332 – Our Breakthrough Arrives

December 20, 1988 Daly City

We were in the trailer park for seven l-o-n-n-n-g days. But God is faithful, and this morning we got our breakthrough!

Today Dan tried again and called Karen’s friend Bob Carlson. He has been out of town!! [cell phones were not in common use in 1988]

He gave us the number of his friend, Bill Shappert, who is the property manager at Bridgemont High School. We went to meet Bill and he showed us an RV space on the property which he said he would rent to us for $175 a month.

Oh bless God!!!!!!

This place is a God-chosen, hidden, REFUGE. It is an overgrown, wooded, ten-acre campus in the Mission District which is not even on the city map! It is an answer to my pleas for safety for our sons.

Note: Bridgemont was a 3-story turn-of-the-last-century brick building which had been a Catholic convent that was used for housing unwed mothers. Up to 100 young women at a time were housed there, over decades … until the passage of  Roe v Wade in 1973. The next year, since abortion was legalized, it became the popular choice in an unwanted pregnancy. The next year the convent’s client population declined to 3, the home was closed, and the nuns departed. At some point it was purchased to be used as a Christian high school.

Not only did our breakthrough come with this affordable parking space on this beautiful, secluded-feeling campus in the middle of the busy Mission District, but we discovered a Foursquare Church! As we were leaving our first meeting, the pastor’s wife, Joyce Woodman, introduced herself and offered us respite money and asked if we had pans for Christmas! She ‘took us in’–she really befriended us. I have never experienced such bold love and trust within a few minutes of meeting someone.

December 21 Bridgemont High School, San Francisco

The property manager is letting us have a 2-bedroom apartment for the Christmas season for free—and it is furnished!! and it is WONDERFUL! Thank God for tender-hearted people!

The usual rent for this small apartment is $750, which includes utilities, but which is way too much.

Bill said we could have it for free rent in exchange for Dan working at the school. The position is for a Bible and Drama teacher. I could see Dan doing that.

I tried to reach Karen and Jan with the good news of our praise report but neither was available.