God gave me a Girlfriend for Christmas!!!

The search for a Girlfriend began as soon as I started college in 2006. I wasn't however looking for a girlfriend just to have a girlfriend. I was looking for the girl God wanted me to marry, so I wasn't going to be casual about finding the right girl. Over the past five years I've show interest in several girls and always God shut the door. Until I met Sarah Ann Ekberg! 

Our story is long so sit back, get comfortable as I share how God has worked in our lives. This is not going to be the complete version as that would be the start of a novel! If you have any questions feel free to comment, but please keep the comments on the blog and not on facebook so that we can keep all the comments in one place.
   Sarah and I were in school together in the spring of 2007 at Bob Jones University. We took New Testament Messages together with Nathan Crockett, but I don't remember seeing her. (the class had over 400 students in each session) although she vaguely remembers seeing me. The next year I started attending her church, Mount Calvary Baptist Church, on Sunday evenings still not knowing who she was. Over Christmas break I met Sarah's sister, Christina and her then future husband , Mike, at a get together that one of my friends from school hosted. I didn't really get to know either one of them as the were oblivious to anyone else around them. After I dropped out of school in January of 2008 (money reasons) I started attending MCBC full time and having decided that this was where God wanted me I became a member. After becoming a member I quickly became an integral part of the A/V ministry in the sound room, as Audio and Video is where my passion for ministry lies. I saw Sarah many times as she was in the choir and I did the video for the closed circuit and online streaming, however, I was oblivious to who she was or that she was available.

In the summer of 2010 Mike and Christina got married, and I was did the audio for their wedding. As I was always early for wedding (to make sure all the equipment was working correctly) I approached the wedding coordinator about getting the DVD that would play after the ceremony. I was directed to ask Sarah for it. I had learned who Sarah was the night before at the rehearsal as they always introduce everybody at the rehearsal. I found Sarah and asked her for the DVD which she quickly got for me. From this I figured she must be the technology person in her family but that was all I surmised from that meeting.

Our next meeting was in January of 2011. She approached me about getting some audio amplification for a banquet for LIW (ladies in waiting) that she was hosting at BJU. I at this time was interested in another girl an didn't really consider her an option a that time. Less than a month later God closed the door on the relationship I was pursuing with this other girl and I was once again left looking. One of the issues I have run into with getting to know girls at MCBC is the simple fact that many of them don't know I exist, or at least they aren't interested in any sort of a more than very casual across the room type of friendship with me. Sarah had however come and talked to me and so I knew that she knew I existed and was willing to at least have a real conversation with me. I decided to look her up on facebook, and having discovered that she didn't have FB I looked her up in the church directory. There I discovered there was a website for her LIW ministry. After browsing there for a couple of minutes I discovered she had a personal blog and at the moment was asking for comments on a potential photography business name. So I commented, She commented back and curiously asked how I found her blog and I lied and told her I was curious and bored. Not wanting to rush into anything to quickly I just tried to make casual conversation at a couple of different church College and Career activities which went well from my perspective, however I learned later that Sarah doesn't remember them so in reality nothing was accomplished.

There had been an announcement in Sunday School about the SR (sound room) needing more help and I discovered that Sarah had volunteered but had not yet been approved. So I approached her one Sunday evening and told her that if she wanted to work in the SR she should go talk to Pastor Vincent to speed things up.. A couple weeks later she showed up in the SR and talked to Mr. Rodgers. I was thrilled! It is much easier to get to know someone when you have to work together and this would be a perfect opportunity to get to know Sarah! To my dismay she didn't come up to the SR for a couple of months. Oh Well, I was just going to have to get to know her outside of the SR.

At the end of May we started a summer SS session which I recorded the audio and video of. I noticed that Sarah and her sister Esther always came in late and that Sarah used a metal chair instead of the plastic ones that everyone else was using. I started getting the chair out for her and set it against the back wall so she could easily get it. and although it took several weeks for realize it was me getting it for her she did finally catch on. It was also around this time that I began seriously praying about whether I should ask her out or not.

One Sunday Morning at the end of July Sarah showed back up in the SR! Again I was thrilled and she was there to train too! She was going to focus on Audio so even though I was doing video I showed her the audio board and which pots were which. We hit it off very well! It was during this time that I decided to ask her out to vespers on the last Sunday of August. On that Sunday I looked for her all day long and although I saw her family that night I didn't see Sarah! I had stressed over this all day long and wasn't going to put it off so I called her. She was speechless when I asked her out. I caught her totally off guard!. Once she regained her composure she told me she would have to think about it. I was ok with this since it isn't uncommon in our circle for couples to have to get permission from the parents to go on a date. I waited that evening for a call back, but none came. It was a full 24 hours before she called me back. She told me that God had put it on her heart to pray about another guy and that at the moment she would have to turn me down. I took this in stride. I knew God's plan was perfect and he hadn't shut the door this time. The door was still open and over the next several weeks our friendship began to grow.

At the end of September I ended up in the hospital with Ulcerative Colitis, caused by me stressing my self out over asking Sarah out. Sarah and I were txting fairly frequently and so she was one of the first people I told. Sarah's encouragement really helped me and she began to open up and tell me about this guy that God had put on her heart to pray about. The week after I got out of the hospital Sarah went on a short vacation and a couple days after she returned she informed me that God had let her stop praying about this other guy. After a couple of stressful days and a couple dozen txt messages later I told her that it would be a good idea to wait and make sure her family was ok with us before we started pursing an official relationship. The next Friday was the wedding of some close friends of ours, Sarah and David Rogers. Sarah was the second photographer and I was the videographer. Through God's providence we were able to spend a good bit of quality time together that day getting to know each other. Sarah even caught the brides bouquet which I told her to make sure she hangs on to!  The next Sunday Sarah's dad asked that we limit our communication until he got to know me better. This lasted for about three weeks during which I got to know her dad better and more importantly He got to know me. After that things just started to steamroll!

Thanksgiving was hard for us as we were apart. We txted back and forth all day. Sarah came up with the idea of asking her parents if I could come over for Christmas. At that point I decided that we were at the point where we needed to make things official. I asked Sarah's dad for permission to court her. Her gave his permission and we arranged for me to come over to their house for Christmas although we let Sarah think it was her idea. I dropped several hints along the way so that she wouldn't be completely shocked.

I showed up at her house just before 8:30 Christmas morning with a dozen roses and asked Sarah to be my girlfriend. Of course she said YES! We had a great Christmas together. We spent the day with her family and had a great time cooking, (which her dad was a little surprised to see me doing) working in the sound room at church, and just spending time together!
    Some of you already know Sarah, but some of you don't so I'll tell you a little about her. Sarah was born and grew up in Greenville, SC. Her family has attended Mount Calvary Baptist Church for nearly 20 years. They also spent 4 years on the mission field in Carriacou Grenada helping her uncle and grandmother run a Christian radio station down there. She is the oldest of four girls with no brothers. She works as a nanny and also has a side photography business called “Capturing Treasures Photography”. She is the editress for an magazine called “Ladies in Waiting” which is designed for single ladies and girls who desire to live Godly lives as the wait for the man God has for them. Sarah has been a shining example of this! Sarah was in a minor car accident in 2005, however that accident messed up her back and she has had to deal with various physical problems ever since. God in his providence has used these problems to mold Sarah into the Godly young lady that she is today.

Sarah and I have chosen as our theme verse Psalm 25:21 “Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you” God has given us many wonderful friends who have supported us and many many Godly examples of how a couple should walk closely to our God. We would covet your prayers as we enter this new phase of our life!

   To read Sarah's version of our story visit her blog, Shining in My Little Corner.