With You at my Side
by Min-Yueh Lin  Translator:Aaron Hsu

E-link? What e-Link?

In my many years of busy church service,there have been few chances for me to get to know single brothers. A few yearsback, the wife of my church's pastor introduced me to a singles website (www.elinksingles.org)designed and hosted by Dr. Yeh of Family Keepers. Before this, I had neverconsidered getting to know a possible future spouse through this method,believing that it would be too difficult.

In the summer of 2008, I was once againencouraged to take a look at the website. Out of deference to them, I completedmy personal information section. Afterward, however, I never touched the siteagain (although I'm sure it blessed many people).

In 2008, my church gave me four months ofvacation. Before I returned to my home in Tainan, however, my church sisterstasked me to pray diligently about marriage. They, in turn, also promised toactively pray for me; in fact, one even fasted. This touched me deeply. Thus,in Tainan, I truly did pray that my Heavenly Father would provide me a spouse.I expected that once I returned to Hsinchu to enter into my next period ofservice, the Lord would lead me. Nothing new happened, though, through themethods that I expected God to lead me through.

Seizing the Opportunity

Just as I finished my vacation, three daysbefore I prepared to return to Hsinchu and begin my busy life of service, Iwent online to complete some homework. Unintentionally, I clicked into the“e-link” website. Looking at my profile, I found that there were three men withwhom I could get to know.

Honestly, I was very astonished. How couldsomething like this be possible?! I felt as if the Lord was saying to me,“seize this opportunity!” In the past, I probably would have considered ? orask the opinions of others before taking action. That time, though, I summed upmy courage and calmly chose one of them, thinking, let's see how the Lordwill lead me next.

Even today, it is difficult for me tobelieve that I got a response that very same day! A brother named 123 waswilling to get to know me. Thus, following the guidelines of the website, webegan our third ? , sharing our basic information with each other. Three dayslater, we decided to begin our next stage of courtship. It was only then, throughe-Link, that I learned that 123 also lived in Hsinchui, and that he lived notfar from my house. Furthermore, he had no aversion toward female missionaries,because he himself was a committed Christian! I quickly also learned that 123was a widowed professor of electrical engineering at the Ming Hsin Universityof Technology with a 20 year old daughter called 234.

Wishing No More

After I became a Christian at 22, I wasencouraged to begin praying for marriage. I agreed, but for a long time, the Lorddid not bring “the one” to me.

After graduating from seminary, I became afull time missionary at age 35, but kept my aspirations for marriage. In thebusyness of service, however, I had no time to direct my attention to thismatter. To me, at the time, marriage seemed very far away.

The brothers and sisters I pastored inthose early years often wished me luck in finding a marriage partner. They evenpromised me six pairs of bridesmaids/best men at my wedding. But the years wentbuy, and those six pairs of bridesmaids and best men all got married, leavingme all alone. Gradually, the voice of this wish became softer and softer; inthe end, it seemed to simply disappear.

Although the bells of marriage seemed veryfar away, I remained trusting of a word God had given me: “Give your futuremarriage to me. I am your lover. As long as you trust me completely, I will notdisappoint you. Test my perfect intentions and wait patiently and faithfully,and you will receive what I have promised.”

Lightning-quick Development

I ended up waiting for over twelve years.Finally, though, my future spouse appeared more swiftly than I could realize. Ifinally understood what ? Meant. If God was to do His work, the power that Hewould demonstrate is incomparable to that of anything that would oppose Him.

From the start, 123 and I got along verywell with other. Even though he already had gray hair (he once emailed me,telling me not to be frightened away by this fact), he always seemed like anuncle or older brother to me, able to take care of me. His daughter had becomefriends with my ? Who lived with me at the time. The four of us would often gofor outings and dinners.

123 once recalled the first time the fourof us went for some noodle soup. After finding that we could enjoy each others'company and have a really good time, he found himself certain that “she's theone!”

After wards, the development of myrelationship with 123 expanded very fluently. I later found out that he hadasked God for a spouse before he turned 50. Amazingly, the first time we metwas on his 50th birthday. I became increasingly certain that 123 was the oneGod had prepared for me to be my life partner.