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Our story… a love story… a Jesus story…
A year ago, in September 2010, there was nothing, not even a hint of romance between them. There was a different sort of romance going on. It was the Lord Jesus calling them to a deeper place of intimacy with Himself. He was asking them each to sacrifice their lives for a year and pour themselves out to the broken of the world… to the street kids, the orphans, the prostitutes, the starving, and countless others desperate for love.
Little did they know what God was doing. Yes, God intended to show His love to them, and to have His love spread into the world… but there was also a completely unexpected gift of love that He would create between them.
Ashley and Matthew, one from the north, the other from the south, both seemingly incompatible, both completely uninterested in relationships. Ashley, she was wanting a year to grow close to Jesus… Matthew, he was teaching classes on singleness!! Besides, there was a no relationship policy on the trip.
Of 38 people, the two of them were sovereignly placed on the same team of six. It was then at the end of the second month that their hearts would feel the rush of something completely foreign, completely uncomfortable, and completely sacred…. It was that mysterious “voice of God” that none of us are really sure about…
One night Ashley and Matthew were hanging out with each other… and they both heard God speak to them that the other was to become their spouse. “Yeah, right?” was both of their responses, and of course nothing of that was shared with the other. But the stirrings of love would be too much for them to quench…
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.” -Prov 3:5
Although physically apart from each other while in their next month, in Malaysia, their thoughts and hearts were growing more and more together. A few emails were exchanged between the two… conversations that gradually became longer and longer. With each wanting to know where the other might be… the mutual affection faithfully surfaced.
It was then the next week that they would reunite, for the first time, as some sort of relationship. And with only about two months of knowing each other, and at that briefly, a few emails, a couple facebook chats, Matthew looks at Ashley and says, “Are you my wife?”
She was a bit in shock that those words came out of his mouth… but it felt normal, natural… and she felt the awareness of the truth, that yes… she is. Both were overwhelmed, but not without peace… It was a sacred moment between the two, of the great reality that was being birthed in their midst… God at work uniting them as one…
Ashley and Matthew grew steadily in their relationship in December in Thailand… serving the Lord together through manual labor and prostitution ministry. They had several important conversations over the course of the month, but more than anything this was a month for them to press into God and discern His will for their lives.
It was then in January, 2011, in Rwanda, that God poured out His blessing on His two children. It was as if the curtain of doubt was lifted, and nothing but peace reigned in their hearts in regards to the ordination of their lives together. Joy filled them… grace filled them… love filled them. And on top of that, they both experienced together, what became perhaps the ministry highlight of the year, loving on the street kids there in Rwanda…
So stepping out on a huge leap of faith, they each sent emails to their parents telling them they were official… “Mom, Dad… I’m getting married!!”
It seemed they went from acquaintances to engaged… they skipped the whole dating phase! What made it strangely difficult though… but also good for them, was that there was a no dating policy. The two of them came forward to leadership and confessed the relationship…
The leadership blessed what God was doing, but decided proper boundaries needed to be put in place. Ashley and Matthew were split onto different teams, and were told to keep communication limited… they would only see each other on travel days, which was about 2 weeks out of the next 6 months.
“Love is as strong as death… fierce as the grace… many waters cannot quench love, niether can floods drown it.” -Song of Sol 8:6
This became the hardest season of their lives. God had lifted them as high as they had ever been… full of the exhilaration of finding a spouse, full of joy unspeakable!! Only to then be separated from each other. But this was where God was taking them… into a place of heart work, into a place of intimacy, into a place of trust and dependency on Him alone.
Out on the mission field, in all the changing countries, the devil can mess with you… and they both took their fair share of beatings… but above it all, God was using this to discipline them. This was the Lord building their marriage…
“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain..” -Psalm 127
Day after day, country after country, the two pushed through… grace by grace. What seemed like an impossible task, to finish the race, and what seemed like an impossible moment… being on a plane together headed for America… it came to pass… on July 30th, they headed home!!
Matthew, completely disoriented, stepped off the plane to spend his first week back with Ashley and her family in Massachusetts. Then they both made a 19 hour drive down to Matthew’s home in North Carolina. And on August 17th, Matthew officially proposed… and she said, “Yes!”
The wedding date has been set for November 13, 2011 in Savannah, GA, which marks exactly a year to the date when God first spoke to them!!
Our story… a love story… a Jesus story… it’s just beginning…
