Seven years ago, the Corsar family embarked on a grand adventure. We laid everything down at the feet of Jesus and agreed to follow in obedience wherever He might lead. Michael got out of the Air Force and God began doing the most amazing things. Feel free to read blog post after blog post dating back to when it all began if you are not familiar with our journey. I used to like to write these blogs to shock people and make them surprised at what God is capable of. Now, it's pretty much just how it is, and it's the coolest thing ever, but I don't use it for shock value anymore. I use it to glorify the greatness of our God! Because everything is life is for His glory ALONE!
So you must understand first and foremost, this particular post is not to boast in any way about any Corsar. It is to boast in the amazing love of a Father who likes to give good gifts to His children and Who blesses those who bless Him.
In 2013, God called Michael to "Go." That particular "go" meant go to seminary. That was the original calling. So, we dropped it all when He led us to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC. Of course, our human mindedness pops in and tries to figure out what God must have next for us. "Well, if we are at seminary, it must mean he is to work in church ministry". Nope. "Well, we are almost done with seminary, so we must need to start looking for jobs in other places because we are not FROM North Carolina, so surely God will move us closer to our family." Nope. The questions come in droves from everyone with human minds like us wanting to know the next step. "What are you going to do after you graduate? A Masters of Divinity in Theology, what are you going to do with that?"
All those questions made us think we really needed to be "doing" something. After God closed the door of church ministry on us, we still prayed for what was next. That was when God led Michael to lead a company called Majestic Marble and Glass where he is literally thriving and using his God given gifts in the most amazing way! He has found his ministry.
It was at this point we decided this must be where God is choosing to plant us for now. Making extra money, we figured we would move out of our tiny rent house and see what we could purchase. I really didn't want to start looking at real estate because it really wears you out as there are SO many houses to choose from in this area. Michael would look online every night and see if he could find any homes that stuck out to him. We had a budget of what we could afford, but he sometimes likes to look at what else is out there. So, before we got really serious into this home process, we prayed that if this was out of God's will, to immediately slam the doors shut in our face. And we meant hard...slam it hard...don't keep us wondering.
So, even though we had a budget, there was a super amazing house that caught Michael's eye and he called up our realtor and just asked if we could go look at it. It was a custom built home with top of the line EVERYTHING in it. It was valued at $500,000. Totally out of our budget, but we thought it would just be fun to look at.
Now time for a side note: God has given us a strong desire for some sort of a "hospitality ministry". The details of that are not yet clear, but it would entail hosting students from Ukraine where Alex and Michael have a strong passion to serve, hosting missionaries on furlough from the mission field, hosting Seminary students who need a bed for a weekend class...the possibilities are endless.
As we were looking at this half a million dollar home, God flooded our minds with hospitality ideas. The basement is perfect, once finished, to make those ideas a reality. There was the most amazing peace while we literally drooled over the intricacies of this home. Alex and Evan immediately claimed their rooms, started talking about where they would put things, and from that point forward called it "our house". This was before Christmas and we were in NO rush to find a house through the holidays.
After Christmas, our realtor said the seller's realtor had been calling wanting to gauge our interest as we were the only people who had come to see the house that had been on the market for 60 days. At that point, we realized this was a possible open door, so we prayed heavily for God to slam it, and proceeded to walk through it.
A set of custom homes by an amazing builder had been built on a golf course. After about 14 of those homes were built, the builder pulled out and a "not-as-amazing builder" came in and bought the subdivision building homes that were non comparable. Due to this unfortunate practice, the prices of the custom homes were not able to hold their value. Therefore, this $500,000 home was being sold for $400,000. Well, unfortunately $400,000 is still out of our price range, so we considered this a closed door. Our realtor encouraged us to offer what we could and see if they would take it. So we prayerfully offered our absolute top dollar of $350,000.
And guess what?! They accepted it!
They accepted it, y'all!! If I could post a picture of our absolute STUNNED faces, I would.
God has since placed a retired carpenter in our paths who is dying to help us finish the basement so our ministry can begin! If that doesn't tell you God is good, then I don't know what would get through to you.
Now...God is not good because He gave us a $500,000 home for a fraction of the cost. God is good simply because He is good. His Goodness comes in many ways! He has been good to us even when we couldn't afford to put food on the table. He has been good to us when our power got shut off a few years ago. He has been good when my husband with a Masters degree was washing windows and selling mattresses to support his family. He has been good in putting Michael in the career path He had chosen for him before we even knew we would come to NC. He has been good even when we were doing what we thought He wanted us to do. We are living in the blessings of obedience. My small home was a blessing and will still be a blessing, but now my larger home can help us to bless others as well!
Michael, Becky, Alex and Evan have done NOTHING to deserve this blessing. This is NOTHING of us. We are simply following orders and walking on the path God has set before us.
I told you it would be long, but that's about it. We started our journey, which has been a trial period, in February 2010. Seven years later (a number of completion) on March 1, 2017, we truly feel redeemed. We feel we've "passed" and maybe have reached the Summit. There is even a crazy rain storm headed this way which symbolizes renewal and rebirth, according to my literature loving daughter. The lesson has been the journey, but now we are super excited to see where this particular path will lead!
Thanks for traveling with us!
