I´m NOT Dating Anymore!

I am joining the Completing Him Challenge and posting for last week´s theme, telling how I met my husband and a little about our courtship. Also, seens how it´s Monday, I will link up with Making Your Home Sing Meme, because without my hubby this home would not be. He is wonderful. Even when I am aweful to him, he forgives and keeps on forgiving.

I title this chapter "I´m NOT Dating Anymore!"

"Well, I guess I will go to the Revival service alone tonight." I thought, as I was getting ready for the start of my second semester as a sophmore at Pensacola Christian College.

My best friend was singing in the choir that night, and I just hadn´t gotten with anyone else for the evening´s opener. That was fine with me. I would just sit down front in the "spit pit" as we called it and soak in the message.


I was really pretty excited about this semester of college. I thought I had it all figured out. The rules, classes, guys. You know, the typical sophmore know-it-all. I felt pretty confident about myself. (in the Lord of course)


Going to church by myself was not a big issue. I just sat myself down, started to look around, found my best friend in the choir, and relaxed for a great start to Bible Conference. Little did I know, it would be the start of even more, the start of my life with a great man of God.


He turned and asked me how I was going to like our missions class, or something like that. I looked at him and thought, "Do I know this guy?"  He was saying that we were in the same class and that his name was Joseph Contreras. Oh, I must have sat in front of him or something. We kept talking about everything from classes to missions to Classical guitar to Spain. To think back on it now, it is so amazing that in our first conversation together we talked about Spain, which would end up being our future field of service!


He was an incredible classical guitarist. He practiced in the Communicative Arts building 3 hours a day. Would you believe that that semester the Lord put me in the same building for my work assignment cleaning the radio station? I had to walk by Joseph´s practice room every day. Or at least, I made a point to walk by it, slowing down just so I could listen. He had such talent!


I started to wait for him after my cleaning job so that we could eat supper together. We would talk and talk. I remember he had such a heart for missions. He had recently been called to serve as a missionary wherever God would lead and was praying for the country of Spain. I started praying for him too. We became friends and prayer partners.

There were other dates with other guys, but everytime I would ask them if they ever thought about being a missionary they stalled, they changed the subject, or they flat out said no.

"How can pastoral majors not have a missions burden?" I would ask myself.

So, I stopped dating. Dates at PCC really only consisted of going to church together or dinner, but I had had it.  I didn´t want to date anyone who didn´t share my burden for missions wherever that would take me.

"Dear God, I´m not dating anymore!" I remember praying about a month into that same semester.  "I will go singly to the mission field."  I had known from the age of 10 that I was called to be a missionary.

That´s when Joseph stepped up. He started writing me, and he sent me this sweet letter and this single rose. Of course, He knew nothing of my prayer then. It was all God.

We spent a lot of time together that semester. Praying and talking. Before I knew it, God was showing me, that Joseph was the one. God gave me a verse and I knew that I would go wherever God sent this man. I would serve by his side. We hadn´t even said "I love you" yet, but I knew.

The verse was 1 Corinthians 11: 9

Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man."

Here we are on a Fine Arts date. The year was 1995.  We were in love, but our love would be tested that following summer. Stay tune for the continuation.

We use to write to each other every day. Sending letters and notes through the college night- mail between dorms. I will try to write him more during this challenge and renew that part of our love life.

How did you meet your husband? What can you do to complete him more? Come and join in on this challenge. We can all work harder on our marriage. It always takes two!