So, where was I? Hawaii, Serve opportunity, Jacob.... crazy times.... business..... and Serve. Alright. Got it.
So January and February were a crazy time for both Jacob and I, and it was all leading up to the week of March 9- 16. March Break 2019.
It all started on Saturday, March 9, 2019. It was my first work Saturday of the year, so I was unable to meet at the church to set up and do the final preparations for the team arriving that evening. After work, however, for the first time, I raced straight to the church. About an hour later, the Serve team -a group of students from a high school in Edmonton, along with their teacher and 2 chaperones- arrived. They got set up, we ate dinner, and then Jacob and I gathered our worship team, named PP, to kick off our first worship session. I introduced everyone, we had our time of worship, and then we all split into small group time. The Edmonton team went downstairs, and Jacob and I gathered our worship team to have our own small group. We debriefed the session, during which a lot of us pointed out the mistakes which we made, but we followed that up with prayer and everyone went home. Saturday night was the first of two nights that I had to sleep at the church, so I retired to my room and went to bed.
Sunday, March 10 dawned a sunny, warm day. Just kidding, I don't remember what the weather was like. What I DO remember, quite vividly, is standing upstairs before breakfast, talking to a fellow Host Team member and the female chaperone from the Edmonton team. As we chatted, a bearded man walked up and handed the female chaperone some papers. "Here are your shower passes," he told her, and immediately I thought "Ohhhhh, he's NOT a student!"
The man then turned to me, holding out a hand (oh the days when we could shake hands!), "Hi, I'm Ray," he introduced himself. And just like that, without having any inkling of an idea, I had met my future husband.
The four of us continued chatting until it was time for breakfast, and I ended up seated beside Raymond. As we ate, we talked about out mutual love of travelling, and were delighted to discover that each of us loved Venice in particular. I kept trying to make sure I was talking to the teen girls also at our table, but somehow would find myself back to talking to this Ray guy.
It wasn't long into breakfast that Raymond casually, during the discussion about travelling Europe, said "We -my ex and I. I'm divorced- were...." I don't remember the whole sentence anymore, obviously, but I do remember immediately thinking "Divorced? Stay away from this one!" To be clear, I in no way was interested in him romantically, nor did it EVER enter my mind, while preparing for Serve and during Serve, that I would meet that Someone. It was just an automatic step back when he mentioned that he had an ex-wife.
And that's how I met Raymond, my future husband. He introduced himself as Ray -which confused me for the longest time, cause I called him Ray but he didn't seem to respond to it very well, and all of his social media said Raymond. He was trying a thing. He figured he'd never see any of us again, so why not. :P
After that breakfast, for the rest of the day and week, I was inexplicitly drawn to Raymond. I always took note of where he was. I would pay attention to him. I was always aware of him. It was weird. I was genuinely weirded out by it, at least at first. By the end of the week, we had talked to much that it wasn't so strange, but at the beginning, I didn't understand it. On Sunday, I noticed where he was during church. I watched him in the afternoon, when we played games in the school gym. I noticed when he entered the worship session. I always was aware of where this divorced man from Edmonton was.
Raymond's first memory of me is from the night before, but I didn't see him until Sunday. And that was just the beginning of an amazing relationship that I am so thankful for.
Blessings,
Katie
