James & Carolanne

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has been praying for us in our move! We have a new home!

We are SO thankful for this new place. We have been here a week as of Wednesday and so far we love it! Though the journey has been rocky and super stressful at times we're thrilled to be finally through and officially moved in.

Thank you for praying for us! We know there have been many who have prayed diligently as we have walked through this process.

A little about the journey so far...

The picture above is the new place that we bought in the small town of Quesnel, about 6.5 hours drive north of where we used to live in Chilliwack. Since my (James) work is entirely online, I can work from anywhere as long as there is good internet connectivity. We started this process back in March, packing boxes into a storage unit and then listing our house for sale in April. We both felt like this was the direction that God was leading us.

One cool example of this was on the day that we were having pictures taken of our place. I had been praying the days before that it would be sunny for the pictures. I really wanted the place to be presented well and so sunshine coming in the windows would be just perfect. But we woke up on the morning of pictures and it was very grey and POURING rain. Still, I hoped for a miracle, though looking outside wasn't very uplifting to my faith. Even 20 minutes before the photographer was scheduled to arrive it was still grey and raining.

Then, the Lord answered my prayer. When the photographer showed up and started taking pictures the rain stopped, the sky opened up, and sunshine shone through. There are very few times I have seen such obvious and unmistakable answers to my prayers, but this was one of them. I know it might seem trivial in the grand scheme of things, but it was very meaningful to me and it gave me a little glimpse of what might be to come.

So, we listed our place for sale and the real-estate market in Chilliwack promptly crashed.

The crash...

Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration, but not much of one. We've talked to real-estate people who say the market turned almost overnight. We lived in a very nice townhouse complex and we saw another place in the same complex sell very quickly shortly before us. In fact, there was a bidding war and it went for $50k over the asking price within a week. However that place was a real "fixer-upper" so to speak. Realtors might say it had "good bones" and just needed "a little elbow grease". We know it needed a LOT of work.

So, we listed slightly higher, thinking we would have no trouble selling our nice, move-in-ready place. We wanted to sell because we really wanted to get into a larger place, in a quieter area with more room for the kids to roam and play. Not to mention we anticipated that Ben would want to park a car on the driveway soon enough.

But then, after listing with high hopes, nothing happened. No offers. Very few showings. We started to wonder if we picked the wrong agent, but he seemed to be doing what he could. We even ran into a few other agents who said he had mentioned our place to them.

After a month and a half the realtor encouraged us to consider lowering our price. We grudgingly hacked a year's wages off the price tag and waited for the lower offers to flow in. We hoped that we had taken enough off to capture people's interest and maybe still get bids over what we were asking. Yet, still nothing.

After what seemed like years, we finally received a very low offer for our place in July. This was another $35k lower than what we had already lowered our price to. At first we did not want to consider it. It was too low. It was far less even than the dumpy unit that sold in the bidding war down the lane. It was almost an insult!

However, time was moving on, and since we were planning to go further north we really wanted to be moved into a new place before the snow hit. After more thought and prayer we decided to accept their offer. Not having any insight yet into where we might move, we agreed to a possession date for the end of August. That gave us 1.5 months to find a place, make an offer, verify all the particulars and do the move.

The search...

Throughout all of this we had already been looking for new places up in Quesnel. We chose this town because of a combination of factors. We love the climate and terrain. We really wanted to live in a smaller, quieter, more peaceful area. We were constantly running into folks who spoke highly of the town. We could almost afford a proper house here. And two of Carolanne's brothers already lived here. When my sister and brother-in-law decided to move up to Prince George, (1.5 hours north of Quesnel) that clinched the decision.

Having accepted the offer on our place, we searched for homes with even greater vigor. I had multiple realtors sending listings to me, along with several automated systems watching for any new place or development. I scoured hundreds of listings looking for just the right place. We even put offers in on a few of them, though we were usually out-bid by others.

I think the Lord continues to have a sense of humour because in the end, in spite of the automated internet robots alerting me to anything new, and the multiple realtors watching for possible places, and my own constant searching, it ended up being Carolanne who found this place while casually browsing on Facebook marketplace. I'm so glad she did!

We moved in on Aug. 31'st. Now we have begun the long and tedious process of unpacking boxes and figuring out where everything is going to go. There are a few little things around the house that need fixing or repairing (hot water tank, fridge and some painting to name a few) but in general the place has been well kept and we're very happy with where we have landed.

Thanks!!!

Thank you again for praying for us! We really have appreciated all the support that folks have expressed to us and how many people have prayed for us during this move. It's a big deal to move a family that far. The kids had never moved before, and Carolanne has never lived outside the Fraser Valley. Thankfully since we homeschool there is less school exchange stress. We are going to continue with the homeschooling. We're still not sure exactly how prepared we are for the imminent snow. But we know that God continues to be with us and we trust He is guiding our steps.

As mentioned above, I James am continuing to work as a missionary with Power to Change. That part of our lives has not changed. I still serve with the internet based ministry called Digital Strategies (under P2C) and spend most of my day writing computer code used by our ministry and others to present the gospel and mentor people around the world.

We also still have many friends and family members who donate regularly to support us financially in this ministry. We are super thankful for each one who gives so faithfully and generously to help advance this kingdom work. Thank you for your continued gifts and prayer.

Our ministry really depends on these gifts and donations from people who understand the opportunity and impact, and who give generously to support it. If you would like to give to help support this online ministry, click here to go to our secure ministry giving form.

Thanks again on behalf of all of us,

James