Our Love Story - Part I

God truly does write beautiful love stories - Every time I think about Nathan's and mine, I am blown away by the way God wove (and is weaving) our lives together. The main reason I want to write this series on how we met and how we reached this point in our relationship is that I want to always remember. So I'm really kind of writing this for me, for Nathan, for our future children and grandchildren - but I'd love to have you all join me and I hope you enjoy it! (This is all from my viewpoint, but maybe someday I'll get Nathan to write something from his =) )

Let's go back to the year 2005 (wow, almost 10 years ago!) - 
I was 12 and so very excited because this year I was going to be able to be a Summer Missionary with Child Evangelism Fellowship's(CEF) Summer ministry: Christian Youth in Action (CYIA). A very sweet lady from my church was my area's coordinator for CYIA. I had known her my whole life - she had gone through my parents youth ministry and had babysat my sisters and I lots of times. Of course she recruited us for CYIA ;) In 2003 my sister Jaquelyn had been involved (I was too young) and had come back from the training loving it! My youngest sister was born in 2004 right before the summer, so my mom did not feel like she would be able to drive us to the CEF office everyday since Katheryn was a small baby. That meant I had to wait until this year and it had finally come! There are several different "levels" of Summer Missionaries (I'll try not to be too confusing!). 12 and 13 year old's are at the age of a JR missionary. You see... Summer missionaries would go to a training that was for the whole state of FL and learn how to teach bible clubs (called 5-Day clubs). When you get back you go out into the community of where you live with other young people and teach these 5-Day clubs to kids, sharing the good news of Jesus using various activities. As a JR missionary I would learn how to teach a missions story (about a missionary in the past) and a missions incentive (About missionaries actively working in the present and how the children could help support them) and also how to teach songs (in the present day - remember this was almost 10 years ago - the different "levels" have evolved, but that's not really the point of my story =) ) 

Anyway... Jaquelyn and I headed to the training in June, I would be going for a week and her for two weeks. We met all the staff and lots of other young people who attended. I also met Nathan. =) He was 12 too and also a JR missionary. That meant we took all the same classes together, but I really have no memory of that. All I remember of him is...

1. We had a recreation time at the end of every day and we would play sports, games, go to the cafe they had, etc. One night we were playing soccer and Nathan was playing. Nathan played soccer on a team and so he kind of took over telling people the rules (Now mind you, the following story is told from my little 12 year old self, I'm sure I blew it out of proportion - Read: I promise, Nathan is not a meanie =P). My cousin Jonathan (All his brothers attended CYIA at some point or another. We grew up together so we were/are pretty close) went to pick up the ball and I guess that was the wrong move. Nathan proceeded to tell him that and then put him in a choke hold! (I'm a girl, who was I to know boys do that sometimes??) Well, when I saw that my "motherly" instinct kicked in and I got sooooo angry at Nathan! Nathan refers to this year as the year I "hated" him - Poor guy...

My first year, 2005 Left to Right: Jessica (me), Andrea, Kayla (Two good friends from my church that I've grown up with)

2. I am a very emotional person. Like, VERY! Every night at training they also have a time called "Sing and Share" where, obviously, we would all gather to sing songs and then we would have a chance to share what God was doing in our lives. One of the nights I felt so led to share. I stood up, said, "My name is Jessica" and burst into tears! It was so bad I had to leave the room... But everyone knew my name (oh dear! =P). Afterward as I was leaving my dorm room I was walking past the boys floor (at that time boys and girls' rooms were in the same building but the girls were on the top floor and boys were on the second (it was a college dorm  building), so when the girls walked down the stairs to get to the bottom, they would pass the "balcony" part of the boys floor.) Nathan and a boy from my area were standing a little past the stairs. The one boy started to tease me about crying when he saw me, but Nathan stopped him - at the moment I think I put my "hate" away and saw him as a hero ;) Those are pretty much my only memories of Nathan that first year. 

2006 came along and Nathan moved up to the next level of missionaries (SR Missionaries, they learned the bible lessons and memory verses). He did a year early because his chapter was short of SR missionaries; but I stayed as a JR for my second year. Because of that we had almost all different classes so I pretty much lost touch with him. However he did become friends with Jaquelyn, so I remember him hanging out with her.

Training 2006, (my second year) Left to Right: Kayla (again), Abby (Another old friend from my church, although she moved not too long after this) and Jessica (me) 

Me and Andrea in between 5-Day clubs, 2006

Me with Andrea and people from my chapter between 5-Day Clubs, 2006

2007 was the year things really started happening, but all I will say for now is that a wheelchair started it all ;) To be continued...

P.S. I don't really have many pictures of these early years... but as we move along they should increase =)

{Fine Print - I have done my very best to remember events how they happened and when they happened but I cannot say I am 100% on the when. I guess what I am trying to say is that I don't want to be penalized if the time table is somehow a little different then how I recorded it here. All I know is that the main events definitely happened and I really am faithfully recording how I felt when they happened. You've been warned ;) )

Until next time...