Very Unfinished Product: Gomer's House

Jason and I have had the fortunate blessing of crossing paths with many other people called by the Lord to vocational ministry. One of our new friends is doing something truly exciting in Fentress, Texas. Read the following to hear about a mighty work of God!

In the beginning our marriage, God had given us opportunities to house different people in our small, single family home. Then five years ago, God started turning our hearts to provide a place of healing for people. At the end of 2007, God told us to sell our home. Not knowing where we were going, we put our home on the market. In April of 2008, our house sold for full price even though the exact model next door had sold for $10,000 less just a month earlier. This began our Abrahamic season where we stayed with four different friends for a nine month period. During this time, we began fervently asking the Lord where we were to be and exactly what we were to be doing. He showed us pastors that were hurting, people hurt by pastors, missionaries in need of refreshing, and we personally lost two brothers to drug addiction.

How was God going to tie all of this together?

One day we prayed and asked God for a miracle of direction. While perusing Craig’s List for something completely unrelated, we found a 3 story, 100 year old house in a town we had never heard of. God miraculously provided the down payment and we were set to begin. As we moved into the house in January of 2009, we began to see how God was going to use us to reach such a wide array of people. This glorious house is situated amongst a poor and drug ravaged neighborhood.

God graciously brought us people to completely redo all of our plumbing and much of our electrical so that we could live in the house. Volunteers have continued to stream in over the course of the last year bringing much of what we needed.

People always ask if we know that Gomer was a prostitute. Two years ago, while studying the book of Hosea, God clearly told us that this was to be the name of the respite. Hosea was one of God’s main men during his time and his wife was a drug addict and a prostitute. If this was going on in Hosea’s home, we can only imagine the need for healing in homes of ministers today.

We thought that God would finish our house before He started sending people to us. Several months after we moved in, He started sending people to stay and rest and find healing. It is a beautiful testimony of how God can use 5,500 square feet in need of desperate restoration to minister. .

I ask that you pray for the people living in Fentress. Pray for those here that are captive to drug and alcohol addiction to be set free. Pray that their hearts would be prepared to hear the good news and receive Christ.

Several times during prayer for the drug addicts in our neighborhood, the very people we have been praying for would knock on our door. They often volunteer here. We are humbled that God is allowing us to work with him in our community. We are currently praying about a door that has opened to start a church here.