The Sparrow House
The search for our first home was QUITE the journey. We got the keys to our home just 10 days before we got married, after 16 months of seemingly endless searching. We saw the faithfulness and provision of God through one of the most testing seasons just before we were married. Here’s how it happened:
Before we begin, it’s important to understand the mindset and background of the story. I work in real estate. My family has invested in real estate since before I was born, and I started working in the industry as early as my junior year at Cal. I don’t say any of this to brag - you need to know what I do for a living so you can understand why this whole journey challenged (and definitely humbled) me the way it did. Houses to me are like toilets to a plumber, or like fried chicken to Colonel Sanders. I eat, sleep and breathe this stuff.
Sharon and I got engaged in April 2017 (just a couple days after our dear friends Josh and Dorothy’s wedding), and we decided to get serious about finding a home for once we got married the following year. We had actually started browsing listings and even touring model homes earlier in the year, even before we were engaged.
We spent time praying and asking the Holy Spirit where He wanted us to live. The natural choice would have been Chino Hills, where both of our parents live, and where we had both grown up. We were familiar with the area, could afford the price point, and we could spend more time with our parents (+ once we had kids, babysitting grandparents would be within 10 minutes!). But as we prayed, we felt that God was telling us to find a home near our church, City Blessing Church, in the city of Walnut. Our first reaction? Reluctant obedience. Walnut didn’t have as many shops and restaurants as Chino Hills, it wasn’t as close to our families, and the homes are significantly more expensive. So as we went along our search, we looked to the more affordable cities neighboring Walnut - Diamond Bar and West Covina.
In March 2017, we made our first offer to purchase a house in the city of West Covina, in a community that neighbored our church’s property.
We had found the ideal home - 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, plenty of space for church gatherings, and it was old enough to need a decent amount of work. I called the agent and told her I was writing an offer she couldn’t refuse. I offered my side of the commission, shortened the escrow period, every single contingency, came in above list price, and put in a strong deposit. There was no way anyone would refuse this offer!
Needless to say, we were rejected. I later found out that we had lost by a mere $2,000.
We moved on. The more we prayed, the more we felt that God might be calling us to actually live IN the city of Walnut, not just near it. We knew a home near our church’s Walnut campus would be a place where people could gather, spend time with one another, and actually have a stake in the city we gathered in. Maybe it wasn’t West Covina after all.
A few months later in September 2017, we scheduled a showing for a home in the city of Walnut, on a street named Crestwood Lane.
(Yes, this is the inspiration behind the name of my business with my partners. When looking for a name for the business we were starting, I wanted something that not only sounded regal but also had a deeper meaning to it. Though we didn’t end up in this home on Crestwood Lane, I loved the idea of naming a business after a chapter of our lives that reflected on the test and triumph of faith in a God who is never late and never fails to provide. His constant faithfulness has carried over into our business, Crestwood Ventures, and we have never looked back.)
The owners were home - an older husband and his wife - and as he opened the door, the man welcomed us in and told us we were free to tour the home. Just one thing - his wife was sitting in their bedroom, recovering from her surgery.
We walked through the home and imagined our future together - what color we would paint the walls, where the dining table would go, and how people would sit around the patio during care cells. We stepped into the rooms, politely nodding at the woman sitting on the bed in the master bedroom.
As we were finishing the tour, I paused in the living room and whispered to Sharon, “I feel like the Holy Spirit told me to pray for the lady.” I asked her if I should do it, and of course Sharon raised her eyebrows with a look that said, “Go ahead!” I walked back to the master bedroom where the husband stood and asked if we could pray for healing for his wife. They both agreed, and as Sharon laid hands on her, we prayed for a quick recovery and declared complete healing over her in Jesus’ name. Amen.
After the prayer, the couple struck up a conversation with us, asking where we were from and what church we attended. We delightfully told them we attended City Blessing Church just a few minutes away, and immediately both their faces lit up with excitement. “We attend Gospel Life!” they exclaimed. (Gospel Life was the church that used to occupy the building City Blessing was currently in, and at that time we were sharing the building, each using one day of the weekend for services.) When they shared she was the sister-in-law of Gospel Life’s senior pastor, I interjected, “This is the daughter of OUR senior pastor!”
We had a wonderful time sharing with one another - Sharon and I talked about our upcoming wedding in 8 months and how we had been looking for a home. Then they mentioned how they were moving to a retirement community and would love to have another Christian family come live in their home. Could it be any more perfect?
Sharon and I walked out of the house with the biggest smiles on our faces. It seemed like heaven had opened up and dropped this miracle home in our laps after months of searching - and we couldn’t ask for a better story of finding our first home! This was definitely it. Or so we thought.
We quickly wrote an offer for the home, sent it in, only to find that the listing was being put on hold. A phone call with their agent told us that they needed to hold off on the sale until a spot in the retirement community opened up.
A week passed. Then another. And another. October turned into November, which quickly pushed into December. “Surely God is waiting to give us the house on Christmas - what a great gift that would be,” I reassured Sharon. The months waned on, and all the while, no word from the Crestwood Lane homeowners, but our wedding drew nearer and nearer, with no signs of slowing down. Pressure began to mount and both sides of our families began to chime in. We stood our ground, saying that we had found this house and believed God wanted us to wait for it. We prayed. We fasted. And each time we came back to prayer, we would receive verses like Isaiah 43 where God promises to make roads in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Undeniable provision in impossible circumstances. February waved goodbye as the next month Marched right in. (See what I did there?)
By this point, I was officially stressed. I work in real estate. I’m the house guy! How can it be so easy for us to buy and sell dozens of houses for our investments but I can’t even find one house for myself?? Shame, embarrassment, and frustration were all stirred into one messy cocktail of emotions. So naturally, I started to try and find other options. We knew that God was telling us to wait, but the wedding was just 3 months away. We toured other houses in the area, and one by one, they didn’t work out. We were beat by an all cash offer that came in $50,000 over our offer. Others were out of our price range. Sharon walked into one house and said, “This one isn’t it. Feels like the Holy Spirit says no.” He says no?? What do you mean ‘He says no’??
Rivers in the desert.
We were officially in the month of May 2018. Our wedding was the second week of June. T-minus 6 weeks. Sharon was brushing her teeth one evening and suddenly heard the Holy Spirit tell her to read her Bible. She specifically heard, “Psalm 84” which reads,
“Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
Lord Almighty, my King and my God.”
She was shocked at how clear God was speaking and decided to search the market again for any available listings. As she searches on the Redfin app, there’s a house on the market - nearby our church’s property. More specifically: directly across the street from it. Safe to say, it was near the “altar”. I set up a showing and we walked through the home later that afternoon. It needed some work; most of the home had been untouched since it was built in the 1980’s, but it seemed like it had potential. And what struck us was this - as we stood on the front lawn of the house, we had a clear view of Miracle Hill Road where the main building of City Blessing Church sits. A place near His altar.
We prayed together, wrote up an offer, and sent it in. The date was May 2, 2018.
Within 48 hours, I received an email followed by a phone call. Our offer had been accepted.
We had found our home.
Escrow opened on May 4th, 2018, closed in 21 days, with an additional 10-day period for sellers to move out, which means that Sharon and I received the keys to our home on June 6, 2018. Just ten days later, we got married.
My God is a God who provides.
With how long we had been searching for our home, it was a shock to see the pace at which everything began to come together. Months and months of waiting, praying, and trusting God for a miracle had stretched our faith like never before, and in the “eleventh hour”, all those prayers were swiftly answered. We barely had time to take it all in as we were already scrambling to put the finishing touches on our wedding planning (which comprised of two separate weekends of ceremonies + receptions), but He never overlooks what we need.
And so, after about 1.5 years of searching, multiple rejections, and what seemed like an endless season of waiting, these two little sparrows found their home by the altar.