We met while I was doing mission work in South Africa. I stayed at her family's home in October of 2017 and little did we know at the time what God had in store for us. It wasn't until 8 months after I left that we began communicating regularly thanks to a suggestion from my friend and pastor who I highly respected to reach out to her. After about a month of conversations via email and whatsapp our friendship grew, and I decided to reach out to her parents and let them know that I was interested to see if there was more than friendship between us. I told them that I wanted to tell them first before talking with Mari and ask for their blessing as I didn't want to go ahead without her father's approval. Well, I received his blessings and the next day I called Mari up on a video call for the first time, and told her that I was interested to see if there was more than friendship between us. She was surprised as to how direct I was and said she was interested as well. From this point forward our friendship deepened to the point where I traveled to South Africa and spent a month with her and her family in December of 2018. It was at this time that I learned of God's providential leading in both of our lives. At this point our relationship was deepening and Mari told me that God had revealed to her that I would be her husband before my friend suggested that I reach out to her! It was a this time that we knew God had arranged this and we were in awe! I have left out a lot of detail, which I'm happy to share with you individually if you're interested as it is an amazing story. I just submitted the K1 Fiancee visa application for Mari to immigrate to America, at which time we will get married and begin our lives together here as missionaries and in the fields of health and regenerative agriculture.
