Continuing on with our theme of love, I’ll tell you about our first date. 

As I mentioned before, Mark was already a pastor, so I was very clear about what I was getting into.  It came as no surprise that our first date would be on a Sunday and it would start at church.  That’s only fitting for what the next 12 years would bring!

My drama team (Loveta, Abe and Tyrone) and I all drove from Lake Stevens to Renton to attend New Life that morning.  We drove two separate cars, so I threw my purse and jacket in my car, locked the door, and gave my keys to Loveta to hold for me.  I didn’t want to be encumbered by all of my stuff when I saw Mark for the first time.

We were mobbed at the door by a bunch of teenagers that we had met at camp, so we waded our way through and into the sanctuary.  Mark and I met and talked briefly, but he was busy with the events of the morning, so we parted ways.  The pastor’s at that time all sat together on the front row, which was not where I wanted to be on our first date!  My friends and I found our own seats and enjoyed the service.

When it was over, I said goodbye to my friends and made my way to Mark.  He introduced me to a lot of people and then said, “Why don’t you stay here and talk to Alvina while I go get changed for our date.”  I stood there and made small talk with the woman that would later be my mother-in-law, but Mark had failed to mention that she was his mom! 

As we were leaving, I told Mark that I needed to stop at my car to get my purse and jacket.  That is the moment that I realized that my keys were already on their way back to Lake Stevens, nearly an hour away.  We had no cell phones back then and the phone at the camp was not manned on weekends.  I was officially stranded in Renton.

We went on our date anyway, which was lunch and window shopping at the Seattle Center.  We had a nice time together and the conversation was very easy.  Time flew as we got to know each other a little better.  I hadn’t planned on staying for the evening service at church, but I found myself still in Renton, so I decided a few more hours wouldn’t hurt.  In the meantime I had miracously gotten a hold of Loveta and she came all the way back to give me my keys! 

A special speaker named Donny was at the church that night and we thoroughly enjoyed the service.  After our second round of church, we got the privilege of taking the speaker out for a late dinner.  Donny enjoyed the time with us by grilling us on an assortment of questions, “Do you want to get married?  What type of guy do you want?  Do you want kids?  How do you feel about being a pastor’s wife?”  And on and on and on…

Mark and I still laugh at that dinner because it was like speed dating.  If there had been any concerns, we’d have known all about it on our first date. 

After dinner, Mark took me to my car, where we sat and talked for a while longer.  It was now about the 12th hour of our first date and I still had a drive ahead of me.  We agreed to meet again, and thanks to Donny, Mark knew that I don’t kiss on the first date.  He gave me a hug and sent me on my way.  And the rest is history.

Last night we had Simply Worship at our church.  Just under 60 adults and kids were there to give God some extra time to talk to our hearts.  Some sang, some prayed, others read their Bibles.  It was a great time with the church family to regain focus.

As I prayed, I was just laughing with God because I am such a better leader than a follower.  What I mean is this…I struggle to turn off my leadership brain and take the time to follow Christ.  To wait on him.  To listen.  My mind is a circuit board of leadership issues.  I spend my time thinking about what needs to be done or how I can fix whatever current problem is on the agenda.  The words on the screen become lost in my brain somewhere and the song trails off in the background.  I’m in leadership mode.

I always feel the pressure to administrate everything.  It’s my strength and my weakness all at the same time.  I know it’s not possible to control everything, and frankly, I don’t want to, but I do want the ship running as smoothly as possible.  I say all of the time that it would be so much fun to attend our church, but it’s sure daunting to be in charge of it!

So, last night I just sat down and laughed with God about my tangled web of a mind.  And I made a conscious effort to listen to His voice and tell Him once again how great He is.  It was refreshing to set aside my priorities and just care about His.  And you know what, the problems were still there when I was done talking with Jesus, but the burden was sure a lot lighter.

It’s “Love” month around North Creek!  In honor of Valentine’s Day, we begin our new series called Beauty and the Beast.  It’s basically about how the world has taken the subject of sex and made it something that God has never intended.   I’m excited to be addressing the biblical perspective as a church and trying to recapture God’s heart on the matter. 

On that note, I thought I’d share how Mark and I met.  He was 25 and already a junior high youth pastor at New Life Church in Renton.  I was in my second year of college at Northwest University.  During my time at NU, I travelled on different drama teams doing skits and being crazy at summer camps.  My team was just about to go on our first week of our summer tour, so I was driving back from Montana after a visit with my parents.  I prayed along the way, “God, change my life this summer!”  And boy, was He about to!

I drove straight from Montana to Cedar Spring Camp in Lake Stevens, Washington, just in time for the evening meeting with all of the leaders of the camp.   During the meeting, I was introduced to Mark.  He was preaching in chapel on Tuesday morning and needed some help from the drama team.  We sat outside at a table in the cool air of a July night.  He was preaching something with a Mr. Rogers neighborhood theme and asked if I happened to have the music with me.  What a strange question!  The only stranger thing is that I did have the music with me…we should have guessed we were destined to be together then!

The next morning I woke up, ready to face a day of excited junior highers at camp.  They randomly placed those of us on the drama team in different cabins to help out and I got assigned to a group of girls that would literally be a part of the rest of my life…they were from New Life Church and Mark was their youth pastor.  It didn’t take them long to decide that they were going to set me up with their bachelor pastor.

Mark and I both will tell you quickly that it was not love at first sight.  I had a bad hair cut and he was painfully skinny.  I was 20 years old, and at the time, he seemed really old for me.  I was still in college and he already had a life of his own.  I wasn’t excited about jumping in to a large church as a pastor’s wife.  It all seemed overwhelming.  But then there was God.

Watching each other invest into a bunch of smelly junior highers at camp sealed the deal in both of us.  As we worshipped, prayed, and played with teenagers, our hearts were twisted together.  By the end of the week, I was ready to see where this journey would lead us.  It would take another couple of weeks for Mark to ask me out, but I had already made up my mind.  I knew if I started dating him, that would be my last first date.  And it was.