Our story is a true testament of how faith in God can bless you beyond your wildest dreams…
After my last relationship, I was ready to give up on love. I figured that I had made so many mistakes in my past, that God was forever displeased with me, and that my punishment would be to never find a wife, and never have true love. So, having made up my mind that I would be single forever, I chose to focus completely on music ministry. Nothing else mattered to me, or so I thought…
On Sunday, August 11, 2013, I asked one of my spiritual brothers to pray for me after service, about my music. After we prayed, he told me that God had been pressing him to share something with me. He said that God told him to tell me that it was time for my ministry to take off, time for me to walk in my calling, and that it was also time for me to find my wife… That stuck with me because two other people had told me something similar the week before. In the week that followed, God challenged me in a way that I never experienced before, and it resulted in the best thing to ever happen to me. God’s challenge to me started with four simple, yet profound words…
“Do you trust me?”
Later that week, I was working at home and the Holy Spirit lead me to get online. In the next moment, a commercial for the Internet dating site ChristianMingle came on. As I was laughing at the catchy jingle on the commercial, God hit me with two words that completely floored me: “Sign Up.” Not only have I never done online dating, I’ve never believed in it, or had a desire to participate in it! I actually used to joke about people that dated online. Funny how God’s sense of humor is, huh? Reluctantly but obediently, I signed up for a free account, and filled out the profile. I started to fabricate my answers, but I felt led to be 100% honest. The ENTIRE TIME I’m filling this out, I’m mumbling about how much I didn’t want to do it! After filling it out, I started browsing profiles, but didn’t really see anything or anyone that I liked. The next day, I resumed my search, and came across a young woman that lived on the other side of town. As I started reading her profile, I noticed that we both served in the same ministries at our churches, music ministry and youth ministry. I really liked that, because I always wanted a woman that was ministry-minded. Then I noticed that we liked the exact same things, and disliked the exact same things! We were working towards similar goals in life, and even enjoyed the same hobbies! As I’m reading more and more, I’m getting nervous, because I’m starting to think that this is TOO good to be true! “Maybe she’s a serial killer using a fake profile,” I thought! I decided to find out, but I didn’t realize it would cost me even more…
I had to actually purchase a subscription in order to communicate with anyone on the site. So once again, I reluctantly participated. After buying the basic one-month membership, I emailed this young woman, and expressed how much I enjoyed reading her profile, how beautiful I thought she was, and how I was extremely interested in getting to know her better. And then, my boldness kicked in! I asked her if we could meet for coffee and conversation! She responded with a question that embarrassed me temporarily:
“What’s your name?”
I laughed so hard!!! I was so busy saying everything else, that I didn’t tell her my name! After giving her my name, she expressed to me how she wasn’t very comfortable with meeting a stranger so quickly. But she agreed to meet me anyway. We exchanged numbers and arranged to meet that Saturday, August 17, 2013. We talked on the phone for three days prior to our coffee date. Every time we talked, it was for HOURS!!! We talked about music, church, family, hobbies, just life in general! I found out that she had only just reactivated her ChristianMingle account shortly before I emailed her, and that she hadn’t even been checking it that often, because she wasn’t hanging her hat on that! I never got bored or tired of talking to her; she was, well, she was just like me! It seemed like we had EVERYTHING in common!!! It made me very excited about our upcoming coffee date!
The date was Saturday, August 17, 2013. We met at Starbucks in Roseville, MI. I was so nervous! I kept thinking that when I got out the car, a biker thug would snatch me, drag me behind Starbucks, rob me, and rape me, LOL!!! But she pulled up shortly after me. The very moment that she stepped out of the car and looked at me, my entire being, mind, body, and soul, said YES, SHE IS THE ONE!!! We sat and talked, and had so much fun, that we decided to go and grab some lunch. We went to Chili’s and ate, talked some more, laughed, and shared some more! Where Melissa was shy at first, she was excited and happy at this point, and neither of us wanted the day to end! We decided to go and catch a movie, The Butler. We enjoyed our movie, especially since I got to hold her close to me! Finally, that NIGHT, we parted ways and I went home, with the warmth of my smile and the love she placed in my heart to keep me. It was the most AMAZING first date ever!!! I knew that day, that moment, that she was the woman God had hand-crafted just for me. So God made me do what I didn’t believe in, without any forecast of whether it would work, and completely step out on faith, but it resulted in me finding the best thing in my entire life, and the woman that I will be spending the rest of my life with!
This is our faith, our life, our love, our story…