In 1978, this sentence came out of a man with the voice of a lion, he always spoke with a roar, but in the Brookshire’s on 35^th Ave and Peoria, after a mid week service at Sweetwater Church of the Valley. The speaker, Benson Idahosa from Nigeria got the attention of everyone in the place when he asked me that.

He had just come from a service and was sitting next to a laughing Pastor Glenn Foster when he said it. He led with the comment, “Pastor tells me you are looking for a wife." (paused as he looked me in the eye as if I was his next meal.) Then with his “preacher voice” He spoke: “She is not here yet, WILL you wait?” He did tell me that by not here, he meant not in the state of Arizona. He offered no hint as to a timeline.

The Answer was easy. Yes, I would wait. Pastor Foster and I had become good friends. I met him in 1975, my senior year in high school. My first visit to the church with the twisted palm trees and dome buildings (now Pure Heart) was an amazing experience. Inside, above the doors to the auditorium were the plaques that read “Temple of Praise.”

I became the photographer for Pastor, shot at the services, took the family portraits of he, his wife Darlene and son David, which they gave to members for Christmas.  Took any pictures they needed for the Miracle Living Magazine and books. I was at Sweetwater three to five days a week.

During that time I got to meet some of the greatest men and women in the world, all gospel giants. Richard Wurmbrand, Mr. Pentecost-David Du Plessis, Corrie ten Boom, the list is too long to mention all of them here.  Then there were the bands and singers from Doug Oldham to Andrus, Blackwood & Company and more.

I had traveled with him on church crusades. It was on a trip to South Albany, Oregon when I learned how to use a “radar detector”, how to switch drivers without pulling over. It was also where I saw the power of the Holy Spirit go before Pastor even as we drove through the streets and passed some working women, they would start yelling vulgarities at the van as we approached and drove by. The Van had no markings on it.

Just the Word living in it. At the First Assembly church I watched as people were healed, delivered, restored and had new hearts and lives created in a building where the pastor did not believe in healing.

During the time he counseled with me I told him that I wanted to know who my wife was before I saw or met her. By the time we met in 1979, 7 people had told me they met my wife. One, Arturo actually told me he had met his wife and he began to describe her to me. When he talked about her smile, I told him, no, she is the woman I will marry.

The Lord did give me a strange word, he said not to tell her she would be my wife, just become her friend. Dana is the pastor in our family; she arrived after studying and graduating from Christ for the Nations. I found out later that she had already decided to reject any man that told her “God said she would be their wife.” Who knew….  

We became best friends. Working together in youth groups and children groups. We were married in 1980, on October 24^th in a dress she and my sister custom made from pictures she had let me pick for dress designs. At the time, I was working full time in photography, shooting weddings, sports, portraits so she acted like she wanted advice on how wedding gowns looked from my perspective. Yep, I actually thought it was business related, it’s a guy thing.

All this time, I thought I knew what I was doing, what I wanted. Six years ago God reminded me, that he had given me the desires of my heart. In answer to a prayer I prayed when I was six or seven. A child, being cared for by the Creator of Heaven and Earth. So loved that he selected my wife for me, protected her heart and brought us together, from different places. Encouraged by a man visiting from Nigeria.

Dana, you and I both agree, we are not each other’s source of joy or happiness. But I have to say, if you are a sample of the Magnificent Love our Lord and Savior has for us, I can’t imagine what that joy will be like. Our daughter was a miracle, you were not able to give birth. Now she is married to the man God set aside for her and we have an amazing granddaughter.  Two years ago the doctors said you had little hope to live.

We did what we have always done since we became friends. We took it to the altar, God provided the rest. His grace is enough. I thank God for his Mercy in not giving me what I deserve. He gave me, us his best. It was always your smile, in it I saw true love….

It seems like I said a lot to get to Happy Anniversary. But Babe, without all the men and women of God that prayed for us, with us. There would be no us. I could have gone out and found a wife. Nothing wrong with that. Only God could have given me your heart to share.

We had three pastors preside at our wedding, a threefold cord. I still remember when Pastor Jack Durant and we met at a bible study in 1997. He was shocked, he said he married a lot of people and we were the only ones that “stuck.”  Pastor Foster is with the Lord. The third. Larry Brown is serving God in some of the most dangerous places in Mexico and South America.

I Love you, treasure you and want to be with you to help Baby K raise her kids.