Chapter 6: The Promised Land (Part 3)

If you've followed the last two episodes of The Great Pollard House Hunt, you'll know that each part has involved some sort of sacrifice, but ended with a restoration. In the first part God restored our house deposit to us, and in the previous part God restored our peace to us. This part is the beginning of the story of how God finally led us into our promised land and gave us a house.

A Break From Houses

In July 25, as the dust settled following our re-surrendering of plans to God at the end of the last part, despite everything we still felt certain we would be buying a house the next year. Melissa's declaration that we would have a house by May still felt absolutely real, and every other prophetic word we had was in agreement with this. However, we also felt certain that now was not the time to look at houses online or even talk to God about them. Nothing about this made sense, and so we had to make the conscious choice to let go of our desire to understand and to simply walk with God anyway.

August came and went with barely a mention of houses in our household - and if truth be told, it was actually quite a relief to be thinking about other things. September arrived and we found ourselves so busy building up our new ministry we wouldn't have time to look at houses even if we wanted to. By the end of October we had gone three months without even thinking about moving, accompanied by three months of utter silence from God on the matter. He would happily talk to us about money, ministry and work, but any mention of houses when we prayed would only bring about long, awkward pauses. It wasn't until November that God finally made an exception to His unspoken 'I'm not talking about houses' rule, but I'll tell you this - it was completely worth the wait.

The Receiving of Keys

We were now a few months into our new worship ministry. As ideas and plans for what it could look like continued to grow in us, we began to realise that moving into a bigger house was not just important for us as a family, but vital for us in the work God had given us. We were hoping to start hosting regular prayer and worship nights, and were finding ourselves using our flat more and more for hospitality, but due to its size it was actually now hindering our ministry. We started to appreciate why up to that point we hadn't known what we were looking for in a house - we had been looking for a family home, not realising it was a missions base too. Things were making a lot more sense, but one question still remained - we still had no idea how God was going to do it.

We were praying one evening about all of this, and particularly bringing to God our need for a ministry house, and as we prayed I felt God assure me so deeply that He had everything sorted. He had spent the last year telling us time and time again that He had already prepared and set aside all the resources we would need for this ministry - and in that moment it became so clear to me that of course a house was part of the package. How could it not be? I laughed at how obvious this truth was, and how blind we had both been to it.

But then a profound sign happened. Simultaneously, and completely unbeknownst to each other, Melissa and I both felt God physically drop a set of keys in our hands. It was quite extraordinary as we both excitedly shared with the other that God had given us keys, only to learn that God had given the other one keys too! It was another weighty, transactional moment, where without warning God simply gave us a house. Our new instruction was now to go and find it.

A Year of Acceleration

2025 departed and 2026 arrived, and we both felt more strongly than ever that this was the year God would give us a house. We also felt God saying that this coming year would be a year of acceleration, and so we went into 2026 full of expectation that God was about to move. And move He did, in quite extraordinary ways - but nothing like the way we expected.

It started with a phone call from a cousin, who had heard on the grapevine that we were looking for a mortgage but couldn't get one. He offered to put us in touch with one of his good friends, who had helped various other friends get a mortgage. Intrigued at the timing, we set up a phone call with this mystery mortgage broker, and at the same time felt the Holy Spirit prompt us to book some viewings. As we chatted with the mortgage broker, who specialises in mortgages for the self-employed, he started explaining to us different ways that he could help us get one. One way in particular grabbed us - essentially setting aside some of our house deposit as a proof of payment for the first couple of years of the mortgage, and then switching to something more normal after that. It felt like God was opening up a path that we had not seen before, so we finished our call with a sense that finally, at long last, we might be about to get a house.

Green Light

Things continued to speed up. We had booked several house viewings for that same week and there was one house - the first we were to see - that stood out among every other house we'd ever looked at in that price bracket. We saw it and immediately loved it, and we were amazed that it met every need, both for our family and our ministry. By the weekend, we were certain that this house was indeed the one God had set aside for us and given us the keys to back in November.

Our second viewing was a whole week later, but we felt peace from God that if this was our future home, He would ensure no-one would get to it before us. As it happened, the only other people interested were a couple we already knew, who had come for their first viewing straight after our second. Incredibly, they were more than happy to step aside and let us bid for the property (despite them liking it also), and it felt as though nothing could stop us. We made an offer that same evening, and ten minutes later we had a phone call from our estate agent saying our offer had been accepted. We had just bought a house - but, as we were about to discover, this was just the beginning of a long, winding journey full of horrendous ups and downs.

Orange Light...

Because everything had happened so quickly, we didn't even have a mortgage in principle, though our broker had assured us he would get it sorted quickly as soon as we offered on the house. Well, our solicitors sprang into action immediately, sending us a gazillion forms and organising the surveys, but the same cannot be said for our mortgage broker. The mortgage in principle he had promised us didn't arrive. We talked with him some more the following week and he assured us that by the following Saturday we would have a full list of mortgage offers. Saturday came and went, and for the next five days our mysterious mortgage broker would not answer our texts or calls. A full two weeks after having our offer accepted, we were sat at home with still no mortgage offer, and a growing sense that if God was going to get us a mortgage, it was not going to be through this person.

... Red Light

As we prayed that evening, anxiously wondering what on earth to do and who on earth to turn to, Melissa had a sense that we needed to go back to our local mortgage company, even though many months previously they had already told us clearly that they couldn't get us a mortgage. The thought of going back to them - and having to explain the desperate situation we had got ourselves into - made us squirm just thinking about it. But the more we prayed, the more certain we felt that this was what we needed to do. We felt our faith rising again, so much so that instead of going to bed that night, I stayed up for a bit writing these blogs you're now reading, all the way up to this very point. We felt certain that our miracle mortgage was close.

The very next day we went to see this mortgage company, full of faith that, upon explaining everything, they would miraculously be able to do the same kind of arrangement our first broker had proposed. They weren't. They were helpful and friendly, but had never heard of the way our original broker had promised us, even going so far as to suggest we'd been conned. As our hopes vanished, the only solution they came up with was a horrendous scenario that involved my parents remortgaging their own house. Not for the first time on this journey we felt helpless and confused. Our faith had been for nothing, and we were still no closer to buying this house.

The journey concludes soon.