As I sit here, in my new house, unemployed, I realize that I still have not told you the story. The one where God was clearly at work. The one where I met my husband.
I've got time. Want to hear a God-story?
Looking back, it all started way back in August of 2018, although I didn't know it then. Out of the blue, I got an email. The man said he was from YWAM in Hawaii, and he asked if I would consider joining their team there. I was floored. This was not on my radar at all. I was comfortable where I was -working at the greenhouse, and volunteering at the church- and returning to YWAM, at a completely different base where I knew exactly zero people, had never entered my mind. So this email really threw me for a loop. I agonized over the decision -I had never felt called back to YWAM, nor to Hawaii. I had felt called to the greenhouse and Georgetown. But was THIS God calling me there? I would feel peace when I thought about staying put, but then I'd get anxious that it wasn't God's peace, but rather a feeling of comfortability where I was. After constantly wavering back and forth for about a week, I ran into a friend's mother after church, and it all came out. She didn't give me any answers, but I felt a lot better after speaking to her. And by the next day, I felt certain that I was to stick to my commitments here in Georgetown -my job, youth group, worship team, mentoring one of the teens- and decided that after I returned from my week long trip out East, I would respond with a no.
Well, as it turns out, I spontaneously responded before my cousins and I ever started driving across the country. Which, as I said to my cousin Jacob on the drive home, turned out to be a major blessing. If I hadn't declined the offer before we left, I would have spent the entire trip second guessing myself, and trying to confirm and reconfirm over and over again that I had made the right choice. Instead, I was able to truly relax and rest and enjoy the trip. Which turned out to be quite necessary, with the year that was coming.
Because while all this was going on, my church had been approached with an offer- would we want to host a Serve team during March break of 2019? When this proposal was put forward to the congregation, I -and many others- wondered why on earth a serve team would want to come to Georgetown, Ontario. We're hardly a poor area. But as strange as it seemed, we had been asked and we did feel the call to accept the offer.
I feel like this is a good time to introduce Jacob to you. He's my cousin, my best friend's little brother (though not so little anymore!). He's been around for as long as I remember, being just 3 years younger than me, and we got along, but were never close. That East Coast trip that I took in August of 2018 was with Jacob and his younger sister, because Jacob and I were dropping Victoria off at her school in Nova Scotia. Jacob and I got along and enjoyed the trip -apart from the times on the drive home when people assumed that we were a couple... gross!- but we weren't super close or anything. Since he had just graduated from university that summer, he was taking a gap year before going to law school. So he was living at home, going to church, and got involved with youth group. Together, we were leading worship at youth starting in September.
So one day in October, I went over to Jacob's house. That Serve team was on my mind, and I said "Jacob.... I think you should be the worship leader for Serve." He nodded, "My dad just said the same thing. And I agree.... but only if you do it with me."
And that was the beginning of The Twins.
The entire winter of 2019 was a time of Jacob and I working very closely together. We spent a lot of time together. We were assembling a worship team for Serve, running practices twice a week, and spending the other evenings planning the set up, song selections, as well as simultaneously planning a 4 week long youth series on the Holy Spirit that we had agreed to teach. I'm not kidding when I say that I spent almost every evening at least in part with Jacob during January-March Break that winter. It was an insane amount of work and time together, and I am so glad I got to do it with Jacob.
Jacob, during the fall, had been studying for and then took his LSAT to apply to law school. With that done, he was temporarily laid off from his job, and so during this time when we were insanely busy, he was not working. Which means he could spend his days continuing the work we needed to get down. Honestly, if he had been working, I don't think we could have done it. We simply wouldn't have had enough time to actually get everything done. God was so, so good. Jacob's boss texted him the week before March break, asking Jacob if he would be able to start working again.... the Monday following March break. Literally the first day that Jacob and I were finished all the crazy amount of work we needed to do.
I feel like this is a good place to stop for now. This post started as a retelling of my love story, and it still is that. I haven't even met Raymond yet, and most of this post talks about my male cousin -who I can assure you is not the love interest here! Yet it is a very important piece of this story, and one I am incredibly thankful for!
Blessings,
Katie
