Woah, We’re Halfway There

If you were born before the year 2000, you’re now probably hearing the next line of Bon Jovi’s song, “Woah, livin’ on a prayer!” You’re welcome. 

But that’s how we’ve been feeling lately. The already-but-not-yet nature of living as Christians with a new identity in Jesus, while we await the full arrival of His coming Kingdom, has been on my [Clay’s] mind lately as we live in our temporary dwelling in Saskatoon before our final and full arrival in Edmonton.

And even leading up to this in-between period, there’s been many opportunities for Spirit-dependent prayer.

It was the Monday before our big move. Tuesday would be the day we loaded up the U-Haul so that we’d have time to clean the house to be presented to the new owners - fresh and clean. Just as we were reminiscing about how smoothly things had gone after the excitement of choosing our new homes, there was one small detail that we had only just realized was missing. We still hadn’t heard from our lawyer’s office about when our appointment would be to sign the final papers and arrange to pick up our cheque from the house sale. 

With all the rest of the stress of packing and preparing for moving, legal matters just weren’t on the forefront of our minds. So I picked up my phone and called our lawyer’s office only to be told he was out of the office and would get back to me soon. 

It turns out soon wasn’t as soon as I had hoped, because Monday’s business hours had soon passed with no phone call. So first thing on Tuesday morning, as we were already in the throes of loading up the U-Haul, when I asked to speak to our lawyer, I was told that he’s actually in the process of retiring, and now only works on Mondays.

How was this going to work? Our house sale was supposed to close on Thursday, and our lawyer wouldn’t be back in the office until the following Monday? 

Now, there’s another complicating factor in all of this. In Canada, if you are moving into a new province, you can’t use the same lawyer for the sale transaction and the purchase transaction unless they are actively practicing in both provinces (which most don’t). But that also means that in order for you to finally get your keys, the money you receive from the sale of your house (after the bank takes whatever you owed on your mortgage) needs to move from the lawyer dealing with your sale, to the lawyer dealing with your purchase, who finally sends it to whoever you are buying your new house from. If you’re in the same province, at least one layer of complication is removed, without the extra step of transfers between different lawyers’ bank accounts.

On the advice of our banker, we had moved our closing dates around so that we could hand the keys over on Thursday morning, and move into our new house on Friday without the need for the added expense of what’s known as “bridge-financing”. We were saving a few thousand dollars for what we thought was a small inconvenience of needing to have all our stuff in the U-Haul for a few extra days before driving it to Edmonton: it seemed like a no-brainer. But that also meant that we'd have to make sure that the money made it from our lawyer in Saskatchewan to our lawyer in Edmonton if we were going to get our keys on-schedule. So after speaking with our lawyer in Edmonton, the plan was to pick up the cheque from our Saskatchewan lawyer once everything cleared from our buyer, and we’d drive it to our lawyer in Edmonton so we could pick up the keys to our new house.

It was a good plan. But remember - I was just told by the Saskatchewan lawyer’s office that he was only working on Mondays, and it was now Tuesday - two days before we should have been signing papers and collecting a cheque. I asked how we should proceed and was put on hold for what felt like an eternity. I finally spoke with the real estate secretary who said she would see if there was another lawyer who could help us out and take over the file. She promised someone would call us back soon. While I got back to loading boxes alongside the friends who had come to help pack up and load with us, I also knew I needed to be praying for God’s wisdom and grace in all this while I awaited the next call. 

Thankfully, it wasn’t much longer before I received a phone call from the lawyer who would take over our file. He mentioned that, for some reason, our file didn’t fully come through from the realtor’s office, so they didn’t end up knowing when our closing date was, which was where part of the issues came in. I told him I would get our realtor to send it over again as soon as possible and I’d call him back to confirm he had received it.

A few phone calls later, after the lawyer had received the information about the sale, we were now talking about figuring out when we would come in to sign all the paperwork and pick up the cheque to deliver to the Edmonton office so they could deposit it first thing on Friday morning. 

“I’m sorry, but that’s not how things work in Saskatchewan.” 

My legs would have fallen out from under me if I hadn’t already been sitting on the floor of our now-empty bedroom. He said with most real estate deals in Saskatchewan, it usually takes at least 3-5 business days for a Land Titles transfer to happen, and money from the house sale can’t be released until that transfer happens. So most real estate deals have at least a week of bridge-financing built into the deal with the bank. Now, this was the first time moving that we had gone without bridge financing because it was also the first time moving we didn’t get access to the new house until after we had closed the deal on the old one. We had initially been advised that this was a good plan, and now we were being told it wouldn’t work. 

At that moment, with all sorts of thoughts and worries and who-knows-what running through my mind, there was really nothing I could do but pray. I prayed for wisdom and I prayed for strength. This wasn’t something I could fix on my own.

While I was still on the line with our Saskatchewan lawyer, I decided to text our Edmonton lawyer to get her advice on how to proceed. She mentioned that in Alberta, it’s common practice to have a day between sale and purchase without needing bridge financing, and there were ways of getting around the Land Titles requirements. So, at the very least, we booked an appointment to sign for the sale of our house on Wednesday morning, and as soon as I was off the phone with our Saskatchewan lawyer, our Edmonton lawyer would call his office and make a plan to see what could be worked out.

There was now, at least, a glimmer of hope. But even still, in all this, I knew that if this was to work out, it would only be because we have a heavenly Father looking out for us.

We finished loading up the truck without confirmation that we would be able to indeed get our keys on Friday, but continued to make plans and trust that somehow this would all work out. Because whether we could get our new keys on Friday or not, we had to hand our keys over and get our old house cleaned out.

Wednesday morning came, and we were off to the lawyer’s office to sign the papers. Even though our Edmonton lawyer had advised him of the ways and protocols they use in Alberta that, though not the normal standard of procedure, could also be used in Saskatchewan if he wanted, our Saskatchewan lawyer insisted that what we were hoping to do would be nearly impossible. But he promised he would make some phone calls to see what he could do. It was a big ask. But thankfully we have a big God.

By early-afternoon, as the house was being cleaned from top to bottom one last time before we’d hand the keys over, we received the call from our lawyer. Somehow the purchaser just so happened to get the title insurance that would make it possible for the money to be cleared before Land Titles finished all their paperwork. We would be getting a cheque on Thursday!

What at first seemed like an impossibility turned out to be a mere inconvenience. When we were called in on Thursday to pick up the cheque, our lawyer sat me down and said, “I really don’t know how this worked out for you. This is not the way we do things. I don’t know what to call this, other than a miracle, that you got your money this soon.”

So with cheque in hand, Kim and I, along with a couple of our strong boys, drove the U-Haul to Edmonton to unload before coming back Saturday afternoon so we could gather with the church in Warman on Sunday. 

The following week, we’d do it all over again, but this time it was the Klassens’ turn. Thankfully, they didn’t have the bridge-financing fiasco to deal with, and their move would be more permanent, not having to deal with kids finishing up high school final exams and graduation.

By God’s grace, and a generous family, we have been able to stay at a family member’s home in Saskatoon as our temporary residence until the end of June so that our oldest 3 kids can finish up school. 

But now, with both the Bitners and the Klassens having packed up our houses in Warman and saying goodbye to the neighbourhood we’d called home for the past 9 years, we wait for a few weeks before we can be on the ground together in Edmonton.

It feels like a strange waiting period. Another already-but-not-yet reality of living somewhere but not able to feel settled. There are aspects of living in Saskatoon, and particularly the neighbourhood we’re in, that are enjoyable, convenient, and just downright pleasant. Because we’re in the neighbourhood where I used to work, I’ve been running into people I know from my old job on a fairly consistent basis, and it’s been giving me opportunities to tell them about the church plant, and hopefully put more pebbles in their shoes of what it looks like for people to live as faithful servants of Jesus.

It reminds me that this is the same predicament that, in many ways, we’re all in. None of us live in the perfect home that we one day are hoping to be in. Jesus says he has gone to prepare a place for us. A place where we will be with him in ever increasing fullness of joy. And as he changes us, and calls us to be part of his Kingdom, we can never really feel settled because we’re in a waiting pattern. We’re not yet where we want to be, and yet, there are people and opportunities he is surrounding us with, so that we can demonstrate to others what it looks like to be his faithful servants, missionaries, and ambassadors until the day he ushers us into the fullness of his Kingdom. 

So as we wait, feeling like we’re halfway there, we pray, and we look forward to what he continues to have in store for us.

If you would like to contribute at all to any of our expenses for moving or the ongoing cost of serving in these roles of missionary-church-planters, you can do so at https://graceyeg.com and click the “Connect” link on the top left.

If you'd like to read previous editions of the newsletter, you can do so here: https://graceyeg.beehiiv.com/

On behalf of our families,

Clay Bitner and Jared Klassen