In the middle of a sermon in spring of 2008, Pastor Leander Robinson said he heard the voice of God.

“I was in the course of ministering when the lord told me to tell Carolyn Perdue that He was going to bless her with a house,” Robinson said.

At that point, Robinson said he turned to Perdue and told her what he had heard. Then, Robinson said, he heard the message again.

“I told her about four times,” Robinson said. “It made me feel uncomfortable even though I was sure it was the Lord’s voice.”

Perdue, who had lived in a unit in Greenville Housing Authority for 19 years, couldn’t imagine a life on the outside. She told her pastor she had never looked for a house before.

“I felt kind of funny, because I have never had the resources to own a home,” Perdue said. “It has never even crossed my mind.”

Perdue said every Sunday, Robinson would remind her that the Lord said look for a house.

Then, Perdue was in a car accident, fracturing her femur and forcing her to move in with her sister in Montgomery until she healed.

“When I came back to church, he was still telling me the same message,” Perdue said.

Perdue received compensation for the accident, but didn’t act on it immediately.

“I put the check up and kept it away for eleven months,” Perdue said. “Then one day, its just came to me: It’s time.”

Perdue took the check to the person she calls her “go-to guy,” her nephew Jawuan Webster.

“He jumped right into it and started finding houses to go look at,” Perdue said. “We looked at about three or four but none of them seemed right.

“When we stepped into this house right here he said ‘This is your house. This is you right here,” Perdue said.

After 19 years of living in government housing, Perdue had finally become a homeowner. Her friends were in as much disbelief as she was.

“People started coming up and telling me ‘it’s a shame what the housing authority did to you,” Perdue said. “They thought that I got put out.”

The concept of leaving the projects didn’t even cross their mind, she said.

“I followed God’s instructions and left on my own accord,” Perdue said.

Perdue now lives at her house with her granddaughter, grandson and great-granddaughter. She says has more privacy now, more freedom and lives in a quieter neighborhood.

“You can overcome with God’s help,” Perdue said.