My Story - Part 22

For the first time in my life I felt totally complete apart from a man in my life. Jesus had filled the empty places.

I still desired to be married at some point. I knew it would take a strong man to love me. I was not settling this time for anyone who was not as in love with Christ as I was. I wanted a man who was passionate about him. Be careful what you wish for :)

At this point I was 22. It was February of 1998. Christie and I decided that we were going to have a date with Jesus for Valentine's day. We got ready and headed to a local christian coffee shop called the Outer Cafe with our bibles and journals to do a bible study together. This particular night the Outer Cafe had a band. When we saw a group of young adults up front worshipping as the music was playing and we were so encouraged. (Up until this point we had not had others our age to fellowship with except each other).

The band playing was the band from a little church that met in an old bicycle factory called Life Church :) The singer was a guy named Brian Bruss. It was a small church with a few hundred people attending...(a lot has changed since then.)

Christie and I were so excited that when the concert was over we quickly approached the worshippers. The young people worshipping were in the singles' group at Life Church. Brian and one of the worshippers, Jerome, were best friends and led the singles' group together at the church. We found out that they were a group of people passionately in love with God that did life together. We knew right away they were not exclusive and loved new people joining their group. They told us of the weekly bible studies and events that they all attended together and invited us to join them. They had a "late night" party planned that night and invited us to come over.

Christie and I went that night to one of the girl's houses and we were amazed. Amazed at the acceptance...amazed at their love for God and each other...amazed that God had on purpose given us a community of authentic believers to fellowship with. It was a turning point for both of us. We both met our husbands that night and we were both married to them in less than a year.

That night I met the love of my life...Jerome Crawford. He was in one of the rooms telling his testimony to some people. He had been a christian for 6 years at this point. He had been saved at 21 after growing up in poverty and becoming a drug dealer. I noticed he was missing a finger and found out it was shot off in a drug deal aver 10 ounces of cocaine. I couldn't believe how freakishly similar our pasts were and how on fire for God he was. I was instantly drawn to him. I knew I wanted to marry a man like him....a man with a deep gratefulness for what God had done in his life...the kind of gratefulness that produced a love and passion for God that was demonstrated thru one's love for people.

Another observation that I made that night was that a lot of the people had screwed up pasts and now had a love for God that was the driving force behind their lives. The ones that had church backgrounds were equally as passionate and accepting. It was a beautiful picture of the body of Christ and it was what I had been searching for without even realizing it. These people were real about where they were at...real about their struggles...and their love for God was the banner they carried in humility. They were stinkin' hilarious too!!! I never laughed so much as I did in the months to come with this group. They brought such joy to my life.

Life long, intimate friendships that are still strong today were birthed out of this group. There is something precious and intimate about sharing your trials and joys in Christ together.

Not to jump ahead but I ended up marrying Jerome 6 months from the day we met...and now 10 years and 3 babies later we are more madly in love than ever!!!