The Story of Moving AIM to Gainesville

It was the spring of 1994. Karen and I had sensed God telling us to move out of south Florida even though we had no idea where he wanted us to move. So, stepping out in faith, we put our house on the market.

We were nervous – would it sell? Or what if it sold and we had to leave right away, where would we move? 

Some people came to check out our home. Then our fears were realized – a few weeks went by and one couple loved it. They said, “We’ll buy it immediately if you can move out.”

Yikes! What to do? We and our five children would be homeless. We prayed and, feeling like God wanted us to keep walking in faith, we agreed to their terms.

Now the reality of our situation hit Karen and I: We would have to leave and go somewhere with all of our kids and furniture in just a few short weeks. All we knew is that we needed to move close to an international airport. As we prayed, we thought God might be directing us to move near Atlanta. 

Gainesville was an hour from the airport, but we couldn’t find what we were looking for. Our budget was tight and we felt like building on some land would be the best option. 

One of the first people we met was a home builder who was a Christian. He made this offer, “If you find a piece of property in the area that you want to build on, we’ll build it for you at cost.”

A week went by, then two weeks. With all these question marks and the clock ticking down, we were worried. One night as we were going to bed Karen said, “I just read a book by Dick Eastman where they were in a situation like ours. He anointed a map with oil and God answered his prayer. I’m going to do that, and what’s more, I think that we should pray for a dream from God.”

We had never prayed for a dream before; I was skeptical. “That’s great – I’ll pray that God gives you a dream tonight.”

“No, I’m going to pray that you get the dream!” she exclaimed, and proceeded to pray right then before we drifted off to sleep.

About 6 a.m. the following morning I woke up from a dream, “Karen, wake up, I just had the dream!”

“What are you talking about?” She muttered from under the pillow.

“The dream you prayed for – I had it! There was a guy named Tom that we bought the property from and a big tower behind the house.” I wrote this in my journal and forgot about it.

A week later, I was back in the Atlanta area leading a retreat. Half an hour before leaving for the airport, I saw an ad in the paper for some property north of Gainesville. I had just enough time to quickly go look at it.

Going down the long driveway, it looked beautiful surrounded by forest on every side. The price was right for a missionary family on a tight budget. I knew this was the property!

Back in Florida, we had just another week before we had to move out of our house.

“I think this is the house. We’ll be homeless, so let’s load up our furniture in a U-haul, drive to Georgia and make an offer.” I told Karen.

And that’s what we did. Friends helped us empty our Florida house into a Ryder truck. And we drove it to Gainesville with Karen driving behind me in our van. Once there, I parked the truck out of sight and negotiated with the owner. He accepted our price!

After that I talked to the homebuilder we’d met. He said, “Go choose the model you want and we’ll build it for you at cost.” 

Our Mexico team expected us in a few days, so Karen had just an hour to go pick out the model and make decisions about the porch, siding and windows. She’s a trooper – she raced to the builder’s store, made the decisions, drove back, and then we got in the van and set off for Mexico.

Three months later, we drove back to Georgia, and the house was standing there – so beautiful and almost ready for our small family to move in.

The funny thing is, in all the commotion, we completely forgot about the dream.

Years later, I was reading my journal and bam! I connected the dots – we had in fact bought the property from a guy named Tom! And what about the tower? Though there wasn’t one at the time, years after our move, the telephone company built a huge tower near an adjoining property.

What a series of miracles! 30 years later, our family has grown. The house has hosted so many missionaries over the years. This week a team from around the country is using it for a retreat.

What a great God we serve! He gives dreams to reassure us, but not deprive us of our agency. Whatever situation you find yourself in today, trust God – he is a good God and he hears your prayers.