It was May 20th, a beautiful sunny day as we headed to our couples counseling with some of our leaders. Once it was finished, my leader asked Bryan to stay behind to talk about recruiting, and so I thought nothing of it. As I headed to work with my roommate, I came into the office to find a manila envelope. On it was written, “An adventure down memory lane, FOR JASMINE’S EYES ONLY.” I quickly found out that I was supposed to go home and get changed into something nice, and follow a path of letters that he had hidden for me all throughout campus.
Now, you’re probably asking, “Emily, didn’t you expect anything??“ I did a little, but Aladdin is VERY romantic and does sweet things for me frequently, so I wasn’t completely sure just yet.
As I went from place to place, reading each letter about the memories that we had made on the local Bible college campus, it made me realize not only how much he loved me, but how much I loved him, and wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. (And I was getting more and more sure of the inevitable!) As I was headed to what I assumed would be the last letter location, I saw Aladdin standing at the place where we first said, “I love you.” As I walked up to him, he had the biggest smile on his face, and I couldn’t help but smile back. He told me how much he loved me, and how he wanted nothing more than to take on life together with God as our center. He started to kneel, and I started to cry. He said, “Jasmine (but he used my full name), will you marry me?” and I couldn’t believe how lucky I was as I said, “Yes!”
As we transition into this wonderful adventure of marriage, you’re probably wondering about a few things. How does this affect your finances? When are you planning to get married? What are your plans in the future as a couple? For starters, we are planning to get married in late September, and there will be invitations to follow. We are planning to have a small wedding, with family and a few close friends. We still plan to stay with Campus Target and go to Asia for four years as a married couple, so we will still need your support! We are planning to leave for Asia in April-June of 2017. This is because we want to work on our marriage foundation before we move to the other side of the world and have to speak a different language every day. We are still going to raising support full time. After we are fully funded, we will be joining the recruiting team! We will be contacting young adults throughout the year asking them if they would be willing to reach the lost in Asia. For you, this means that for every person that we recruit, you are funding those people being found and therefore, funding the lost being saved!! You are still getting an inheritance, and you are still having a crazy impact not just through Aladdin and I now, but through all of the people that we recruit and the lost Asian college students that they have an impact on too!