“Congratulations, you’re homeless!”

The dream began to take shape eleven years ago. It was December 1997. Cindy, Bryson and I were house hunting in Paragould, Arkansas. For some time we had felt led to move back to northeast Arkansas and begin some kind of mission training ministry. While being guided through the country roads of Greene county by a real estate agent who was also an elder’s wife and a close personal friend (just one of the many reasons we believe that God has had His hand on this adventure from the beginning), we came across an old farmhouse just two miles outside the city limits. It was perfect.

The house came with two acres, an attached garage, three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large attic that had only been used as a crawl space. Since that day in 1997, much work has been done to make that old farmhouse into a M.A.P. Hospitality House. The attached garage was first converted into office space, then into our first M.A.P. assembly room and is at present a girl’s bunk room. Due to the number of visitors we were having, we soon added two additional bathrooms to the structure. In order to further accommodate the needs of the Missionaries for America Program and still maintain a small portion of private space for ourselves, we eventually broke into the attic crawl space searching for additional room.

I’ll never forget the day we began the looooong, dusty job of creating a livable second floor out of the old hard lumber beams, tangled wires, crisscrossing duct work and mountains of blown-in insulation. Although it was a labor of love, on many occasions the labor overtook the love and only by the grace of God did we ever see it through.

At this point, a very special moment of recognition must go to my mother and father, Norman and Arlean Childs. Without the hundreds of meals that Mom cooked and without the visionary carpentry skills and creative sheet-rocking techniques of my father, our little apartment would not be a reality today. Thanks Mom and Dad!

While removing the old furnace to make room for stairs leading into our developing second-floor apartment, we discovered just how long God had been preserving this house for us. On its inner, inner walls we found newspapers dating back to 1917. Nearly one hundred years ago, God began preparing a place for M.A.P. to begin its impact on the world. Ain’t God good?!

When the house was first purchased in 1997, M.A.P. was yet an undeveloped distant dream. In 2009, however, M.A.P. will celebrate its tenth summer of training missionaries for America. For the first seven years of this program’s existence, Cindy and I were blessed to carry the work financially. Over the last several years, however, M.A.P. has begun standing on its own. Now that the roles are reversed, I find myself depending upon M.A.P. as one of its full-time employees.

In order to develop this God-given property to its fullest potential, our family recently made a difficult but necessary decision. After much prayer and discussion with the boys, Cindy and I donated one of the acres to M.A.P. and sold the remaining property to the program so that it can be developed as needed.

For the softhearted, sentimental types that are asking, “But what about the house that the boys grew up in? Won’t they miss having it as their own?”, let me calm your tender hearts with two responses. 1. We will continue to live in our little attic apartment and treat it as our retreat when not on the road. Since we spend much of the year living in a camper trailer, coming home to an attic apartment seems roomy to us. 2. It has always been a supreme goal of Cindy and I to develop within our boys a longing and investment in their heavenly home. Limiting our attachments to this world is one way we are trying to develop that longing. Given the deteriorating conditions of the world around us, we believe this is the perfect time to break ties with this earthly possession.

It was the afternoon of Gabriel’s sixth birthday, October 24, 2008. A longtime family dream was about to come true. Cindy and Gabriel were putting the final touches to his birthday cake when time came for us to sign the papers. Gabriel gave an understanding nod telling us that he was okay with his birthday being put on hold. Cindy and I headed to town.

Moments later, we were sitting in a small conference room signing papers that made M.A.P. the new owner of our house. Final details were explained, multiple signatures were applied to various legal documents, then with a genuine sense of finality, the real estate agent looked across the table and said, “Congratulations, your homeless!”


Note: When I was a teenager, I thought I knew everything. Now that I am much older, I know that I have much to learn. Please feel free to email me with your thoughts on this important topic. sonny@sonnychilds.com
 

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