We were walking along Bushy park with our boys who were 4 and 6 then. It was a beautiful afternoon in spring and the trees were in full bloom.

I had just received a call from the estate agent about a property we had been bidding on. We started bidding at 45k against another potential buyer and had bid the price up to over 50k and I was just told by the agent that someone else has offered 55k. That was above our top price, so I was struggling to decide what to do. During our viewing we had met the family selling the property and liked them, we also felt it was a good investment opportunity. I was tempted to go higher, but did not want to get stuck in a bidding war and overpay.

My wife Helen knew my dilema, she looked at me and said the dreaded words: “Why don’t we pray about it?”. My wife has been a Christian since we were married, and although I have been part of a Christian homegroup and went to church with her, I would not have called myself a Christian at that time. We had been investing in properties for some time and I felt even if God exists, he would want you to engage your brain and use your knowledge etc. Why would he want you to bother him for little decisions all the time? But, not knowing what else to do, I remember we all held hands with the boys and prayed for guidance about the purchase.

The boys then ran off to explore the park and about 20 minutes later, Rohan the older boy turned up with 2 little fistfuls of flowers he picked off the ground which had fallen off the trees, I cupped my hands and he dumped them in my hands. Then, Matthew thought that looked fun and began copying his older brother. Both boys made a few trips and I ended up with my hands full of flowers. I felt suddenly that I was supposed to count the number of flowers in my hand. Again, I resisted the idea, that if there were 25 flowers or 100 flowers. What do I do with that?
Anyways, with a lot of scepticism, I counted and found I had exactly 54 flowers in my hands. I thought, this is just terrible, if I bid 54k I will lose the deal for sure, what is the point of that? Even my wife was not sure what to do, but I felt this was an answer to prayer. In the end I decided to follow the guidance and made the final offer of 54k knowing we are going to lose the deal but maybe that was for the best.

The next day, the agent called and told us the news. The seller had accepted our offer! When I heard that, I almost fell off the chair, I blurted out: “Why did they not go for the higher offer?”. The agent replied, the seller enjoyed meeting us and because we said we are flexible with timing and can give them as much time as they need to find a place to move into, the flexibility was worth taking a reduction. The seller did take a couple of months to find somewhere to go, but we were pretty relaxed about things as this was a deal from God. In the end, when the deal completed, it felt like a good deal for both sides. Five years on, it’s still one of our best rentals, with the same lovely tenants from the first letting.

Wayne – United Kingdom