Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Another Big Relief


Our buyers had our house inspected yesterday. Even though practically everything in the house is brand new and rebuilt, I was still nervous that something would come up that I had missed. I did pretty much all the work myself (uh, with a little help from Kim). The inspection lasted two and half hours, so I was kinda freaking out that they might be picking it apart. I crossed paths with the buyer and his realtor as they were leaving. I was very happy and relieved to hear that they loved everything, and they weren't going to ask for anything on inspection. I talked with the buyer for a while and had the chance to walk through our home with him. I was extremely happy to hear that he and his fiancé absolutely love the house and all the work we put into it. They can't wait to take possession, so it doesn't look like much else could get in the way of closing. It's nice to find out that all our hard work will be appreciated. Kim and I are very proud of what we did with this property. I can't overemphasize what a pit it was when we bought it.

God is providing for us in miraculous ways. We are extremely blessed.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

A Door On The Ceiling


I talked to Lou Engle on the phone today. We talked about our final preparations to make the move to DC and a possible need for Kim and I at the headquarters in Charlotte, NC. It's all very exciting. This seems to be such a key moment of time for our country, and we're glad to be an active participant in it. I shared with Lou Kim's dream about the old door on the ceiling (see 7/23/05). He had a good read on things. There's a lot of personal application and direction that God is giving us, and this dream seems to be a part of it. In a nutshell, he felt like it had more to do with inward and upward ministry than it did with outward ministry. The old door on the ceiling may represent the need to ascend into the heavenlies and into the counsel of God. It's a doorway that you can't just walk through by conventional means. Rather, it's an ancient doorway of prayer and fasting that gives you access to His throneroom. Oh to ascend the hill of the Lord (Psalm 24:3). You gotta get airborne for this sort of thing. My prayer is that we will have the mind of the Lord as we move forward with all of this.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Home Stretch


Our church had a potluck after service today to send us off. We'll be in town for one more week. My last day at work will be this Friday, and I'm due to pick up a moving truck on Saturday. We're in the home stretch now to get things packed up and get outta Dodge. Sarah Naranjo, a former student, is going with us to help Kim drive. The downside is that she's insisting on seeing pictures of me from high school when we get to my mom's house- namely ones where I'm sporting a certain hairdo (or hairdon't). Good times, good times.

I'm looking forward to decompressing during the long drive across the country.

Saturday, July 23, 2005

Under Contract


I guess there's no turning back now. We accepted the offer on our house yesterday afternoon. Our agent talked with the buyer’s lenders and everything checks out. The buyers signed the paperwork last night, so we're officially under contract. We are completely blown away by God's goodness and timing. We feel like a huge weight has been lifted with the sale of our house. However, today we're feeling very sad. This is our first home. Two of our kids were born while we lived here. With the remodel done, the house is finally a place where we'd love to live. We'll be exchanging it for two rooms in DC. We're praying for God's grace to give us the ability to work with the accommodations. You see, we'll be living on a 100-acre farm with the program's interns along with two other families. The housing is pretty sweet, but our private space will be limited to two good-sized rooms. One of the families is the Engles. Lou Engle is the founder of this movement. He and his wife have seven children. The other family is the Amabiles. Paul, Cheryl and their six children are from the Kansas City IHOP and have been with the JHOP since it began in January. They too have sacrificed their careers and normal lives to run with this vision to turn America back to God. We've spent some time with the leadership there in DC, and we're excited about joining them in a couple weeks.

Kim had an interesting dream a few nights ago. She’s had a few dreams recently about “doors”. Oddly enough, the JHOP people gave us several prophetic words concerning doors during our visit in April. In one of Kim’s dreams, she and I are standing in a room looking at a door that’s on the ceiling. It’s out of reach, and we’re trying to figure out how to get through it. Something interesting about the door is that it looks old with old fixtures; like something from the early 1900’s. We have some ideas, but for now we’re praying for God to reveal the meaning of this dream to us.

Friday, July 22, 2005

Now That HAS To Be God's Timing

God is never late. I got a call this morning from my realtor. Apparently, the first couple that came for a showing of our house last night have put in an offer for the full asking price- and no concessions. Kim and I are meeting tonight with our agent to go over the contract.

This seems so unreal. If this goes through, then our house will have been on the market for all of like eight hours. Kim and I are taking this as an extreme blessing from God and confirmation that we're heading in the right direction.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

I Need Some Sleep

I think everything's done...except for this, that and the other thing. But for the most part everything is done. We worked most of last night getting our house ready to go to market. That happened today officially at 8 a.m. The photographer came this morning and did all the real estate pictures for our marketing materials. It's cool that we get to actually list as a 4 bedroom-2 bath. I didn't think we'd ever get it there. This house was a dump when we bought it three and half years ago. We've put a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears into this house. Of course, we finished the radical remodel only within the last few days. It stinks to put this much work into it, but now we're just selling it. We just gonna have to trust that this is all part of God's timing. We move on August 1st, so the house will be vacant for most of the time it's on the market. I hope that doesn't hurt us since we're taking all the furniture with us.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

In The Beginning

Well, I learned what a blog was only a short time ago. But it sure seems like a great way to keep everyone up to date about what's going on in the life of the Locketts. So welcome to my...BLOG! I will attempt to keep a current online journal of events and thoughts as Kim and I step out into the unknown. What unknown would that be? After 13 years of marriage, four children, a 12-year career in advertising, and 7+ years in Colorado we're shifting gears in a major way. We feel like God has called us to join in full-time Christian ministry with an organization called The Cause USA. We will be relocating our family to Washington D.C. and helping to lead an internship for young people. The Justice House of Prayer is a round-the-clock intercessory ministry on capital hill. Young people will receive intensive training in three main areas: intimacy, justice and governmental intercession. 1 Timothy 2 is at the core of this assignment- to do the "first thing" of praying for those in authority. I believe we are living in a NOW moment in our country's history. Now is the time for the Church to arise in all her beauty and splendor. Our desire is to see nothing less than massive revival sweep over our land. Could God be preparing America for another Great Awakening? Kim and I want to be obedient to God and lay hold of the calling He has for us. We believe He has a part for us to play in the unfolding drama.

We have been taking steady steps in this direction for some time now. We are due to move to DC in about a week and a half, and our house goes up for sale tomorrow. We've spent many sleepless nights recently getting it ready to go to market. Tonight will be no different. Hopefully all will be complete by tomorrow morning. I can't help but think about how we're nearing the point of no return.