In the name of celebrating the holiday you either love or love to hate, I’m telling one of my favorite Love Stories: Our Love Story.
In 1998, I was a student leader at Intervarsity Christian Fellowship – which was basically a bible study for students at Boise State University – GO BRONCOS!!!
My First Missions Trip
That year, I decided that I would look into going on a “missions trip”. For those of you who didn’t grow up in the church, or who haven’t been around church-goers, that basically means a trip to a foreign area (most often, an area where poverty is the norm) to love, serve and share with others about Jesus.
June 6th rolled around and I was on my way to Montana, then Chicago, then Nairobi, Kenya. It was my first long plane ride and my first time overseas. I was nervous in the way of excitement and afraid of nothing! I was ready to experience a life very different from my own!
Life Would Never Be the Same
To say that my life had completely changed after that project would be a an understatement. After working with orphans at Mully Children’s Family Home for three weeks, and then spending another few weeks with people I didn’t know beforehand, I had an entirely new perspective on the world.
I came home, got rid of a ton of belongings and vowed to treasure simplicity along with long hot showers, ramen noodles and the ability to drive from place to place.
A Prompt to Rethink My Plans
The next year, David Hughes, a member of my church, came up to me and asked me if I had considered going back the next year.
I really hadn’t. There was a mortgage, car payments, school and living expenses to save for over the summer. Surely I couldn’t go another 7 summer weeks without an income.
I told him that I would pray about it.
Prayers Answered
That very week, I received an email from Brian Lee, the Director for that Global Project, asking if I’d considered coming back to Kenya at all.
BAM! Prayer answered. I’d determined that I would go back to Kenya – this time as staff. I just knew I was supposed to go.
On a sidenote – I’ve always been attracted to black men. I don’t know what it is, but there’s always been a part of me that wanted to marry a beautiful, dark skinned man! But come on – I live in Boise, Idaho. The classification of African-American only made it onto the sensus about three years ago because of our lack of diversity. I never thought I would actually marry someone like that!
But – just as any 20-something girl’s mind does – I thought, “What if I meet my husband here?”
I stepped off the escalators in the Nairobi airport to greet the three other Kenyans who would join us on the project and thought, “Well, I guess I won’t meet him here.”
Patience is a Virtue
The next three weeks were spent with my friend Melissa Kuiken. We were in Turi, a small town just outside of Molo. The other students were spending their time with the pastor of the local church, wherever they were stationed, but the pastor of our local church was 26 and single, so that was not an option for us! We spent our days in a guest house – both the parents worked full time and the kids were in school, and it was not a very safe place for single women, so it was a good lesson on patience that summer!
Student Placement
After that, we came back as a group. The leaders discussed placement on the next leg of the project at different Universities. It was suggested that Lumuli be in my group.
I remember thinking, “Are you kidding me? He is such a fuddy-duddy. I don’t want to have to be stuck with him.” That worked like a charm – he was placed in my group.
Getting Sick in a Third-World Country Ain’t for the Weak
The week we came to University, I got extremely ill. It was determined I’d ingested worm eggs and it completely messed up my system. Stuff was coming out of both ends and I had a terrible fever. I was so weak and frail that I was admitted to the hospital for 5 days – nearly the entire time we were at University.
I Didn’t Know Why I’d Gone
After coming home a couple of weeks later, I was bombarded with questions like, “What did you learn?”, “What did you do?”, “What was your favorite part?”. I didn’t feel like I’d learned anything, done anything nor did I have a favorite part. It felt like a waste of time because I had “nothing to show for it.
The only thing I was sure of is that I knew I was that I was supposed to go.
Snail-Mail
A couple of weeks after I’d come home, I received this booklet called, “Marriage and the Home” from Lumuli. Eeeks! What in the world is he trying to do? Court me from across seas? NO THANK YOU. Multi-cultural relationships were SO DIFFICULT and I couldn’t imagine marrying someone from Kenya. Besides that, who’s he to think I need a book like that?
But for some reason, I wrote back.
The Reason I Went
We did the snail-mail dance for three years before he wrote in one of his letters, “Even you’re the furthest, you’re the closest to my heart.”
Mic drop.
I told him I felt the same way.
We upped our game from handwritten letters, to phone calls, to two visits in the UK before he came over to the US five weeks before our wedding; February 13, 2004.
I no longer wondered about the reason I went to Kenya that second year. It was obvious that one of the primary reasons was to meet the man who would be the father of my children.
God’s Leading & Our Love Story
Call it what you want. Trusting your Gut, Instinct, God’s Leading, a Hunch, the Holy Spirit – whatever you want to call it, I’m so glad I followed that feeling.
Whether in relationships, business dealings or just the daily grind of life, pay attention to that little voice inside of you that gives you direction. You’ll be glad you did.