Our Story
How I Knew
Walking into missions class the first day at Global Frontier Missions, Rachel immediately stood out because of her more traditional dress. Over the next couple of weeks, her comments when I joked in class made me think, "Dang, we are not going to get along well at all" and we didn't really interact until that fateful day.
One of the other students was an older guy, and he unexplainably left the class about six weeks in. He left a garden plot right next to Rachel's that I was given to use. After several weeks of talking outside by the garden, I started to realize we actually had a lot in common! I had never talked for that long with anyone. We spent over two hours under a mulberry tree eating berries and talking about life. Pesky rules prevented us from officially dating until after the school ended, but we spent a lot of time together. She made hamantaschen for my Purim party, and we spent several hours talking about music when I had some of the students over for a crawfish boil.
She finally figured out I was interested when I signed up to cook the same day as her for one of our weekly student dinners. We went for one real date before I met her parents, and it was so awkward! Fortunately, we both felt like we should stick it out and here we are! I have never met anyone else that I have felt this spiritually, emotionally, and personality compatible with. She truly is my best friend.
How I Knew
I met Caleb on January 4th, 2025 and three days later I decided I would never marry him. I know, I know…I came to regret my hasty ruling. There were a few important reasons, though, including some theological differences I didn't think I could reconcile. So I wrote him off mentally, but even from the very beginning I noticed things about him that I had never seen in another person. The very first week of class he invited twelve people over and cooked all day making bibimbap. I was so impressed by his hospitality, exploration of culture, and the care and precision he put into making the dish. We started to have friendly conversation while we both worked in our gardens that March. I realized I liked him a lot right before St. Patrick's Day. He had us over for a crawfish boil and we talked for hours about folk and Irish music. In class he was very quiet but I began to notice his passionate faith in Jesus and his confidence in worship that I so rarely see men have. But the idea of him as more than a friend simply didn't occur to me.
In early April he signed up to cook dinner for the class with me (a weekly event we all took turns hosting), which caught me totally by surprise. I really had no idea he liked me until then, but my classmates Jenna and Alli told me it had been painfully obvious for weeks! It took me some time for everything to sink in. All the things I had noticed in passing came to my mind like beads on a string, like how he served those around him, his adventurous spirit, his hardworking, can-do attitude, and the hours we spent talking and laughing that flew by like moments. It was an epiphany when I discovered that not only was he my friend, I thought I could love him. I prayed that the Lord would help me know—and then I did. I knew that He had been orchestrating our steps without either of us knowing.
