I always tell it wrong, but regardless, in my eyes, I first “met” Cesar on the other side of the Barranquilla immigration line, my first time on foreign soil. He had come along for the four hour round trip to pick us up with the missionaries who were hosting my youth team for the week. After a chaotic, sweaty airport greeting, we all piled in the bus. Cesar got in last, sat up front, and kept quiet most of the way back. Who was this humble, mysterious guy? Well, he turned out to be the pastor’s son. He was sixteen and the go-to translator for the church. He knew all the missionaries and teams that came through, and they couldn’t get enough of him. He helped translate with nurses at the annual health brigades. He played worship and worked production at every church event. He was rarely idle. I swear he didn’t sleep. Needless to say, I saw a lot of him that week. And what I saw was a humble young man graciously giving his time, energy, talents, humor, and heart away to others. Along with the spiritually shifted world-view I encountered that week, I was left with a personal goodbye I couldn’t shake. “Don’t forget me” he said, as I boarded the bus back home. Well, I never forgot. How could I forget? Cesar is so many things to me now. He’s my trusted confidant, my counselor, my encourager, my very best friend, my love. He and I are vastly different people than we were at sixteen that Santa Marta summer. But it all leads back to the miraculous, God-laid connection that we shared in June of 2014. I skipped a lot of the in-between years of other stuff here. Not because those stories doesn’t sound as good or romantic or “meant to be”, on the contrary. They tell a tale of steadfast pursuit which was the real catalyst to this marriage. But perhaps that first Cesar I met is not so different than the one I have now, the one I am joining my life with. The Lord knew he would mark my heart way back then, and that his character would stick with me for a lifetime.

I graduated from high school and didn’t have anything else to do. I was waiting on some scholarships and decided to have my first trip to the US. There I saw Cameron for the first time. Her cute, short, blonde hair really stood out for me. I got the chance to talk to her a few times, but always in a group. On my last night there, I went to a little church hang out and I started feeling sad because I had loved my time there and it was coming to an end. Then she sat next to me and started talking right away. I didn’t really understand how, but her voice and kindness were soothing my heart, and I knew we’d be friends for a long time- she was so charming and interesting and I just couldn’t miss that in life. After that, she went to Colombia on short summer mission trips for 3 years straight. It was a little hard to communicate at first because she wanted to be pen pals, but eventually we started texting and later on video calling. When I graduated from college I went back to the US and visited her. I got to know her family and we developed a part of our friendship that we hadn’t been able to achieve living in different countries. Cameron became my safe place and my best friend. I couldn’t be happier about God’s plan to get us to know each other, even when we were born in such different countries and cultures. A year after that, before the pandemic started, our relationship escalated and we realized that we were meant to try to explore our feelings. After over 21 months apart, I had my first trip to visit her as her boyfriend. To be honest, having been friends for 6 years and with all of our memories together, when she picked me up from the airport and we had our first hug- it was pretty clear to me that we were going to get married. Life as a long distance couple has been challenging, but sharing this experience with Cameron is all I ever wanted. Her way of loving is my favorite way to be loved.