"The Welther Mansion"
I read another Psalm that I thought fits best with my feelings towards blogging... " I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. Let my meditation be pleasing to HIm"..
To think about Him and His goodness.. aah.. and to tell you guys all about it... double ahhhh. :)
"How in the world can two young missionaries (read: financially challenged and yet always faithfully provided for) buy house????... and what bank would think to loan them money???"
Well, here's our big miracle... first off, that's not really our house in the picture. I just wanted to be funny. :]
Here's a real picture of our house:
As we were planning our wedding, David and I needed to look for a place to live! I was living with my good friend Rebekah in YWAM"s downtown campus housing and David was living in a church's parsonage with two guys- Manuel and Shane. (Manuel is from Germany and he is the leader of School of the Bible. Shane is a great guy and a great musician.)
At first, our plan was to live in the parsonage with Shane and Manuel. David and I love people and find no qualms about living with other people even as newly weds. When the church refused the idea of David and I and the two guy living in the church parsonage- we then started looking into other options- We were not discouraged. We knew that God would provide housing for us!
We toyed around with the idea of buying a house but didn't really think it would be possible until we met with David's friend who works in Real Estate- Dan Spransy.
It was Dan who helped us look for a home and connected us with the owner of a Mortgage Company- a great Christian guy. Instead of looking at our income for the banks to approve us of a loan, he looked for different ways to prove to the banks that we are trustworthy people who will make payments for the house.
It seems so simple right now- but it was such a huge miracle! We looked at 30 different houses in the span of 2 1/2 weeks amidst wedding planning and life! To say that we were exhausted is an understatment! But finding the right house for the right price at the right time needed some touch of God's. When David and I declared that it was the last day we were going to look at houses, if we didn't find one then we will reevaluate our plan that we FINALLY found our home- AND IT WAS SOOOOO PERFECT. THE RIGHT SIZE, THE RIGHT PRICE AND A BEAUTIFUL ONE, TOO!!! WE WERE SOOO BLOWN AWAY!
We closed on the house a few days after we got back from our honeymoon in Hawaii. We signed the papers at 9am on October 27th, 2005 and at 11am have started moving our things in to our new home! By the 29th of October we have painted the entire house! We were very, very excited. :)
So now, we live in a three bedroom house with Manuel and Shane. The two guys occupy the second floor rooms and David and I have the bedroom downstairs. We have a great kitchen, a huge bathroom, a large living room, a dining room, a big basement for the musicians (David and his DJ turntables and Shane with his studio) and a backyard.
We have had a lot of people over for dinner, for tea, for movies, or just for hanging out. We looove having people vist us! Come and visit us!!!! :)
We are soooo blessed to have this home. We couldn't have imagined a better place to live and begin our life as Mr. and Mrs. Welther.
Manuel + David with our School of the Bible outreach team to Vegas in 2004
Shane and his pumpkin
David and I on our honeymoon
a way of giving thanks
So here's our first blog. I, Sarah, am writing first. I am really excited! As Psalm 96 says "sing to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day", this is a great way to "shout" and "sing" of His goodness! This is also a great venue to keep in touch and to interact with you all! Come by often, we will update frequently and leave us comments! We love hearing from you!!
David and I have been married for exactly 59 days now and it is wonderful to be married!!!!! God has been soooo good to us. Looking back at our wedding, I am so blown away. It was such a beautiful event marked by the richness of our life because Him and because of quality of friends and family that surrounded us near and far- at the wedding and in prayer and in thought!!!
Some real highlights:
1. My whole family were able to come to the wedding in Madison, Wisconsin because of a family from Oregon who paid for their whole airfare!!!
2. Gleanings for the Hungry/ YWAM Sultana base put on a huge celebration for us in California so that we could celebrate with those who were not able to go to Madison. It was like another mini-wedding! David and I wore our wedding clothes again.
3. David and I are so blessed by all of you who joyfully and excitedly celebrated with us- sending us cards and gifts!
4. Going to a tropical place for our honeymoon! We went to Maui, Hawaii.
When David and I first starting planning the wedding, God spoke to us about how we will be surprised by how He was going to make the wedding happen even if we had $0 budget for it. And indeed, He has done great things! We are so blessed to have had such a beautiful celebration of the beginning of the rest of our lives together, serving God.
Here are some pictures!! (more to come later)
