to rent, we did sign a contract on the cabin, so it looks like building can move forward this summer after all!
Meanwhile, we are enjoying the perks of living so close to everything and the luxury of life on the grid for a while.
The past six months has been such a roller-coaster for us, and it’s been a lesson for me to have more faith and trust in God’s timing. It’s amazing to see how God has worked everything out and answered our prayers even better than we had imagined.
