I'd like you to meet my beautiful fiance, Miss Aubrie Jade Bernard. For those of you who do not know yet, we will be getting married on April 18, 2009 in Ashland, Ohio. Praise Jesus!
...And, it really is Jesus that deserves the praise here. He has done many great things in order to bring us together, not all of which make sense, but all of which are a tribute of His majesty.
Aubrie is the finest Christian young lady I've ever met. She comes from a not-so-ideal childhood, but God has kept her and protected her in a very special way. Since she never really knew her
biological father, God has really been a true father to her over the years. She was saved as a child and was faithful in church all through her youth.
In August of 2007 she went with her home church, Calvary Baptist Church (Ashland, OH) on a missions trip to Arequipa, Peru. There, they joined a team of 100 people in order to do a medical clinic in the city. They were able to treat thousands of patients, each of which had a personal session with a counselor from the Peru Bible College before receiving treatment. In all, they saw just under 1,400 people trust Christ! Amen!
I lived in Arequipa and even worked with that same ministry during 2004 as part of my missions training in Bible College. Since I knew a lot of people there, and even some that were on the trip, I heard a lot about what God did during that time. I also heard about Aubrie. We got into contact shortly thereafter, God knit our hearts together, and here we are. Engaged. Crazy, is it not?
For about a year we maintained a long distance friendship/relationship, making lots of trips back and forth to Ohio, Georgia, and other states for conferences and such that we both attended. I became quite familiar with both Interstate 75/71 and the Atlanta International Airport during this time. I also racked up a lot of minutes on the cell phone (thank God for Verizon's free in-network calls haha), and became quite familiar with Skype and the US postal service. It was in June that God confirmed in my heart that she was the one. There was no doubt in my mind.
In October of last year God made it possible for Aubrie to move down to GA. She lived with a widow from LBC at first, and later moved into an apartment with two other singles from the church. I was able to see even more clearly that this girl was truly the sweetest, smartest, most caring, most God-fearing, most precious and not to mention most beautiful girl I've ever met. She has been a help to me in the Spanish Ministry at Lighthouse, an encouragement to me in my leadership, a compliment to who I am and she has become my best friend. She makes me a better person. She has changed my life and I love her with all of mine, only second to Christ himself.
I proposed on Thanksgiving Day. Without a doubt, there is nothing and nobody I am more thankful for, apart from my salvation, than Aubrie Jade Bernard. God has brought many influencial people into my life over the years, and I thank God for them, but my biggest blessing has been Aubrie.
Please be praying that God's will would continually be done in us and through us--that we would follow Christ through each step of life, both here in the US as we serve at Lighthouse Baptist Church and down the road when we are in South America. The wedding is coming up soon, and as no doubt you can guess, I am very excited. Not to reach the "Goal" of being married, but to reach the proverbial "Starting block" of this new phase of my life.
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