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STEPS ON THE WAY
travel- & experience blog with focus
TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE - Pt.2
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… So I looked under my sofa pillows, and there I found the golden ring from his grandma that he was always wearing!! The note it was attached to, told me to keep it until it would be replaced by „a different one“. That was sooo beautiful! So for these 40 days of waiting, I wore this ring like a jewel on my necklace. It was the same necklace that didn’t have it’s heart anymore, but was now carrying the promise of a promise. ;)
The next time we saw each other again, was in Israel. I had a trip planned with my aunt and her family since the beginning of the year already, so Chris kind of just jumped on. Spending time with each other again in the same country where we had first met, felt really special! It was the same region and just four months later, but truly a lot had happened since then... :)
Another special thing was my birthday that fell on one of the days in this journey. Chris and I had planned to get up before everyone else to see the sunset on a canyon, and then come back for breakfast. When we got to the look out place, Chris set up his camera to take some birthday pictures. He told me to pick a good spot, while he would fix the settings. So I searched for a nice spot, Chris came to me, and we took some nice pictures with the rising sun. Suddenly he took my hand, took a step back and said: „I have something for you.“ He reached into his pocket and went down on one knee… I was so surprised!! ^^ My thoughts had been so focused on my birthday, that I didn`t have even the slightest suspicion ^^! Chris proposed with seven rings. For him, they were a symbol for the seven seals from the scroll in the book of revelation. He wanted our marriage to be as earnestly sealed and bound together as the scroll that can only be opened by the lamb that is worthy. The main ring, the one he gave to me first, was one that he had designed and also named himself. It was called: „The Joy“ :) He said he wasn`t able to find a ring that would match my
personality, so he had to make one himself ;) He had also named one of the other rings, and that was even more crazy to me, because it was the name that God had told me to give to our first daughter. So crazy!! I hadn`t even told Chris the name yet!!...
When we came back to everyone for breakfast, the joy was huge and we celebrated together! :) Our Israel trip continued to be crazy, since we kind of ran into everything evolving around Ocotber 7th. But in the end we all managed to get back home safely. Chris and I stayed together after that. We took a short trip to the US, and then Chris decided to come to Germany with me for three months, hoping to get a visa for another three. We wanted to use that time to plan the wedding together and figure out the paper work for an international marriage. Eventually we wanted to get married in Germany after these six months and then maybe move to the US together. The Lord confirmed Chris` plan of coming to Germany with me in a very funny way: He gave him that bibleverse from Ecclesiastes 9, where it says: „Go, eat your bread with Joy, for the Lord has already approved what you are doing.“ - and where can you find more bread than in Germany?! ^^…
So we spent some months together in the city of my studies, with enough time for Chris to get to know all my friends and the german culture. He even got a room in the same student dorm that I lived in! The dorm had actually been fully booked out, until one of my flatmates suddenly got a job in a different city. He had to leave quickly, and was urgently searching for someone to take over his room. Well, what a coincidence ;)... During those first three months, Chris and I were also spending quite a lot of time at the immigration office, trying to figure out the visa laws and submitting a lot of papers. Shortly after New Years though, we received a message from the visa-department, which said that they couldn’t prolong Chris` stay and that he would have to leave the country within two weeks.
That was such a tough situation! We prayed a lot about what to do and had talks with many people, including my parents. For me, this situation felt like an „all or nothing“ decision… The first option was for me to stay and continue my studies, waiting three months for Chris to come back, get married in Germany, and
then somehow still finish my studies before we left to the US. The second option was, for me to quit my studies, go with Chris, check out the marriage and visa rules over there, and already get to know the country we were thinking of living in. There was also a third option, proposed by my parents. In that one Chris would leave alone, and I would follow him around two weeks later, when my semester holidays would have started. This way I could go with Chris and still continue my studies. But that wasn’t an option for me. Looking back, I can`t even say why.
What helped us make a decision in the end, was prophetic words from friends and mentors, none of them knowing about our situation. This way we wanted to make sure that their words would not be their own, but actually from God. We collected many words, among them pictures of packed suitcases, crossed borders, dried out provision that would make us journey on, and even words on having to leave with a promise of return. All of this ecouraged us greatly, and lined up with the words that we had received from the Lord ourselves:
The word Chris had gotten from the Lord, when he was asking him about my studies, was speaking about Abraham and Isaac. Specifically the story where God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and then stops him last minute. Chris had believed that I should continue my studies, since God told me to start them, it is a very big value in Germany, and I was closer to the end of it than to its beginning. But through the story of Isaac, God confirmed to him that he was giving me permission to stop studying. He showed him Isaac as my desire NOT to study. Abrahams son was symbolizing my desire not to leave Israel after my exchange year, not to study, not to write exams, not to be in Germany for so many years, and now also the desire not to seperate from Chris for three months. God told him, that I had faithfully started this journey of sacrificing my Isaac, but that he didn`t require me to finish the job. He allowed me to stop before the completion of the sacrifice, and go home with my Isaac alive! :)
The word that I had gotten, came as an answer to me thinking about the idea of my parents. What God told me came from the story of Rebecca and Isaac. It was the part where Abrahams servant went out to find Isaac a wife, and then meets Rebecca in a godly encounter.
When the servant goes to meet the parents, they are happy about the marriage proposal, but ask the servant to let their daughter stay with them for „just 10 more days“ - which was exactly the time I would need to stay for my exams!! But the servant told them with urgency not to delay his journey, because he knew it to be blessed in that very moment. That correlation was so crazy for me…! In the end of that bible story, the parents ask Rebecca how she would decide, and she answers: „I will go with this man.“, meaning: In this very moment, and without any delay. When I read that, it was as if God was setting me free from what my parents suggested, and allowed me to make my own decision based on what I had come to understand as right.
So we gave our furniture to my sister, my quail to one of my godchildren, I said goodbye to my professors, we cancelled our rental contracts, had a goodbye party with everyone, and went to America together. The new plan was to stay there for three months, come back for our wedding feast, and then leave to the US again. As we arrived in the US, we immediately went to the immigration office to check our options for the legal marriage over here. And this is when we realized, that even the second part of Isaacs and Rebeccas story would become true to us: As soon as Rebecca arrived in the country of her future husband, they got married. And so did we!! They told us we would just need to register today and then come back for the legal ceremony tomorrow…! So we registered in the morning, went to buy some nice clothes in the afternoon, and the next day we came back with Chris` family in the car and my parents on a video chat :)
It was very, very beautiful, but also very, very spontaneous - even for us ;) But as we were letting everything settle, we noticed the timing of our wedding and realized that the Lord had just fullfilled three more words that he had previously given us for our wedding day!! „It will start on one day, and will be done the next.“ (That was one of the words we got during our time in Germany) - „Chris, you will get married before you turn 29.“ (Our legal marriage was litterally four days before his 29th birthday!!) - and: „Joy, you will get married next year.“ (Which he told me somewhere in 2023, and now we had January 2024) - So crazy!!!
All of this gave us comfort that everythign was going after Gods plan. Now I was able to spend three
03/21/2025
months in Chris` culture, and get to know all his friends, just as he had just done with my culture and friends back in Germany! We enjoyed being married without any party-hectics, and continued planning the wedding feast. In May we went back to Germany to celebrate our union with all of our friends and family. It was a truly amazing feast, with all our dreams fullfilled!! :)
So, this is it. This is the story of how Chris and I met and started a family :)
For Chris and I, it will forever be a reminder of how God is able to part the seas. So often we thought there is no way, and suddenly God opened one. It taught us a new level of trust, and new commitment in asking for his ways, and it taught us again how very, very faithful he is.
Sometimes waiting for promises can wear you out, even until the point where you don`t know anymore if they will ever truly come to pass… But we are putting ourselves before you today, as a living proof that God is keeping every single one of his words! So my appeal to you is this: No matter how crazy it may sound at first: Hold on to every promise the Lord has ever given you, because in the end he will fullfill it! (See Hebrews 10:35-36 and Joshua 21:45)
Even for us, the story of trusting for promises isn`t over. Because of everything that happened, we had a feeling that all of Gods promises to us will come to pass at once. But after we had spent the first 10 months of our marriage traveling around, trying to find a way to get to Israel for longer, we heard from the Lord to settle down in Germany first. So here we are now, living together, becoming a stronger team with every passing day, training and praciticing faithfulness, and waiting for the Lord to tell us when to go. It was true that I, Joy, would meet my husband in the desert, and now we have to choose to believe that Chris truly met his wife, where we will one day call home! :)
With that being said:
Shalom, Salam, and keep up the faith! - Joy
KolKore: www.kolkoreisrael.org, @kolkoreisrael
"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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