We're excited to say we have found a property and have boldly(/stupidly??) put an offer in; and we wanted to take the opportunity to remind those who may be confused/lost what exactly we are trying to achieve and why.  We have been through a lot of ups and downs in the past 6 months so even we are confused, we hope this might bring some clarity!

THE DREAM: to have a home that serves the community.

WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE? Well is almost completely unaffordable to live in Camden, so part of the answer is about having space we can offer to those who have a calling or passion to serve but can't afford rent. It also means trying to reach out to our neighbours, to use our home and resources to support those however we can - babysitting, hosting prayer groups, inviting neighbours over for meals... Having somewhere that is a hub for positive relationships and a place that people on the fringes of society feel welcome, and feel like can be a second (or first!) home.

HOW? Originally the plan was to try and buy property in partnership with Mission Housing on the estate. Long story short that didn't look like it was going to work as it's just too expensive to buy in Camden (looking at min property price of £500k) and so we looked into renting. We decided to try and afford it alone - any surplus money that a potential renter can input we would like to put into a pot for supporting the local community work.

WHAT'S THE PLAN? Raise our monthly income so we can rent a property that has more space. We have found it a real challenge to host in our cosy 1 bed flat, not impossible, but a challenge! We don't want to have to rely on having renters to afford a bigger flat, this means we can chose the right people who want to serve locally too, not panicking and needing money so just taking any Joe Bloggs. It's more about the kind of culture we wanna create. Hopefully one day we will earn enough to not need financial support... thats an even bigger dream!


WHAT ABOUT THE MONEY? We have had some incredibly generous donations already and are now looking for £250 a month to close the gap between what we can currently afford, and the cost of this 3 bed flat we've made an offer on. If it is meant to be - then we know it will happen. If not? What do we lose, only our pride, which has no place here!

Thanks so much for taking time to read this,
sorry for sounding like a broken record.

It's tough asking for money I'm not gonna lie, it makes us feel a bit uncomfortable because I feel like we 'should' be able to do this by ourselves. But we really feel like God is leading us in this direction and other than inventing a money tree there is little more we can do to generate more money off our own backs. God is consistently teaching us about what it means to rely entirely on Him, and most of the time we hate it!

We are incredibly appreciative of all your kind words of encouragement, support and prayers. We would still LOVE to take any of you who would like to visit on a tour of the area, there is so much here to see and so many people to fall in love with!

Soooo much love, Matt and Rosie x