Ask and Author: Meeting Our Hubbies

Leah
I actually first met my husband Ed when I was 16 and he was 23! Back in 1997, the Lord had been working in each of our lives. We both came to know the Lord that year and both joined the same church family. I was a teenager, however, and Ed was an older college student. I remember him getting baptized. I mostly remember him from the nursery - I was a nursery worker and he would come pick up a little boy each week. I thought it was his son! Turns out it was the son of a friend of his. Ed came along with our church youth group as a "chaperone" when we went to Mexico for my Senior Year spring break trip. I got to know him a little more then as our group spent the week working together. That summer, I went to a Christian festival with a group of college students before I went off to college and Ed was there. We had a fun time together from what I remember.



Shortly after I started my freshman year of college, my mom saw Ed in the hallway at church and he asked how I was doing. She told him I was pretty homesick and that he should give me a call sometime to see how I was doing (looking back, she had no idea what she was starting!). Ed called me then and we started what would be a four year, long-distance friendship. We kept in touch through phone calls and e-mails, as well as mutual visits home to my hometown/his college town throughout the four years of my schooling. We both dated other people, went on extended overseas trips, and grew a lot during those four years. But we always came back to talking with one another and valuing the friendship we had.



I didn't think I was interested in him romantically...until Thanksgiving of my Senior year in college. A group of us were all back in town and decided to go out bowling. There was a new girl at church that went along with us to. I watched as she flirted with Ed all night long. They even decided to go out for a cup of coffee after everyone parted ways. A jealousy surged through me like I'd never known before! Ed was MY friend - WE were always the ones to sneak off for a cup of coffee after everyone said goodbye. God put me face to face with the fact that I wanted more out of our relationship than I had previously admitted to myself. We had so many good talks between Thanksgiving and Christmas of that year and decided to try dating. We were instantly in love. All those years of friendship had laid such excellent groundwork for a loving, committed relationship. We got engaged that October and said "I do" by December. I am so pleased to be married to such a wonderful man, my best friend.

Margaret
Ben and I met six years ago when we were both in our final semesters in college. We had the same class on the Civil War. Ben was (and is) very frugal and didn’t pay the university parking fee and had to park very, very far away from campus. I saw him walking back to his car after class one day and offered him a ride to his car. We were able to talk and he invited me out to lunch. We were married just over one year later. The odd thing is that even though we both attended a major university, our families were both from the same town and our moms actually went to high school together!



Christina

Jacob and I met on New Years Eve of 2000 at a Christmas Conference with Campus Crusade. Prior to this, we had many mutual friends and knew of each other but had yet to meet before this. Our sophomore year of college we traveled to Slovakia twice together with Campus Crusade. Once with a small team at spring break and for 8 weeks over the summer. Our friendship continued to develop and by the end of the summer, we both liked the other. It wasn't until October that we sat down and actually talked about our relationship. (This was in part, thanks to my roomate Lisa having a little chat with Jacob to put the pressure on him to step up or back off! Thanks, Lis. ) So, in October, Jacob said he wasn't ready and that we should probably stop spending so much time together. I was disappointed, but had a peace because I already sensed that we would end up together again at some point. Three months later, in January he called me and asked if I would be coming to hear him sing at a concert (he sang in an accapella group in college) and of course I was. Afterwards, we had a little chat followed by our first (official) date that weekend! We dated for two years before getting engaged in January of 2004 and married in October 2004.

Hollie
Hugh and I met in college (North Georgia College and State University to be exact), and for four years (1996-2000) we were only friends. I wasn't attracted to him, he wasn't attracted to me. Truly JUST friends. He graduated and went on to SE Asia to be a Journeyman for two years (2001-2003). I DID NOT graduate, due to the fact that I changed my major to Spanish after my Junior year (go figure), so I graduated a year later (Dec 2001). Around ten months into Hugh's first year in SE ASIA (Octoberish), I started thinking about him in a different light, but didn't tell anyone. I simply journaled about him and prayed to the Lord about him, but didn't tell a soul. We did keep in touch via email and chat, which was the highlight of every day.

In December 2001, a year into his overseas career and right around the time I graduated from college, he mentioned to me about his two-week leave to come home that he was going to take in January, and he asked me out on a date! The coolest part to this whole story was that there was no middle man doing the set-up. The Lord opened our eyes to each other while being worlds apart. He came home in January, and although it was a little strange to see your previous "buddy" in a new light, those two weeks were dreamy. He still had another year in SE Asia, so although I was attracted to him, I didn't want to put an expectation or label on our relationship.

Hugh returned to Asia, and I became an intern at our BSU for six months. Fast-forward to six months to June. At the end of my internship, my roommate from college, Liz Stewart, invited me to go on a mission trip with New Orleans Seminary (since the leading prof already knew who I was) to the exact city where Hugh was living. There was an empty spot on the team just two weeks before they left. I didn't have a teaching job yet, so I jumped on it...but the deal was, Hugh was supposed to be out of town leading another team on a hiking trip almost the whole time we were going to be there, minus a day or two. I knew that going into the trip. He had NO IDEA I was coming. A day or two before we arrived, his supervisor slipped up and accidentally told Hugh that I was coming. To sum this up, he found a replacement for a portion of the the time he was to be away, so I was able to see him some while there.

The Lord did an amazing work in our relationship, and honestly, had we not been able to bridge that long waiting time, I don't know if we would have made it. I was able to see the people he worked among and his heart for the Nations. He was so excited to share it all with me as well. The Lord knew just what we needed. He came home six months later (Jan 2003), while I was teaching High School Spanish. Eight months later on Sept 16, 2003, we were engaged! Six and a half months of engagement and then married April 3, 2004!