The Hope
We’ve lived in Slovenia now for 7 years. During this time the Lord has provided a great rental house. There were a couple of reasons we felt led to rent for these first years instead of purchasing. One was that it gave us the flexibility to adapt as we discovered where would be our most strategic investment in the national ministry. The other reason was that the costs seemed prohibitive in the capital city. 7 years on and prices haven’t dropped, but we are convinced that this is the best city for us to minister in and the best hub for a national movement. As the ministry has grown we’ve found an increasing desire to not be just visitors here, but to establish a more permanent living situation where we will be better equipped to lead our expanding team and minister to Slovenia.
We’ve been looking aggressively for 3 years for affordable housing or property. We’ve just never found anything in our price range. Because Ljubljana is a capital city, the prices are similar to N.Y. City or L.A. but we have an Idaho paycheck. Recently we found a house that will be for sale later and is significantly below market prices. It is still out of our reach – especially because of the low dollar, but we feel the Lord is calling us to step forward in faith and think creatively.


The House
For 5 years Kristi has been praying that we would someday be able to live in Bizovik, a small village attached to Ljubljana. This house is in Bizovik and sits in an amazing location with a great view and is easily accessible to students. It has 4 bedrooms for the six of us and a small apartment in the basement in lieu of a garage. It is in need of fairly extensive interior remodeling and is selling for 300,000 euros. I know that sounds like a crazy amount of money, but there is a smaller house 1 block away, in a bad location, selling for 680,000 Euros. (And in our search we’ve found the latter to be the norm. So, for Ljubljana this house that we're looking at is an outstanding deal.) We anticipate it will take ca 50,000 euros to remodel and finish much of the house. Many parts of the house were never completed and the present kitchen is about the size of my car. You can look further down the blog to see the floor plan and plans for remodeling.

(House Prices in Ljubljana)


The Financial Plan
Right now the US dollar is worth only 0.63 Euro cents. One of our plans is to mitigate the effect of the low dollar by borrowing between 60-75% of the money in Euros. If and when the dollar strengthens we will refinance the loan in dollars. This allows us to lock in the exchange rate when conditions are more favorable. Part of the down-payment we can pay from our savings, the rest we are going to need to somehow raise. This could come through someone wanting to invest in the project or through donations. The Josiah Venture board wants to support the longevity of missionaries on the field and has approved a way for people to give towards missionary housing without any administration fees being taken out of the gift. This money will come to us as salary and will be taxed, but the donor receives a tax deduction for the gift. If you, or anyone you know, want to be a part of the project, you can contact us or JV at http://www.josiahventure.com/

The Apartment
One of the things that really excites us about this house is the possibility of having a small separate apartment within the house. Right now we are leading a team of 16 missionaries and local nationals. In the next couple of years we anticipate adding at least 12 more to that number. This will spread our team farther around the country and increase our need to care for team members in our home. Even as I write this, one of our couples is living with us as they prepare to open a new work in a different city. We estimate that up to ¼ of the year we have people living with us.
There is another need that has emerged during our time here. We have found that many of our new believers experience strong opposition and persecution at home for their faith. Several, in the last year, have been threatened and even kicked out of their homes for their faith. We would love to have a place to offer to some of these students during these times of crisis.

Remodeling Plan
(More to come... Check back later)

The View














The Present Kitchen - We'll make this the laundry room.















The upstairs bathroom