God is so good, y'all.

He is steadily providing everything that we need at the time that we need it. Sure, it's driving me insane waiting until the last possible second, but it's developing my trust. He is taking care of us.

Saturday was fun. We got up early and went to look at a cottage for rent. The couple who owns it is from Belfast and they even came to pick us up to drive us out there. It was beautiful and there were apple trees and lots of sheep next door that would come up and watch you! Unfortunately, it's too far out of town, so we wouldn't be able to make it work without a vehicle.

It's a pretty cottage though. This is not a current picture! Don't worry, it's not snowing here... yet.

I was also able to Facetime with my mom and sister and they got to talk to Philip. He obliged by saying everything Harry Potterish that they wanted. "What would you like me to say? 'Expecto Patronum and Welcome to Hogwarts and Wingardium LeviOOOOHsa!"' He's a funny guy.

Later that night, we were all sitting around the flat when there was a knock at the door. It was Pastor Rollinson from the Baptist church. We had been in contact with him for a few months about possible accommodations in the area, and he had been extremely helpful in hooking us up with some other St. Mary's college students from his congregation. He encouraged us a bit and prayed for us before he left. It's nice to know that there are people who love Jesus all over the world.

We were a little worried about what we were going to do about accommodations, since technically, we were going to have to leave sometime Sunday afternoon (because new tenants were coming in), but Philip was nice enough to go stay at a friend's house and give us his room for a few more days. He's also helping us secure some more accommodations for the next few weeks. He is seriously the nicest 20 year old college student I've ever met.

The other tenants in the flat are interesting. She's a local. He's Australian. They're also in their late 70s. They are sooooooo cute. I am currently sitting in the lounge with him while he talks to Clay and he's wearing a red t-shirt with a dragon on it and a giant belt buckle with the Texas state flag on it. He's talking about visiting all of his wife's rellies (relatives) while they're on vacation here. You know how talking to old people is really fun? With their crazy stories? Imagine an old person with an Australian accent. It's magical.

Sunday was great! We got up early and walked to St. Andrews Baptist Church (Pastor Rollinson's church), which is currently meeting in the auditorium of Madras College because they're too big to fit inside their church sanctuary (not a bad problem, if you ask me!). Their church reminded us a lot of home. It was nice hearing Scottish accents while we were singing too. :) Afterwards, we had coffee and biscuits and got to chat with some other St. Mary's College students and make some new friends. Everyone here was soooooooo friendly. They noticed we were new and went out of their way to run up, shake our hands, and ask if we were the Americans who were printed in the bulletin (we were!). We even had one guy tell us he had been to a Braves game and how he didn't really understand American baseball, but he had a good time. We're thinking this may be our church home for the next few years.

The view from church!

Soooooo, I'm sure you want to know where we are on the house hunt. We looked at a few places, emailed a bunch of letting agencies, and hit a lot of dead ends. We woke up this morning knowing there's a deadline to our time at Philip's, and we needed to find something quick. We got some coffee and wandered around to all the letting agencies in the city. NOTHING. Either everything was either already let, astronomically out of our price range, too far away, or unavailable until the end of September or later. Feeling a little bummed, we grabbed a quick lunch and sat over by the cathedral ruins to think things over. We decided to head back to Philip's and do some more online research. When we got back, we found an email from Martin Passmore, the chair of the trust whom we'd been in touch with about the possible flat!

Part of the view of the walk into town.

Remember how excited I was about this flat? And then remember how not excited I was about the price? The more we talked to people in the area, the more we realized that this place was probably the best we were going to get. So we arranged a time to meet and wandered over there. Martin walked us around the area and gave us a little history. It used to be a school but in 2005, the school merged with another in the area and they sold a bunch of the land, giving them quite a bit of money that they wanted to put back into education somehow. They decided to use the land to build flats for students at a lower cost. The flat that we looked at was the renovated school house itself. and it. was. PERFECT. I should have taken more pictures, but here's what I've got!

The kitchen from the lounge

The ceiling in the lounge/kitchen area! It's gorgeous!

would you believe me if I told you the fridge was in there? IT IS.

spare bedroom. and TWO closets!

the view from the spare bedroom

the lounge from the dining area/kitchen

We told him we would take it. And he just said, "Well, it's yours then." JUST LIKE THAT! Unfortunately, they're still in the renovating process. No carpet or furniture yet. So, it won't be ready until the 2nd week of September. Hence, we're looking for temporary accommodations for 3 more weeks. If anyone would like to donate to the Temporary Accommodation Fund, we are on PayPal :)

God is so good. I can't even begin to tell you how this has completely surpassed my expectations. He is providing for us step by step. It's not always going as planned, but it's better than anything we could have planned on our own.

Just a seagull hanging out.

as sweet and clear as moonlight through the pines.

 Carm