Sometimes someone comes into your life, so unexpectedly, takes your heart by surprise, and changes your life forever. Whenever Angel and I reflect on where it all started, we smile because we recognize God’s fingerprints all over our story. Angel and I had been social media friends for quite some time. When she first added me on FB, we hardly knew anything about each other except that we both had a love for God and ministry. We shared similar passions and aspirations in life. Through various posts and photos, I could tell she was family oriented and exhibited a unique love for her people and their culture. She carried herself well; and for me personally, she was extraordinarily beautiful and had a smile that could brighten up anybody’s day. I would’ve loved to have asked her out. However, there was one problem: She lived in New Zealand and I lived in the United States. Furthermore, online dating was culturally frowned upon and long distance relationships never really lasted. It was too much of a risk and I decided not to pursuit her – that is until the beginning of summer in 2016. Earlier in the year, I had been praying for my dream girl to magically show up on my doorsteps. I knew it was wishful thinking, but I kept praying it anyway. One night while praying, a mental image of Angel popped in my head. I brushed it off thinking nothing of it. Several days later during devotion, the same thing happened. Was it coincidence? Or was God trying to tell me something? I was not sure at the time, but this would happen several more times until I finally began contemplating asking her out. I figured what do I have to lose? If she says no, we both carry on with our lives without any repercussions since we live on different sides of the world. But most of all, I didn’t want to go on in life thinking I could’ve asked her out. So, I messaged her on June 10th. After about a month of getting to know each other, on July 28th we were officially dating.

In a short span of time, Angel and I were able to learn more about each other on a personal level. Although long distance was a bit of a challenge, we both agree that it has helped our relationship flourish by driving us to being more focused on building our relationship via communication rather than physical interaction. With that being said, it did not take long for me to want to ask Angel to marry me. In fact, a few weeks after making it official, I began making plans to visit New Zealand with the intention of proposing to her. At the time, Angel had no idea. She thought I was only paying her a first time face to face visit. I was getting ready to buy a ring, but I didn’t know Angel’s ring size. I discovered we had a mutual friend in California. She was one of her classmates back in bible school in New Zealand. So, I made a phone call and asked if she could help me by devising a plan to discretely retrieve this information for me. She agreed and came up with the idea of getting a friendship ring with Angel to commemorate their friendship since bible school in New Zealand. Unbeknownst of what was really happening, Angel agreed and gave her the ring size. With the ring secured and plane ticket purchased, I packed my things and made my way to New Zealand on November 29, 2016. My plan was to arrive in New Zealand, ask for her parent’s permission and blessings, and then surprise her and her family with the proposal on my last day before returning home. On Sunday, December 11, 2016 at the close of Glen Eden Samoan AG’s morning worship service, I interrupted her father’s closing statements (the senior pastor of Glen Eden Samoan AG by the way) and made my proposal in front of her family and friends; God and the whole world (via FB). She said yes and now the rest is history!