Once Upon a Time...

God Writes Her Story--

Our oldest daughter Bethany, from early on, has loved to tell stories. At three, she could prattle on about some animal getting lost in the forest, and finding friends along the way to help him home. We loved to sit and listen to her imagination play out as she shared her lively, engaging tales. And all the while she was making up her stories, God was writing her story. She has grown up into a beautiful, godly woman, whose heart for Jesus is revealed in her devotion to His Word, her faithfulness in listening to Him speak into her life, and in her gentle, gracious love for others. Her life thus far has been a beautiful story of God's grace.

And now, God is writing a new chapter in her story. We rejoice to share the story of how God has brought Bethany's fiancee, Ben Arnold-Bik into her life. Yes, Bethany is engaged, and God is good!

How They Met

Ben and Bethany met just over a year ago at the March, 2007 Bluemont Contra Dance in Purcellville. I believe it was some friends of Bethany's who introduced Ben to her. Well, Ben took an immediate interest in her, but it was just an initial meeting. (He was the last guy of several to wait for the girl God had for him; the rest of his friends were already married or engaged).

Jesse begged Bethany to bring him to the April contradance and so Ben saw Bethany again (neither of them had been regularly attending, but God brought both of them two months in a row; His hand was clearly orchestrating things). They still didn't have a lot of time to talk that night and get to know each other, but Ben knew that he wanted to date Bethany and asked her if he could take her out sometime, to which she easily replied, “Yes!”

Getting to Know You

Things didn’t work out for them to get together until a couple weeks later when we had Ben over for the twins' birthday lunch so we could all meet him. I’m sure we overwhelmed him with our chattering, animated family of nine! Chris and I both took an immediate liking to him, so later that same week, we let Ben take Bethany out to dinner so they could just talk and get to know one another. And then Saturday of that week, Ben took Bethany to a formal contradance at our old church. This would be the last time they would get to see each other for awhile for the next day, he had to fly out to FL because he is in the Marines. (Ben had attended Bible college for a year, then got his four-year aeronautical engineering degree from Embry-Riddle and was now signed up for a 10-yr. commitment in the Marines; he just turned 27 on Valentine's Day).

So Ben took off the next day and Bethany and Ben just emailed and IM-ed each other for the next 3 months, after which time Ben knew he wanted to fly Bethany down for a week to spend some time with her in person getting to know her more. She went down in Aug. for a week before starting her first semester at PHC, and stayed with a married couple, good friends of Ben's.

In November, Bethany flew down for a week again, staying with Greg and Amanda, and then shortly after that, Ben asked us (we'd been in touch with him throughout the fall) if he could ask us in person at Christmastime for our blessing on his proposing to Bethany. So he was home for about 10 days and at the end of that time, asked each of us independently if he had our blessing (he didn't just want to email us and ask for that!)

Will You Marry Me?

So during her spring break last week, Bethany flew down and Ben proposed. Bethany very quickly said, “Yes!!!”

Ben is a wonderful, godly man, who loves Bethany very much, is humble, hard working (he's training with the Marines to fly jets), desires to please the Lord, and has a long list of things in common with Bethany (a big one being that they are both very interested in missions, Ben esp. in becoming a missions pilot). God is so good, and it has been very easy for us to grow to love Ben as we've gotten to know him more and more. We really do look forward to him becoming a part of our family, and Bethany a part of Ben's godly family (he has one sister a few years younger than him, plus his mom and dad).

We are especially grateful that, although they will be living in other states for some years while Ben fulfills his commitment with the Marines (we will be in much prayer for Ben's deployment to Iraq, mostly likely sometime in 2009), his family lives nearby in Lovettsville. We are so thankful that their visits home to see family home will not have to be a choice between his family and ours, but they'll be able to see us both!

Thank you for praying with us

We would so appreciate your prayers for Ben's training period, Bethany's continuing and completion of her college degree (she has officially declared herself as a Government major, and desires to specialize in Strategic Intelligence--in other words, spy research!) We still don't know when the wedding will be; sometime between the end of the summer and this Christmas (we're kind of hoping Bethany will be able to complete another semester on campus at PHC this fall and get married at Christmas time, but it's their wedding, so we'll see!)

Thank you for praying for them as the Lord brings them to mind. We give much thanks to the Lord for His great love and goodness in bringing them together!