We're so excited to celebrate with you!

October, 2015: Justin was living in Bogotá and teaching English; I was visiting Bogotá for the first time to see if the Lord was calling me to serve at the church that happened to be the one that Justin attended. We met at a young adults event where Justin was leading the bible study. After the study I joined the young adults in going to get ice cream, and when we were done, Justin kindly walked me back to the Brown's apartment where I was staying. And that was that... A year later, when I moved to Bogotá to work as an intern at the church, Justin was in a relationship, and I was focused on my new job, and the extent of our interaction was saying "hey" as we passed each other at church. For 2 years, I knew him as "the guy who teaches children's church and young adults" and he knew me as "the girl who leads worship." One fateful (or providential) day in 2018, a mutual friend (our groomsman Andrés) asked if he could bring the newly-single Justin to my Thanksgiving dinner. It was the first time we had really ever hung out, and I immediately was impressed because Justin washed all the dishes at the end of the night....anyone who has ever washed all the Thanksgiving meal dishes by hand should understand why it made an impression on me. We all enjoyed the evening so much that I started having weekly breakfast-for-dinners for a group of friends, and Justin kept coming back for the food every week.

It wasn't the food, it was definitely time spent with Sav that kept me coming back. I was intrigued by her hospitality and noticed that she had a tremendous heart for people. The thing that confirmed my interest was when Sav reached out to me on the anniversary of my dad's death to let me know she was praying for me. From then on I wanted to get to know her on a deeper level. We continued to hang out for a while as friends, but I never asked her out, until... One night we went out to dinner to catch up, and I was planning to finally ask her out at the end of dinner. I don't remember everything we talked about that night, but I do remember her telling me how content and happy she was being single. The more she talked, the more I started to think, "This ain't gonna go well." But I was even more determined to ask her out, not having any clue how it was gonna go down. We eventually started making our way to the Brown's apartment, where we were heading to after dinner, and at the entrance I finally asked her out, adding, "You can pray about it, if you want." But, surprisingly, she said yes immediately! We started dating, and after about a year, I was ready to get it poppin' (i.e. "pop the question") - but it took a little longer to convince Sav. But, by the grace of God, here we are. I proposed this July in a park in St. Louis, where we were surrounded by the Lord's beautiful creation (and also way too many mosquitos).

We are so thankful for the ways that we have seen God weave our stories together, when it's the last thing either of us would have expected. Our love for each other flows out of the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and we joyfully anticipate the ways that we will grow to love each other more, even as we learn to love Jesus more. Our prayer is that our marriage will reflect God's glory as we remind each other of God's faithfulness and participate in his mission together.