Praise God, today we  closed on a piece of land that in the future will be the new home for our ministry.  It has been a long time coming and I feel like I have looked at every piece of land that has been for sale in this area for the last six months.  The land  is located just a few miles  from Santa Cruz del Quiche, near the      small town of San Pedro.  It is close to the main highway in this area and has good access.  It is 20 cuerdos (likely misspelled) which is about 1/3 of an acre. So we have about seven acres.  It will be used not only for housing, but an area to grow crops.  We will also use as a place to keep the men busy.  This is made possible by the donations of many people and organizations.  Both the Woodlands United Methodist Church and Agape in Action in Porter, Texas have a part in this along with some individuals whom I will be happy to tell who they are with their permission.  The land cost in excess of $25,000.

We plan to have a ceremony to anoint the land and dedicate it to God in the very near future and I will post pictures when this happens.

The story of the purchase is quite a tale.  We were near closing on another piece of land when we found out about this land.  The man who told us he owned it lived in a house nearby and shortly after viewing it, it  was a better location with fewer problems and cheaper.  The man wanted a deposit and I told him  we  could agree as long as he brought the ownership papers to our attorney.  This went on for a week and he came to my house with his family and said he could not give us papers  without some money changing hands.  He implicated that with the papers we could steal the land.  I told him we only wanted a copy, and he must sign papers to sell the land.

The indigenous people are very suspicious, so I was not as suspicious as I should have been.  He continued to make excuses for several days and finally admitted that he did not own the land, but he had an exclusive agreement to buy the land and it was actually larger, but he would keep the extra and assign his rights to us for the extra land.

At this point, we decided we had to talk with the real owner.  When he found our what had happened he was very angry and said the man was a crook.  This kind of language is rarely used by the people here.  He checked us out thoroughly and we checked him out also.  He turns out to be a very successful business man with strong integrity.  Even though he was trying to sell a smaller piece than we were told, he agreed to sell us the agreed land for the agreed price when he found out what it is to be used for.  His brother is our next door neighbor and a strong christian.

We again praise God and know that when we walk with him, he provides what we need, not always what we think we want.