Our “unicorn” prayer

For 6 years we’ve been searching for a place to gather people, to celebrate, and to create something meaningful.

In 2020, we came this close to signing papers on a different space. Pens ready. Plans forming. But then it didn’t work out (sketchy realtor work work that we weren’t comfortable with). HOWEVER, the dream stayed. We often browsed Zillow. (Who doesn’t?!) We toured an old restaurant that we happened upon in a Facebook group. Last fall Brad told me he drove through Redfield and prayed for a specific building to be ours. If a building was intriguing enough, we’d cold call people and asked if they’d sell.

We kept bringing God the same prayer over and over again, asking for what felt impossible.

We kept asking God for what Brad coined “a unicorn:”

Close to home
Full of history and character
Tucked in the country, but still near Des Moines
And somehow… still within reach financially

We waited and continued to pray. Not always patiently. Not always understanding. (Just ask our close friends.) In December we sat in our friends living room and I literally said this about a different property, “This has to be God, He wouldn’t tease us.” Turns out it wasn’t the building for us.

There were moments we questioned if we were asking for too much.

But we waited. We trusted. We kept our eyes open.

And then..

In His timing, not ours, He opened a door we couldn’t have created on our own.

Turns out, that conversation in my friend’s living room is also what spurred a conversation on between my friend and her Grandma. Who encouragingly said, “They should contact Washington Township School.”

On February 5 we toured the school, we were instantly aware of it’s potential. A place that holds history. A place we get to restore. A place that will gather people for many more years.

This is our answered prayer.