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STEPS ON THE WAY
travel- & experience blog with focus
TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE - Pt.1
So... If you were to tell either of us two years ago, that our spouse would be from the other side of the globe, we would first meet in the desert of Israel, and that we then would get married after knowing each other for only six months..., if you would have told us that, we would have both called you crazy! But sometimes what the Lord does is exactly that: Crazy.
Both of us knew things about our future spouse before meeting each other, because we were inquiring from God on this important and live impacting topic.
What was always clear for me (Joy), was that my future husband would need to have a calling for Israel. Otherwise our visions would not match. In addition to that, God had given me a few hints as to who my husband would be. First, God told me: „You’ll meet him in the desert.“ I always thought that would mean a spiritual desert, or an emotional desert - a time of my life, where I would be very down and dried out. That wasn’t necessarily something I was looking forward too, but at least there would be this promise of my husband in the end. The second hint was: „It will be a Moses story.“ Figuring out the meaning of that one was a little more difficult, but I was very sure that it would have something to do with leading people into freedom. Finally, about three months before I actually met Chris, God told me two more things: „You will meet him soon.“, and: „Next year you will be married and the following year you will have your first child.“ Woah! Ok, that was very, very specific! If I was actually to be married by next year, I would definitely have to meet him soon, as in „soon!“ (and not as in „Jesus is coming back soon…“ ^^)! With a rising expectation in my heart, I told my mom about all these things. I wanted at least one person to hear about those prophecies before they would come to pass. It was for sure nothing that I was to tell everyone around me, but it would have also felt wierd if there was no witness at all to confirm it. As I was telling her those crazy things, it felt like I was taking a step of faith; a first step to show God that I believed what he had told me. Now the rest of my job was to keep holding on to it with all my heart.
For Chris, the journey looked similar, but also different. He had gotten specific characteristics and prophetic words about me over the years. By the age he was 28, they filled a whole page in his notebook. They said very specific things, like: „She will be full of Joy.“ (literally my name...lol) or „She will ask a lot of questions.“ (I had to laugh when he read that one to me ^^). Another crucial moment for him, was at the beach when he was 18. It was that season of life where he had all those big questions that a teenager has. As he was out in the night, talking to the Lord on his own, the Lord suddenly started speaking to him in a way he had never experienced before, and has very rarely experienced ever since. He was able to have a dialogue with God, with immediate responses – he was standing with him face to face.
In this moment Chris was asking the Lord all his life questions, one of them being the question about his wife. He knew he would need help for the calling he had just received, and he wanted to make sure that he would pick the right partner. The Lord told him, that he wouldn’t have to search for his wife, but that God himself would bring her to him. He also said: „You will meet her where you will call home.“ At that time, Chris` home was around Chicago, which he didn’t really like. But if the Lord said so... Chris believed that the Lord could bring good, even out of Nazareth. ;) Last but not least, the Lord gave him three bible verses that he was to share with whichever girl he was thinking of pursuing. The Lord told him that the woman who would understand the meaning and connection of those verses, would be the one he was to pursue in marriage.
So here we were. Two people from two sides of the globe, with hints about each other, but without any clue as to their deeper meaning. And then came the beginning of spring 2023. I had just gotten that „you’ll meet him soon“-word from the Lord and had finished the third semester of my studies. I was looking for ways to spend my next Israel trip, and remembered a situation from my exchange year: Friends had visited my host parents and were telling us about that super awesome prayer conference they had just been at. They told us the story of how these meetings started and showed us the recap video of this years event. While I was watching, something moved deeply in my heart. Then the video got to a scene were a group of people was holding a giant Israel flag and was dancing around it in circles. That got me! It looked almost
exaclty like a vision I had seen concerning my calling to Israel a few years earlier!! I took that as a hint from God to keep this conference in mind. Now, around two years later, while I was planning my journey, I checked out their annual conferences again and saw that their next one was exaclty during my holidays! It was all in Spanish and I didn’t speak a word, but when I contacted them they ensured me that they would find a translator for me. Great! Full of excitement to be in the desert for longer this time, I packed my bags and booked a flight. I also asked God for a bible verse that he would put over this journey and he gave me Psalm 37: „Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.“
On the other side of the globe, Chris was trying to find a good time window to bring his parents to Israel - this time for real! Last time they had tried to get there, Covid hit and all the airports closed down, leaving them stuck in Rome. When Chris was looking through his Instagram one day, there was this organization that popped up, which offered spanish speaking prayer conferences in Israels desert. Perfect!, he thought. His mom was from Mexico, his dad was from Uruguay, so being in Israel with other spanish speaking believers would be just what they would desire! And this is how Chris, his parents, and one of his brothers boarded a plane to the very same conference that I was heading towards: „Kol Kore“ – „Every voice“.
The first day there was really cool for both of us. Time to settle, time to get to know everyone, and time to enjoy the beautiful desert. I still needed a translator for the official gatherings, and since I happened to sit next to Chris’ mom during lunch time, she offered to do that for me. We chatted a bunch and liked each other, so we hang out around each other the whole rest of the conference. On the second day, early in the morning, we all went up to a mountain called „Masada“. We wanted to see the sunrise and have a time of worship up there. When Chris' mom and I got off the bus, she asked Chris – her oldest son, who had his camera with him – to take a picture of her and I. After that we introduced each other and started walking up the mountain. Chris' mom soon fell behind, talking with another lady, so that Chris and I ended up walking together. The first question he asked me, was: „I heard you don’t speak Spanish… What are you doing here then?“ This funny question led us into a deep talk about God, how he is speaking to us, how we are connected to Israel, and what we have as visions for our lifes. It was such a good talk! After our worship
time up on the mountain, we continued speaking on the way down. The last thing I remember talking about, was how Chris had it on his heart to build up a genuine community of believers in Israel, that would live and work together, support each others visions and character growth, and would not shy away from letting each other see their dirty sides. „Oh, cool!“, I said. „Once we’re both in Israel, we should connect our ministries and work together then!“ So funny how we had no clue… ^^
Chris later told me that he had left our conversation with a longing to ask the Lord about more specifics concerning his calling, since I was sharing my calling so specifically. He also thought I was really cool, and had sensed a special radiance around me that he enjoyed being in. For me it was crazy that someone had the exact same future plans as I had. I didn’t think that was possible! Chris impressed me with how honest and real he was in the way he talked. There was not the slightest hint of pride or hectic, what so ever. There was just peace, humility and wisdom encompassing his whole being.
The rest of the conference we didn’t really talk with each other anymore. I watched him from across the tent a lot, though ;) ... On the last day everyone said goodbye, took photos with each other and went on the busses that would bring us back to the main station. Before we got on, Chris told me, that he would go over Psalm 37 in the back of the bus, to share what he had learned while studying it. As he was inviting me to join, I felt like something really important was about to happen. I remembered that the Lord had given me Psalm 37 as verse for this Israel trip, so I was very excited to see where this would be going. The conversation we then had about this bible passage was beyond awesome! We were sharing what we had come to understand, pushed each others excitement with each verse, looked up Hebrew and Greek root words of other passages, and just jumped from one topic to another. The passion we both shared for this kind of bible study was super tangible, and I just fell in love with how serious this man took the Lord and his words. When we left the bus and grabbed our luggage, God said to Chris: „This is not the last time you’re gonna see her.“ He thought: „Ok, maybe that means our ministries will actually work together one day. Israel is a small country…“ We said goodbye, he asked if he can text me on the phone number I had given to his mom, and we parted ways.
About a week later, I received his first text. He wanted to share pictures he had taken during the conference and asked how I was doing. And so we started texting. Each evening we had long conversations about God, the world and each other. By that time I was already severely in love. I prayed a lot that God would protect me from making a dumb decision out of emotions and would enable me to hear his voice clearly. Everytime I prayed that, I felt like Jesus was softly smiling back at me ;) ... After a few days of texting every day, there was one day where I didn’t get an answer from Chris. It was a hard patience and trust test for me. I remember that I was at the house of a friend that day, helping her in the garden. While I was cutting greens, thinking about Chris, I was asking the Lord for a sign that would show me if I was on the right track with him. When I got up from kneeling down in the field, my necklace got stuck in the metal fence that I had been bending over. Trying to get it out carefully, the little heart that was hanging on it ripped off from the chain and I could not find it again. I didn’t notice the connection right away, but later I told a friend: „I lost my heart today.“ - and suddenly I saw the double meaning, and how God had used this expression of mine to confirm my desire to be with Chris ;)
A little while later Chris texted back and we continued texting in a daily rythm again. We found more and more similiarities to our lifes, and also started experiencing crazy „diocidencias“, as Chris likes to call them. Diocidencias are things that seem to happen by accident, but are actually led by God. One of them was Chris` first talk with his pastor when he came back, who told him the topic for the upcoming sunday would be „spirit filled joy“. Another one happened during a worship time at Chris` home group. He was having his eyes closed, asking the Lord about me, and then opened his eyes to a mug that someone had put in front of him, which said: „Live with Joy“. In the beginning those things were just funny to us, but after we had collected around 25 of such `accidents` in just one week, something started dawning on us...
But the craziest thing that finally happened, was one that only Chris was able to notice: One time when we were texting about different bible topics, we were sending each other bible verses. And without me knowing, I had sent Chris each one of the three bible verses, that God had told him to share with his future wife…!
All of this, as well as a bunch of longer questions we wanted to ask each other, lead to our first phone call. That was around two weeks after we started texting. Chris even got up at 5 am, so we could bridge the time difference well! The phone call went by suuuper fast, and we were able to talk about a bunch of stuff, including our lifes testimonies. When we started getting to the end of our call, Chris told me about the three bible verses I had shared. He told me what God had told him to do with these verses and shared them with me again, to be obediant to the word the Lord had given him. At the end of this, he said: „Joy, I want to pursue your heart.“, and I was totally perplex. From what I remember, I was smiling like crazy, nodded, said goodbye and ended the phone call with a racing heart inside of my chest. When I looked at the clock, I realized that we had been talking for more than 8 hours!!! I spent a whole other hour just starring at the wall, trying to process what had just happened… This was the day we became a couple :)
After a few more weeks of texting, lots of phone calls, going through an online marriage course togehter, running into even more diocidencias, and introducing Chris to my parents, we decided to visit each other. First, I was to visit Chris for one week in the USA and then he would come back to Germany with me for two weeks. One of my favorite moments in Chicago, was when Chris led me into the room I would be staying in. He held me by the hands and told me to keep my eyes closed. When he told me to open them, I was overwhelmed! He had decorated everything in the style of my room at home! He had put my favorite sweets on the counter, put screenshots from our phone calls on the wall, and had even printed out that huge desert photo that was hanging on my wall in Germany!! It was amazing!! :)
Also the time with my parents, when Chris came back to Germany with me, was really cool. It was a good time for everyone to get to know each other. And even though there was this slight akwardness of being from different cultures, and how fast Chris had entered my life, there was also mutual respect. Later I found out, that on one of those days Chris had even told my dad that he was planning to marry me, and had asked him for his blessing :)
After those very beautiful three weeks together, we had to part ways again. It was a bittersweet moment as
03/21/2025
we were saying goodbye in the airport. We knew it was back to long distance, but it was also the start of so many new and exciting things! It was also really helpful that we knew we would see each other again in only 40 days.
When I arrived back in my room after bringing Chris to the airport, I recieved a message from him. It said: „Here is a hint for your surprise!“ and showed a picture of my sofa…
"By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in
reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household."
Hebrews 11:7
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