Sunday, March 20, 2022

Pastor: A love story

When we first moved here to our current home, we found a church to attend in a nearby town. Solely by coincidence, the church had hired a new pastor literally the week before we showed up. In other words, we just missed his installation by one week. He came to our church all the way from Florida.

He's a fine pastor: godly, knowledgeable, compassionate. He has a ringing bell-like voice, an easy smile and laugh, and a gentle, kindly demeanor. But he has something of a handicap as a pastor, where he must often counsel married people: for a variety of reasons, he's still single at the age of 42.

Last autumn, this pastor got together with some other pastors for a regional conference. While meeting an elder from another church, our pastor introduced himself and included the initial "S" for his middle name. "The 'S' is for 'single,'" he joked to the elder.

And then the other man uttered four words that would forever change our pastor's life. "I have a daughter...."

Yes, this other man had a single 38-year-old daughter living and working in southern Idaho. Would our pastor be interested in meeting her?

And so commenced something of a long-distance romance – so long a distance, in fact, that hardly anyone in the church has met the lady. It didn't matter. As Don put it, every woman in the congregation was rooting for them. Once in a while the pastor would shyly admit things were "going in the right direction," but he didn't elaborate much beyond that.

Until today.

After the service today, the pastor – as usual – gave announcements to the congregation. After finishing up with church business, he paused on a solemn note and gave sorrowful news: He and the lady had decided to stop dating.

There was an audible gasp of dismay from everyone in the sanctuary.

Then, with a twinkle in his eye, he added: "Because we became engaged." The church erupted into cheers and applause.

I can't even begin to tell you how happy this made the congregation. Here are two lonely souls who found each other relatively late in life. From the sounds of it, neither can quite believe his or her good fortune.

The wedding is tentatively set for September. There's even talk about them trying to start a family.

We wish our pastor and his new fiancée every happiness.

13 comments:

  1. That's awesome! As a single vet of 9 1/2 yrs from the service arriving home. I found all of my friends where raising families and suddenly how lonely I was. Sad and alone one day I prayed and told God that I have placed it in his hands and asked that he would knock me on the head three times to let me know when the right one was before me. First my sister tried to introduce us, knock one. Then my mother try to introduce us, knock two. The final knock was my father and he made sure we met, knock three. I guess you could say it was a shotgun wedding with my own family holding the shotgun. That was 27 years ago and I'm still madly in love with my best friend, the best Christian woman I have ever known. God Answers Prayers!

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  2. I love this. Thank you for sharing it.

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  3. You could use this story as the basis of your next novel.

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  4. Aw, I love this!
    God, indeed, is good.
    My verse for the week is Psalm 145:9, "The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all He has made."

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  5. What a wonderful thing to happen! God is, indeed, good!

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  6. The Master always looks out for His servants.

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  7. I’m so happy for your pastor and church! I love seeing people find the love of their lives.

    Can I gently admonish you? After seeing my sister and cousin go through infertility, I no longer use the phrase “starting a family.” When they get married, they were already a family…a family of two. Children simply make a family grow larger.

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  8. I've been divorced for 12 years and stopped dating 5 years ago. If there's another woman out there for me, I don't see her anywhere. Still, it's nice to hear when people find each other.

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  9. I had my first baby at 38 and another at 41. Not too late!

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  10. What a wonderful story!! My daughter just got married last September at age 40. (husband is 42) and she is expecting a baby in June - at age 41!!! Thinking she probably wouldn't ever have children - or go through a lot to get them....well, let's just say, we are thrilled. And the pastor and his wife-to-be are NOT TOO OLD! In the "old days" having children late in the reproductive years was actually quite common......

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  11. Thank you for sharing this! I love the way your Pastor shared his good news!

    Ajones. Florida

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