We are so excited to share that Iris Madagascar is in the process of buying our very first piece of land! Every step of this process has been covered with God's grace and faithfulness and provision. We are rejoicing at this testimony of His love! And we praise Him for His endless and unwavering goodness towards His children!
We have been in Madagascar for almost six years now, and have rented houses throughout our village for all six of those years. We are quickly growing, and we now have over 130 children to whom we are forever family, and are now renting FIVE different properties to house them all! It has been a long time coming! We have spent days upon days looking at pieces of land that will fit our family. After seeing so many we were nearly convinced that the only land we could find would be outside of our village of Ambohinambo, which has been our home since we first arrived in Madagascar. Our older children would have to change secondary schools, we would have to leave our beautiful friends here in the village, and not only that, but we would be leaving the place that so many people know they can come to for encouragement, to eat, for medical care, and know that they will receive help and love.
BUT GOD IS FAITHFUL!
A few months ago, we knew we would be asked to leave one of the houses we were renting for our girls. It was a beautiful house that we had made a wonderful home to our little girls; painted for little princesses, and full of toys and play equipment. All of our houses were already at capacity and we were so sad to be taking these girls out of an amazing home that they loved; especially not knowing where we could next rent. However, the landlord and his family were preparing to sell the land. We never imagined we could buy it, as it was too small for all of our children, and we needed a large piece of land to fit our big family and school.
We continued to believe God to bring us the right land to build our forever home on, and in His perfect time He provided more than we imagined. One day we went to look at a house available for purchase right here in our village, something that we didn't see often. When we arrived, it turned out to be the plot of land NEXT DOOR to the house that we loved but needed to leave because it was being sold. We had prayed that God would extend our contract so that we had enough time to find a new home, and he didn't just make a way for what we were asking, but provided above and beyond our small thinking! He was delivering the land into our hands to call our own, and at the same time giving us enough land all together to fulfill our vision for ALL 50 of our girls to have their own piece of land to call their own, and give us room to take in more!
A home for our girls, in our village, and a dream of over five years in the making coming into fruition. God gave our team complete peace as we moved forward with the process. And even as we looked at our bank account and saw that we didn't have the money for the deposit that was required for the land, God remained faithful! We had no money available and nothing scheduled to come in, so we did what we always do in those moments, which is to gather our children, our examples in the faith, to pray. We have faced seemingly impossible times when we had no money to provide for our family for the day. But HE always does! And even when we only have a dollar or two in the bank and nearly 200 people to feed in our family alone that day, our children pray, heaven moves, money comes in, and our children have never ever gone without a meal. So in the same way, our children prayed for our land.
Within a week, we went from nothing to an abundance. We had enough money for a deposit on each piece of land, nearly paid the first piece in full, signed the contract and were given the keys! Their simple faith moves mountains.
As of today, we own our first piece of land outright! Our children love exploring their new home before we build on it and we have already begun planting a small garden to grow vegetables for our family and community! The contract is currently being made on the second piece of land and we are so excited to see the testimonies of God's love and faithfulness and provision that will come forth during the rest of this process!