This relocating rollercoaster has been a wild adventure that God has used to demonstrate his greatness.
It’s probably a good idea for you to read about my first feelings about relocating in Zimbabwe before you read this article. It’ll put you in the picture a little more securely so that you can appreciate the greatness of this story.
The relocating rollercoaster begins
We found a house to rent quickly. We rejoiced and thanked God for providing for us, although the house we found didn’t feel like it suited us perfectly.
This house had no kitchen in it. There was a room with white tiles on the walls, which indicated that it was meant to be the kitchen. The bathrooms had been renovated with only showers and there was no office, either. But we forged on, trusting that this was the house that God had provided for us.
*Marondera winters are very cold, we had a baby on the way and a toddler. A bath is something I knew that our family needed.
We requested that the landlord put in a kitchen, consider adding a bath and tiled the underground garage so that we could have a sort of office as we both work from home. The landlord was happy to accommodate these requests, asking that we pay a years rent in advance. Through taking a loan, we managed to do this because, you know, we were just thankful to have a house to move into.
The landlord stayed in contact with us. The renovations were on a go-slow but when we contacted him, he always had a reason for the delays.
Our moving date was fast-approaching and we requested some photographs of the renovations. I was sent two photos that showed changes had been made.
Something started feeling strange and so we made a trip up to Marondera to check on the house without letting the landlord know we were coming. We had previously been introduced to the resident gardener of the property, who had let us in the house on other occasions. Our landlord had introduced him as his right-hand man who worked as a landscaper for him. We arrived and he met us at the gate, happy to let us inside.
We found not one change had been made to the house. Not one. The photos I had been sent were fake. We went to the ‘right-hand man landscaper’ and asked if it was true that he worked for our landlord. With caution, he said that he did not, and named his rightful boss … someone we had never heard of. We then asked him if our landlord owned the house we were going to rent and the answer was “no”.
Uh oh.
I started sweating, my heart was racing and tears sprung to my eyes. The kind right-hand man offered us the number of his boss and Jason made a call. She knew about us and told us that ‘our landlord’ was letting the house from the company she worked for and they were aware of us. However, he had not paid them any rent yet for the house—so where was all the money?
We then phoned ‘our landlord’ who provided several excuses and promised that all renovations would be completed within a week. What were we to do but give him one last chance and pray for a miracle?
The following week was tense. Both of us were on edge and worried about our future. I battled with the moving lessons I knew God was leading me through. They didn’t feel complete and I wondered if the end of our moving story would be that we remained in Masvingo. I saw it before my eyes, a tale about how God seemed to test our trust by seemingly leading us out of Masvingo but in the end, revealing that we were meant to remain. It seemed a little strange but then again, I’d heard so many bizarre testimonies of God’s unpredictable ways.
7 days passed and I had gone out to collect our son from his grandparents’ house. Chatting to my mom-in-law, I was reminded that we needed to follow up with ‘our landlord’. I arrived home, ready to suggest that Jason called him. But we had had the same idea and he was already on the phone. He looked at me and shook his head. He hung up the call and told me that the renovations had not been done and would not be done.
We were devastated.
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