Around Thanksgiving 2000 – I was saved in a correctional facility when God crashed into my life and He proved to be the opposite of all I believed Him to be. The Chaplain challenged me with Ps 37 v 4 – Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
I wrote a list of my desires. 6 of 7 were granted within 1 year. One remained elusive for 20 years as I resigned myself to remaining single. Psalm 56:8 says: “You have recorded my troubles. You put my tears into Your bottle. Are they not in Your records?”
God remembered what I had already given up on. So this year I have a whole new reason to embrace life and this website project in Gratitude to the Father of us all.
In 2019 – I placed my profile on an International Dating Site since I work online and chatting with people from all over the globe was interesting. What surprised me was a woman’s profile on a secular site in Asia – A photo – No biography – No likes or dislikes – No list of what she was seeking – Just these few words.
“She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household. She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. Strength and dignity are her clothing, Grace and Truth are on her lips. She is a strong person, and people respect her. She looks to the future with confidence. Grace and beauty can fool you, but a woman who respects the Lord should be praised….”
I commented that only the “truly humble” would take Proverbs 31 as a biography…and she replied that “The Lord had made her that way” and that very few men even recognized the text. And so the conversation started…
So I booked a flight to Manila to find her….despite all the warnings of well-meaning friends.
Thanksgiving 2019 I met Jenith face to face and stayed a week. She is gorgeous and I had to assure my grown daughters that she was really old enough to be their mother. She had worked as a computer analyst and she beat me at chess….which I still do not understand.
Getting back I had to figure out how to work overseas. A VPN and a whitelisted static IP solved most technology and security issues. January I went back for a month and we visited friends and family all over the Philippines. I concluded the trip by giving her an engagement ring.
Covid in 2020 brought lockdowns and travel bans canceled flights, our May wedding, our honeymoon, with few refunds. An American passport was not welcome anywhere. So with Manila in lockdown, we had many hours to visit via video chat and talk and talk.
Jenith found a Myles Munroe Daily Devotional with a daily bible reading plan. So we read and prayed together. Our Father figured reading the whole bible through and praying together for 1 year would be good preparation for any marriage.
I investigated 11 countries that would be open to a South-African-American and a Filipino and would marry tourists. It seems South Africa where I was born, is the only country that has finally opened to both of us. January put us in Cape Town with plans to get married there.
February 2021 found us in Cape Town just in time for a new round of Level 3 Lock Downs due to the new South African variant Covid strain which shut down Home Affairs services and our needed interview and wedding license. Mid-March the Level 1 change allowed us access to a wedding license.
On March 24th, 2021 we were finally married in a Civil Service by a Marriage Officer in Home Affairs Office in Cape Town, South Africa. With only days to spare we got the application in for her Tourist Visa to be modified to a Residence Visa which allows her to stay. Manila had started a new round of lockdowns and her return flight had been canceled.
Prov 18 v 22 A man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD. A man’s greatest treasure is his wife — she is a gift from the LORD.
We have agreed that this little website will be our joint ministry. It is with a new joy we hope to serve the people of God, sharing some of the amazing things He has done.
As a former stockbroker, I understand a bit about the economy. By every measure – we are facing a severe global downturn. Pricing bubbles in Equities and Housing Prices inevitably deflate.
More than ever the Children of God are going to learn to “walk by faith.” Prayer is the language of the poor – yet God saves our prayers – not our tithes.
Covid-19 has exposed the three false measures of our ministry “success.” Great empty Houses of Worship – Big budgets – Huge crowds. Three measures of our modern Christian progress, NO-where mentioned in the epistles, as Paul planted churches.
God is using a pandemic to call us to pray. He values our prayers – a sweet aroma to Him. Rev 5 v 8 The twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
This website contains over 70 Free books on prayer. Please help yourself …You will be needing them.