January 2024: Being an Instrument in the Lord's hand

 Joy Park reached out to me on the 2nd week of January showing interest in buying a house. After two years, they are finally feeling like they need to get a house since rent is high in Raleigh.

She felt prompted to look into Fayetteville. It took me 1 hour and 40 minutes to go to Fayetteville. We viewed a total of 30 houses in 3 days' time in span of two weeks. They were looking for under $200k house value. Some of the places we saw were sketchy and I worry about the neighborhood. I prayed continually how I can help them find the right place where they can feel safe. 

At the last day of our viewing, we set out to look at 12 houses that day. Our schedule was packed. January 24th, the day of the viewing, I met Joy and James at the first house. While there, Joy shared with me a feeling she got that morning to look for a 5-bedroom house. She felt that she needed to consider the idea that they may need to have her mother-in-law live with them.  That morning she looked for 5 bedroom and found this property in 310 Pennsylvania Ave, which was listed for $265 000.00

While we were at the first viewing, we agreed I would request a viewing for this property at 4:30 pm tagging it at the end of all our scheduled viewing. I called and got a showing appointment. After a full day of viewing, we are finally heading to 310 Pennsylvania Ave when I realized that I have not received any confirmation for key code to get in the door. I called showing time company and told me we did not have an appointment, which was shocking to me because we did make the appointment that very morning. I then called the listing agent and told her what happened, and she asked if we could come back the next day. I said we could not since we live almost 2 hours away and that we had to see the place now. She said she would reach out to the seller. I did not hear from the agent by the time we pulled into the yard. The owner came out and she seemed pleasant. She happily accommodated us and let us into the house. It looked grand and much better than any other house we looked at, although it is also higher than the cap amount, they previously decided to spend on a house. 

Joy and James felt good about the house. We parted ways, we all knew we had some praying to do. In the end they made an offer to this house, with much haggling and the seller unwilling to come down much in price, she settled with $ 262 500.00. We were happy that our offer was accepted since there were many viewers scheduled on the property. The appraisal results actually came to the value of $289 000. The Lord really had a hand in this process. Because Joy was sensitive to the spirit, she was able to receive guidance on where to look and what to look for. I was merely an instrument in the Lord's hand. 

Fast forward to July 14, 2024. Last night, I got a message from Joy asking or inviting as to support James in his new calling as a Bishop in their ward. We drove to attend their Sunday meeting. What a sacred experience to have been led by the Lord and to be at the right place where James and Joy were needed.  So grateful to be a part of that experience and humbled to be the Lord's instrument.