Weeding ceased--families supported...maybe!

Our church sits on 3 and 1/3 acres of property that is completely paid off. We actually occupy about 2/3 of an acre with the remaining 2 and 1/2 acres sitting as an empty lot. It's been empty for 44 years. Every spring and summer we battle the weeds and pick up the trash so that the City of Phoenix doesn't write us up for violations of various rules.

One of the refugee agencies that we work with is the International Rescue Committee, (IRC). They have a micro-enterprise arm that helps refugees set up small businesses and one of the type businesses they help set up is organic farming for refugees who come from a farming backround. But here in Phoenix, there isn't alot of property available to do so....hmmm. You guessed it. I contacted them and we are in the process of trying to turn our lot into what the IRC folks say could be sufficient land to support 10 refugee families full time, (each farming 1/4 of an acre during the 4 growing seasons that Phoenix has).

The major obstacle: City of Phoenix water is not an option, just way too expensive. The only option is what is called SRP water which is used for farming and is one tenth the cost of city water. But, to access it, we would have to pay to bring it from across the major street of Dunlap over on to our property. This will take approximately 25,000.00 dollars. No way we can do it...but it looks like God may be bringing it to pass through a church in Albuquerque that has a heart for people from Burma. They are in the midst of raising the funds for the water. We'll also need funds for an 8 foot block fence around the whole property. We haven't estimated the cost for that yet, but it won't be cheap.

Would you mind keeping this in prayer too?

FOLLOW UP: The apartment complex I mentioned last time is still headed for foreclosure, the deadline is March 8. No miracle yet on that front, so please keep praying.