Help Rachel & John Reclaim Their Home

Our First Home: A Step of Obedience

Dear friends, family, and kind-hearted strangers,

We’re John and Rachel, newlyweds walking through a season we never saw coming. In May 2024, in obedience to the Lord, we purchased our first home—a new build we believed would be a fresh, safe start to begin our life together and grow our family. But within months, we faced devastation that turned our dream into a crisis.

Due to construction issues—including a hidden attic pipe leak, mold growth, and HVAC failures—our home became uninhabitable in December 2024. Rachel, who has multiple health sensitivities, became so ill she required oxygen support. We’ve since been displaced, moving between temporary housing while trying to maintain a mortgage, rent, and mounting medical, remediation, repair, and inspection costs.

The Day Everything Changed

It was December 6th, the weekend we were supposed to celebrate Rachel’s birthday with our community. Ironically, all Rachel wanted for her birthday was “for our house to finally feel like home.” Her birthday celebration included inviting over our closest friends to break bread and do small house projects, as we were just hitting the finishing touches settling in after the move. This was also the weekend John was planning to propose. But on the morning of December 6, we woke up to water coming through the ceiling in the master bathroom. That day changed everything.

Despite our efforts to work with the builder, the situation remains unresolved and is now in legal review. These proceedings take time, and in the meantime, we are paying for everything out-of-pocket—tens of thousands of dollars, losing everything we ever saved—including funds set aside for school, ministry, and a hopeful wedding and honeymoon—maxing out credit cards, taking out loans, dropping classes, and doing everything we can to preserve Rachel’s health and our only home.

The Turning Point: Faith in the Fire

Just over a month later, on January 10, we were staying in a hotel and we received inspection results confirming the full extent of the damage. That day was filled with heartbreak, prayer, and long conversations. We realized we could lose our home as the builder remained uninterested to understand or repair the damages, and we were already financially spent on temporary housing. What were we going to do? We were just starting out. We had purchased this home in FAITH and obedience. God brought us here. For THIS? This wasn’t supposed to be this way. Does God forsake? Did we hear Him wrong? Where is His goodness? Will He make a way? We were drowning.

There is a faith that it takes to step out onto the water and to start to walk. That is faith. And it’s powerful.

And, when it is harder than you expected, when you KNOW God called you out, when you begin to falter and fail and start to go under, when you lose your footing and your focus and everything around you is crashing like waves, when the ground you thought was solid is nothing… there is an entirely different type of faith you have to reach for— the faith, in the middle of a crisis, to look up and cry LORD, save me! And, as we were drowning— as, in the face of watching our lives, our dreams and plans and home and health and all of our finances falling apart, we still looked up to heaven and cried for Him— He reached back and pulled us up.

Amidst the sea of questions, doubts, fears, and despair, His Spirit broke through over us as we reached for Him, and caused us to feel such love and such hope in our hearts. We realized that this was spiritual warfare—and we needed to take a spiritual step. God lifted our heads above the water and caused us to see Him and each other in a whole new way. His Spirit broke over us and we were flooded with overwhelming love, devotion, faith and hope, as we took in Truth, and each other, for what felt like the first time—with tears in our eyes, humbled to having nothing besides what mattered most… each other… we looked up at each other and knew—we had to get married, right then. Right in the middle of it. We couldn’t wait another DAY. To step out in faith NOW, AGAIN and TRUST that God does not fail. To DECLARE WHO WE ARE and the LOVE we walk in, right there out loud, to the storm.

We realized we couldn’t wait for things to feel “safe” or “stable” again. So, following a series of miracles, the next day, on January 11, surrounded by a few close friends from our church family, we got married before the Lord.

We obeyed, and God gave us an entire wedding. Absolutely miraculously. Everything was given by the Father (and His hands and feet, good good people❤️). We had nothing ready, except the ring John already had waiting. We didn’t pay a dime to be married, unless you count the gas to get there. We both began to see the Lord in a whole new way.

Thank you to our friends and family for your grace and love towards us in this season—we longed to have a traditional celebration where we could be with you all, but could not wait any longer. If we were going through this—we were gonna go through it together. We also dreamed of a honeymoon, but instead, to start our marriage, we have a period of intense trial, labor, exhaustion, and loss… But, we have each other. And, supernatural joy, and peace that passes all understanding.

The Battle Intensifies

Since then, the challenges have continued. As we realized the long fight that we were in for, Rachel began searching for a rental, and she was injured by a large unleashed dog while viewing options. She suffered a concussion and spinal injuries. Her recovery has been slow and complicated. She is also facing toxic overload as her body tries to heal from the major mold exposure, and faces ongoing medical costs. Both of our health has taken a hit, but we are doing everything we can to keep going. For Rachel, it is currently so bad that she has been “benched” at her job due to medical limitations. We have both continued to dig our heels in and push, but Rachel hit a limit with abdominal swelling and severe abdominal pain that, upon initial assessment, seem connected to the toxic overload detoxing, as the swelling and pain is over the liver and gallbladder—two organs integral for helping the body flush toxins. It is likely that her organs simply became overloaded as we both pushed and worked with limited rest. (This is one of our urgent needs: being able to afford proper testing to determine the course of her needed treatment, which will be just over $2k.) We are now in the home stretch, down her income, and needing to pay the medical bills and continued repair costs so we can get home. If we can get home, and not have to pay rent AND mortgage, we will be in a much better place to see this fight through and recover.

The Real Battle: It Was Never Just About a House

The truth is, this is God’s house—and what the enemy meant for evil, God CAN turn for good, and He will.

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” —Joshua 24:15

It is no coincidence this happened on the threshold of Rachel stepping into her calling to ministry… the month John started a brand new job… the DAY after we offered to shelter a woman in our community escaping domestic violence…

There is a principle in physics: the closer you get to breaking the atmosphere, the more intense the pressure gets. We believe we are there.

We have taken step after step in faith—Rachel fasting a total of 72 days during this process (in many ways beyond just food!) to get closer to God and HEAR HIM. John has leaned into his Marine Corps grit, working a full-time job and coming back from work to labor ceaselessly— almost every night and every weekend—to save the house and whatever belongings we can salvage. We have lived in an apartment with nothing but an air mattress, allowing our beloved dog, Chip, to hang out at a friend’s farm so we could devote nearly every hour to the work at hand.

Despite the fleshly urge to panic, to give up, to beg for help, Rachel sought His face daily. And it became very clear: we were to navigate the brunt of this with Him, even when it made no earthly sense.

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” —Psalm 121:1–2

So, we have been navigating this situation for 6 exhausting, impossible, miraculously sustained months now, but we weren’t released to post a GoFundMe until today. If we had done this earlier, it would have been a different story. It would have come from desperation and fear. It would have been small-minded.

It looked IMPOSSIBLE. The numbers made no sense. But God needed to show us: HE PROVIDES. And He did. And He still does.

We have seen miracle after miracle—down to having straight zeros in our account, needing something as simple as toilet paper, and finding a Visa gift card with the exact amount for the cheapest toilet paper at the store. $3.27. Nothing more, nothing less. Jireh is wildly creative.

He was training us in a dependence on Him that is absolutely necessary for the weight of His glory and calling.

He changed our hearts so that instead of reaching out as orphans in desperation, we now reach UP in declaration—as children of God, seated in heavenly places, walking in authority, CELEBRATING the victory of YAHWEH with you. HE WINS.

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame…” —Romans 5:3–5

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” —James 1:2–4

Why We’re Asking Now

We have expended every other resource. Habitat for Humanity cannot work on townhomes. Every veterans organization has denied John for one reason or another—because he wasn’t injured in combat or because he isn’t actively on the street. (Yes, homelessness is so bad in Nashville and surrounding areas that they are still working through the list of veterans actively on the street with no shelter. In our loss, God has kept us off the street, and that is a miracle. We are so humble, so grateful, and now more than ever, connected to and compassionate towards the suffering in our communities.)

We have been released to share this GoFundMe NOW that it is in FAITH and celebration of the goodness of God, with FULL HOPE that God brings more than we ask, think, or imagine. This isn’t about us. We are done playing small. The spiritual warfare wasn’t about us, or our house. It was to stop the birth of the ministry calling and to try to knock us off course as young believers.

But the devil didn’t just pick a fight with us—he picked a fight with the Body of Jesus Christ, the one true authority on this earth.

Be Part of the Testimony

We are inviting you to be a part of the testimony as we rise from the ashes—not just from defective construction damage, but from every lie satan ever spun—to be launched like arrows refined by fire to minister to and rescue the hearts of His sons and daughters in this hour.

We didn’t get to celebrate our wedding traditionally with our extended loved ones or receive the support newlyweds often do. Making a registry in the face of what we are facing seems impossible. To be privileged enough to choose what new cookware you’re hoping for, when you don’t even have a home to go back to… it just seems so far away. So, that’s why we’re asking now. Every donation to this GoFundMe is a wedding or emergency gift—whether to help us recover, rebuild, or honor the miracle of our union during a time of great loss. We long to celebrate with you, and trust that, to us, your financial support in our hour of need will be received as such a celebration of the faithfulness of God.

Yes, we are needing provision to make it through these last steps. The responsible party isn’t the one suffering physically in our bodies. They’re not the ones working a full-time job, then coming home to clean contaminated items, catalog what’s been lost, call contractors, or scramble to find ways to come up with the money. They aren’t carrying the interest payments on maxed-out credit cards. We are.

We are believing for full recompense from the responsible party. Spiritual warfare does not excuse natural action or earthly contractual responsibility. What was done is not only illegal and unethical, but, as Rachel’s spiritual discernment has sharpened through fasting and refinement, wicked—and so this battle belongs to the Lord. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” —Ephesians 6:12 (ESV)

It is very important to us that you consider this as a wedding gift or a seed sown into people you love or believe in. We hope our integrity and hearts are deeply felt, and in the days to come, we will allow friends who have walked with us to speak into this space and story, and, we will provide more information on ministry plans and calling as well.

How Your Gift Helps Now

We are almost through to a plan that will allow us to return to the home and stop paying double for housing. Your support would help with:

•Temporary housing through May

•Emergency medical and environmental safety expenses

•Furniture and belongings lost due to environmental exposure

•Legal, remediation, and inspection costs

•Recovery and health support for Rachel

•Ministry and education goals once we’re stable

Anything abundance will be used with transparency toward health needs, education goals, and the ministry Rachel feels called to build to help others through crisis.

If you feel led, please consider giving as a wedding or emergency gift to help us start over.

From the Bottom of Our Hearts,

Thank you for being part of our story and helping carry us through.

We believe this will be a testimony of restoration and God’s faithfulness.

To God’s Glory, With Love,

John & Rachel Taylor