Glory! We found a house!

I have to begin by sharing with you all just how excited I am about how this last trip to Tarma went! Meredith and Julio and I left early Wednesday morning to make the bus trip to Tarma, and we arrived by 3:30 in the afternoon. Right off the bat we began to look at our options, first touring a third floor apartment (which only had two bedrooms), then looking at a house where we would take over the second floor and some of the roof space. This place was located on a quiet street with a fantastic view of the mountains. The biggest downer though, was that there was no kitchen, and this room is as important as the bathroom! So then we looked at our third option, and for the sake of blog space I’ll just go ahead and let you know that this is the house that we chose. Above are a few pictures of the place. The house is located about a 15min. walk from the town square, and is just about perfect for what we were looking for. The house is two floors, the owners living on the first floor, and the second floor consisting of two separate apartments with a shared front balcony and main entrance. One apartment the owners are renting out as a unit, and in the other, they rent out single rooms to students and singles. So, this allows Meredith, Elsa and I to occupy the main apartment unit, and Julio to take one of the rooms next door – with the ability to use our kitchen and main room. All of this, plus the electric bill, for a grand total of $170 per month. We will of course have a few bills on top of the rent, but we are looking at no more than $215 max per month. Split this between four people, and we have got ourselves a pretty sweet deal. There are some perks that came along with the apartment as well. First, the owners have agreed to paint the apartment and lay carpet in the bedrooms (which is almost unheard of), so the last stop we made before coming home was the paint store to pick out the colors of our future bedrooms! Next perk is that the family that owns the home is Mormon’s, but the oldest son is a Christian and is interested in our ministry. Along with this is the potential of being able to rent out the entire second apartment when the current renters leave. This would give us a total of 8 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and 2 main salas. This would be an incredible resource that gives us the potential for growth with the ministry, a place to meet, and a few extra rooms for when teams come, or family visits! And to top it off, Rosio, a woman who owns a restaurant that we frequent lives just a few houses down. We already know our neighbors! Praise God for his faithful provision! And thank you all who have been praying for this specific need. I am so thankful for your support and encouragement.
For now, our goal is to make the move on July 23. God has also provided us a moving truck, owned by one of the pastors of the Adiel who used to live in Tarma. Edulio (pastor of La Viña) has graciously offered us the use of his truck for free, and has even volunteered to ride in the truck with our belongings all the way to Tarma. This is a huge blessing since hiring a truck of our own to go that far would have been a great expense. So we’ve decided to try and beat the clock and move an entire week before we had originally planned. These next few weeks will be busy with packing up, purchasing a few more items that we will take with us, while we continue in our classes at the Institute and our ministry responsibilities in Lima. It is going to be a whirlwind, but an exciting one. I will try to keep you all posted as best as I can. Video Tour soon to come!

Oh, and we also got a P.O. Box at the post office in Tarma while we were there – so now we have an official mailing address as well!