May 2011 Prayer Letter

Written by Karl Dahlfred on 26 April 2011.

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Dear Friends & Family,

When we left for the field as missionaries in 2006, we thought that owning a home was out of the question for us. We didn’t have the funds and we would be gone much of the time. However, we had to rethink that through when Dr. Larry Dinkins, a OMF missionary who has served the Thai for the last 30 years, wrote a guest post on our webpage entitled “If I Had To Do It All Over Again” (July 14, 2009). Number 7 on his list was, “I would have figured out a way to purchase a house on the homeside [USA] early in my career and thus set up a solid base for my family in subsequent years.” We began thinking and praying, and researching about this idea. We corresponded with the Dinkins to better understand their rationale, talked it over with the finance director at OMF to see whether OMF would be supportive of the idea of their missionary owning a home stateside, and looked at our finances.

As missionaries, there would be risks to owning a home while we are overseas but we believe that it will be a good investment, and will serve to control rent in our latter years. If we were to retire in the United States in thirty years time, it would be nice to not need to continue to pay rent at that time, especially as some people are less likely to keep supporting retired missionaries who are no longer “on the front lines”. Some missionaries live in dozens of different homes over the course of their lifetime and we think that it would add stability to our family’s life if we had a place to come back to time and again, when we are in the U.S.

We talked with OMF’s director of finance and discussed at length OMF’s perspective (they were very much in favor of it!) and how it could be managed. In the end, we have found a way to buy a home and yet minimize any increase, if at all, to our overall support figure.

With what the Lord has given us through personal and retirement savings earmarked for a down payment, we enlisted some good friends to help us with buying a home. We shopped for a good mortgage, got pre-approved, and began house hunting.

Three months later, we are in escrow. Praise the Lord! However, our first lender did not want to fund our mortgage loan when they heard that we would be returning to Thailand. We quickly got a pre-approval from our current lender. This seems more promising since they have given mortgage loans to missionaries before. Please continue to pray for us, especially for our current lender to fund the loan and close escrow for us.

Throughout this whole process, we have always prayed for God’s will to be done in this situation. We have asked with open hands knowing that God may not give us a home. We are at peace however the Lord may choose to answer regarding this.

We are human and are limited in our understanding. We don’t know what the future may hold. However, with what wisdom and resources God has given us, we have looked into this situation and prayed about it. We have analyzed the matter and researched the possibility. We have begun the process and are now in the midst of it. Please continue to pray for the Lord’s guidance in the next couple of months.

Please also remember Karl as he is snowed under with reading, writing, and research as he plugs away at Th.M studies at Talbot and writes his thesis.

by Christ’s grace,
Karl & Sun Dahlfred

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