There are a handful of singles who joined the RVA team this past fall, some short-termers and some long-termers. These singles have meshed right into the fabric of things here, and they really seem to enjoy one another’s company as well.
One of the long-termers is an elementary school teacher named Erica. As the fall wore on, it turned out that she was enjoying the company of a certain short-term missionary named Matt. Now, Matt was a dentist down at the hospital, and although he wasn’t RVA staff, he was still involved with the school and had lots of friendships up here.
Although our missionary community here is quite a fish bowl at times, we try to respect each other’s privacy and what not. While everyone noticed the time Matt and Erica were spending together, no one pried to see if it was “more” than just friendship. Matt’s short-term assignment ended, and he went back to the United States at Christmas.
Matt and Erica continued to write emails, and (as we found out this week) they were in fact dating long distance. (Does it get any more long distance for humankind to be romantically involved from Africa to North America?) They were writing and calling and things were going along swimmingly.
Well, a week ago, Matt had supposedly sent a package to Erica from America that his friends here in Kijabe were going to deliver for him. These friends borrowed Erica’s house keys while she was at work under the ruse of “delivering the package” for her. What they did was fill the house with hundreds of roses and put a chair in front of the TV. They returned her keys to her and told her that she had to go directly into her apartment alone, sit down, and watch a video. She did. It was Matt on the screen holding up cue cards with the song’s romantic lyrics on them. And when the romantic song ended (the last cue cards read “I love you”), Matt began reading from 1 Corinthians 13 from the kitchen behind her.
Not on video, but in person! He had come back to Africa without telling her. She had no idea he was on the continent, let alone in her apartment!
And that wasn’t all. After he finished reading, he got down on one knee and asked her to be his wife.
He had letters of congratulations from his parents and her parents ahead of time (they all knew about his trip and his plan but kept it from her) and when he got up off his knee, he had her answer.
Yes!
(Now, for your entertainment, here is a "singing Valentine" straight from the sophomore class at RVA.)
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