Share the Love – Story 5: “A Story That Doesn’t Fit Expectations”

Submitted by: Mandee Gahob

Many people say that you find true love when you least expect it or stop looking for it. I’ve always been one to think that sounds great, but the hard part is to stop looking or expecting it. My husband and I have a love story that doesn’t fit any of the expectations I had for what a love story looks like… except that God has each detail in His hands.

Our great love story begins in Saudi Arabia and is one that only God could have orchestrated. I went to Saudi with two simple intentions: get teaching experience, and have an adventure; and I walked away with four years of deep growth and adventure in teaching, life, and personal faith. I also walked away with an unexpected boyfriend. I’ll be honest, I have always struggled with the ‘stop looking for love’ advice in life. But that is exactly how it happened!
Through trying to visit some new underground Filipino churches (Saudi does not allow public gathering of Christians), I met a few new friends, and little did I know that one of their friends saw the picture and was curious as to who this new (non Filipino ) girl was. After messaging back and forth for awhile on messenger, I decided to go see this guy in person where he worked in a restaurant. So my best friend and I went to the restaurant to see who this guy I had been messaging with was. Our first ‘sight’ of each other really does fit that cliche of heart stopping… this sweet, shy, super polite waiter came to our table and was so shy when he saw I was the girl he had been messaging with for weeks.

That was the start of a burger eating phase for me, as I then began to go to the restaurant when I knew it wouldn’t be busy, and take my laptop to sit and lesson plan while he worked, just to get to see each other. Our hangouts were definitely strange, as we got to know each other more through our chats online because of the restrictions for being in public with someone of the opposite gender. A few hangouts after church, a quick secret coffee meetup on his breaks at work, or a movie at my house on a weekend was the extent of our face to face hangouts. So when I was preparing to go back to Canada for the summer break from teaching, I decided to first go visit his family for a few weeks in the Philippines. This was an amazing experience, as we finally got to hangout a bit more in person and with others. I got to experience (for a second time) the beauty of Filipino culture, and we grew more in love as we had deeper and stronger discussions about our faith, hopes, dreams, and the hilarious cultural differences we had. Those cultural differences brought about many challenging discussions as well.
I then returned to Canada after three weeks in the Philippines, and then the real test to our relationship began, as I had decided to complete my Masters back in Canada, and Jordan stayed in the Philippines to care for his mother who was sick. For 9 months we did a long distance relationship, bad internet connections and all, and then we decided we were ready to take our relationship to the next level. That March, on my school spring break, I flew to the Philippines for 14 days, to get engaged and married! The process there took the full 14 days to get papers in order to apply for marriage certificate, and the day before I left the Philippines we were able to get married with his family in attendance.

The hope as we parted ways yet again (this time married), was that we would apply for him to come join me in Canada shortly. Well that process was much trickier and lengthy than we had ever imagined! Through lots of tears, prayers,, video chats together, and two visa denials, we made it through the next year. Each month we thought maybe it would be the one where the process moved in the right direction. March 2020 we were preparing to finally see each other and have a one year anniverssary trip together to Thailand. Then this crazy virus hit that area and we decided maybe it would be easier if we just went to a resort in the Philippines to meet up, one less flight for him at least. We were excited, to say the least, and were two days away from the trip. Packed and all, but a little nervous as news was getting around of the virus moving throughout the world.
The day before I was to fly out to the Philippines – all flights were cancelled and travel restrictions put in place! We were heartbroken! Through lots of prayer, tears, video chats, and a belief that God had a plan, we prepared for a summer trip instead. Summer 2020 came and as we all know, travel was NOT a thing unless you wanted to get stranded outside the country (which we didn’t think was wise considering my students would be back in class in September). Christmas 2020… nope. So now, as our visa process continues to slowly move in a ‘hopefully’ right direction, we continue to wait on the Lord for His plan.

Our love story has been a crazy one, but has seen God really keep us in His arms as we couldn’t survive this distance on our own! We are so thankful for how he wove our story together, and continues to weave those details that don’t make sense to us. I love my husband more and more each day… and eagerly await that day when we get to continue the next chapter of our love story in person.