Answered Prayer

Before we moved to Canada, we prayed. We prayed for a lot of things. We prayed about selling our house in Wisconsin. God answered and provided a private buyer, without ever listing the house on the market. We prayed for God to provide, if possible, a place to live in Salmon Arm, close to Pierre's Point. It was close to the Adams Lake Reservation, so it made sense to pray to be close. God answered a month before we were to move, and provided this house to rent, which is less than one kilometer to Pierre's Point.

We believed that this was a temporary living place right from the start; but we also were thankful to God for providing it. So, anticipating the need to move someday, we began to pray for the next location seven and a half years ago.

Recently, God graticiously gave a sign that we would be moving again. It seems, that our little Barn-House was built 38 years ago as a whim of the owner of the property. He wanted to prove that though he was 70 years old, he wasn't too old to build a house. You don't need city permits for a whim, do you? Well, he didn't think so.
So, he built the house...illegally.

Our landlord had a house fire last winter. He went to the city to get the proper permits. The city engineer came out and looked over the property. When he came to our little Barn-House, he said, "What's that?" The landlord explained that the former property owner built the house, and that it was grandfathered into the deed. The engineer promptly checked the records. The answer was, "No." So, the city lawyers told the landlord that before he can move into his new house, the barn house has to be vacated. I presume that it will be checked out later by the city building examiner to determine if it is up to code. Anyway, when the landlord told me that I had about six months to find other quarters, my heart stirred and I took it as a sign from God to get ready to move.

One thing preventing us from looking for a different house up to now was the fact that we couldn't get a house loan from a bank as long as we had a "Visitor Visa" from the government. A week before I got the notice from the landlord about moving, we got a letter from the government telling us that our two and 3/4 year wait on the government was nearly over. We would be granted the Landed Immigrant status (which is like the Permanent Resident - Green Card, in the States). That meant that we could get a house loan, when that was finalized!
Today, we received the official and final paperwork. We can expect to be in a position to apply for a house loan in anywhere from 1-3 months...I think. Anyway, things are coming together.

If we could, we would consider moving to Reservation land to be closer to our friends; but that probably won't happen. There are a fixed number of houses available on the Rez, and they are all occuppied. There is a waiting list of Native people wanting to move on the Rez, so without Native status, it is unlikely that we will be able to move there. But we can still pray! :)
I figure we have a couple of months for God to open a door of opportunity if He wants us on the Reservation. I wonder how He will direct...?