Engaged

Kate and I had been dating for almost a year when we left for Peru in the summer of 2008.  We had decided we were going to lead a mission trip together, we thought how cool it would be to see different parts of the world while serving the lord,  however sometimes the Lord has different plans.

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,
declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

When we showed up to offer our services to lead a trip Kasey Booker who was in charge of missions said it would be best since we were first time leaders if we went somewhere we had been before, so it turned out we were leading the trip to Peru (and what an amazing blessing that turned out to be for us).  We ended up with a great team of 13 people who became very instrumental in our lives and who many we are still close with today, but I think almost every one of them thought I was going to propose on the trip, including our missionary Tom Hough who wouldn’t stop talking about it.

I had a plan in place, however it wasn’t going to be in Peru, it was always very important to Kate and me that even though we met on a mission trip, that the mission trip wasn’t about our relationship.  The mission trip is about God and the work he wants to do in and through us for the Shipibo Indians in Pucallpa Peru.  Even to this point with having gone as a married couple 3 times we haven’t shared a room on any of the trips we have taken, it’s not why God has us there.  Plus Kate really looks forward to that week where she gets a break from all of my stupid jokes.

So well before the trip I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Kate, so I needed to do some ring shopping. We really hadn’t talked about marriage that much, and we definitely hadn’t talked about what kind of ring she wanted, so I had to give the best friend (Ashley) a call to see if she had any ideas.  I think her first response was pink and polka dots, so that is what I did, a diamond with sapphires and diamonds on the band like polka dots.  If I do say so myself it is a pretty cool ring ( I know I’m biased). 

So I had the girl, had the ring and if everyone would get off my back and have a little patience I was ready to propose.  So we went on our first date on a Tuesday after we got back from Peru, and I’m not sure exactly what the day of the week was, but when we got back from Peru year 2, I took Kate out to dinner at the river house, and took her back to the Singer Island Inlet where we had our first Kiss.  It is kind of funny because they both really played out the same way, we stood on the inlet for way longer than anyone expect while I worked up the courage to do what I was about to do.  So I dropped to one knee, didn’t drop the ring in the ocean and asked Kate to Marry me, there really is no feeling like it.  

To quote the book mystery of marriage by mike Mason, “Marriage is to human relations what monotheism is to theology.  It is a decision to put all the eggs in one basket, to go for broke, to bet all of the marbles.  Is there any abandonment more pure, more supreme, more radically self-abnegating than that of putting one’s entire faith in just one God, the Lord of all, in such a way as to allow that faith to have a searching impact on every corner of one’s life?  On the level of human relations, only one act of trust can begin to approach this one, and that is the decision to believe in one other person and to believe so robustly as to be ready to squander one’s whole life on that one. “

Kate said YES, and to be honest the rest of the night was a blur to me, that was all I really needed to remember. 

Still you have to be wondering when I am going to talk more about the kidney, and the decision to donate, and all of that, and believe me that will come.  But this story isn’t only about donating a kidney. Yes that is a big act, and something everyone seems to be amazed by, but it is the steps that brought the three of us this big act.  To be honest this story goes back so much further than Peru, it goes back to Catawba, it spends time in London with Kate and Ashley and there is no purpose to this story if it doesn’t bring Glorification to God. 

I will close with 2^nd Thessalonians 1:11-12 “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.  We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ”