OUR WEDDING STORY PART 3 OF 3 - OUR 1ST DATE WAS OUR WEDDING!!!

I know what you're thinking....but, no!!! This was not an arranged marriage!!!!

To recap, in a nutshell, I started this blog because I was inspired by Kelly's "Show Us Your Ministry" tour and because I received a physical healing from God and I am going to eventually share that story as well. My husband, John, felt called to give away free Bibles (through our auto shop) to everyone in our town so that the whole town could be saved! Our ministry is distributing free bibles to anyone who wants one.

We have given away over 100,000 Bibles (that have gone all over the world) through our dirty, little, grungy shop. Oh yeah, I received the very first Bible that my husband gave away (before I ever even knew he would be my husband)!

(Click here for Part 1)...
(Click here for Part 2)...

   if you want to go all the way back to the beginning and read the whole story.

I have been meaning to finish the rest of this story since my original post back in February, but have had a whole host of problems, from electronic to physical, including a short stay in the ER a couple of nights ago for a very painful UTI that hit me by surprise and rapidly progressed into a "rip-roaring" infection according to the ER doc. But, by the Grace of God, I am recovering now.

So, to pick up where I left off....my husband was stirred by a passage he read in the Bible, Matthew 7:16 - 20. Matthew was formerly known as Levi, the tax collector who left everything to follow Christ (Lk 5:27, 28). He wrote as an eyewitness of many of the events he described, giving firsthand testimony about the words and works of Jesus of Nazareth. My husband was especially moved by Matthew 7:19-20: Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.

He decided that he wanted to bear good fruit for the Lord and committed to order 10 Bibles to try to give away. He thought it was going to be really hard. Ha! Little did he know! I worked for him at the time and asked for one (the first one) when he opened the box. He gave it to me and he was amazed at how anxiously I received it. The rest of the Bibles went quickly so he placed another order. And another. And another. And, you get the point, right?

God has astonished us by the people who receive the Bibles we give and likewise how he always leads people to us who want to help give the Bibles away. If you need a Bible, please email me at biblesforanchorage(at)yahoo.com.

Anyway, back to the story......John and I became friends during my employment with him because we were both single parents to boys who were about a year apart in age. We would hang out and let the kids play together or baby-sit for one another often over the next 10 years. We each dated (other people), and had quasi-serious, but definitely not Christian relationships with other people. But we never dated each other, or even came close to anything remotely romantic during all our years as friends. We camped together and went on snowmachining trips with the kids. But we were always just friends. John is 17 years older than me and I was in my early 20's when I met him. To say that I wasn't interested in him in anyway is an understatement! I mean, he was soooo old, you know being 40 and all! (I'll be 40 in three years!) Ha!

It wasn't until we both committed, separately, each in our own time and for our own reasons, that we would not enter into in anymore relationships that involved pre-marital sex that God's plan for our future marriage, yet unknown to us, really started to take shape.

It began in the summer and fall of 2005 and it was an experience like no other! I started to have thoughts of marriage towards John, of all people. John, my best friend. John, my part-time employer.  John, the guy I never even entertained the idea of dating. All the while, he was having visions of me in a white wedding dress, marrying him.

Because we were such good friends and each of us valued our friendship so much, we were both really weirded out by our thoughts towards one another and it took a few months before either one of us brought it up.  (I can't remember for sure, but I think he brought it up first!)

God was stirring in both of our minds and hearts and I know that it was He that turned our hearts toward one another. Coincidentally, our pastors had been praying for John to find a wife! John kept telling them that he wasn't looking for a wife, but they prayed faithfully anyway! Eventually we did broach the subject and after we talked it all the way through, he proposed to me on August 19th, 2005!

We had never even gone out on a date. Sure, we hung out together, but always as friends.  And then, suddenly, we were engaged.  We spent the next four months crazily planning and preparing for our Wedding Day.  It was our very first official date!  We were married on November 25, 2005, and left for our honeymoon in Hawaii that night! Praise the Lord! 

This is a picture of the very first Bible. It's a hardback NIV version. I own many Bibles, but this is the one that is the most special to me.  (And I added a wedding pic too!)