This is the story of how Read and I met, trusted, the Lord, and fell in love.

Betsy’s story:

A couple of years ago, I went to St. Louis to visit one of my best friends, Abra. I had been to visit her a few times before this and gotten to know a few of her friends from church. One of the guys at her church had mentioned several times that he had a brother named Andrew. Every time he talked about this brother, I envisioned a five-foot-tall, squeaky twelve-year-old. But that day in February, 2009, when I visited Grace Baptist Church, I met Read Wall, a six-foot three, godly man with a bass voice who was fun to visit with and gave everyone the latitude to be themselves.

Over the next year-and-a-half, I continued to visit Abra in St. Louis, and saw Read when I was there. Although I really enjoyed his company and admired his walk with the Lord, I was not romantically interested in him. I just appreciated a guy who was a gentleman and who understood me and who thought the same way I did; who honored God and didn’t compromise. Our friendship grew as we spent time together and got to know one another better as friends. I came to appreciate Read’s walk with the Lord, honorable conduct, and great sense of humor.

Then in the spring of 2010, Read came through St. Joe for a wedding. He asked to stop by the farm and see the cows. I thought it was a great idea. I showed him around the farm, introduced him to the members of my family he had not met, and served him dinner. After the meal, we went to my grandparents to visit, where Read patiently looked at pictures of our extended family and asked questions about different members. I couldn’t imagine this being interesting for him, so I turned to him and said as much. Instead of contradicting my statement, he just smiled and winked. At that moment, I realized that the feeling I got when I was with Read was much more than “just friends.” After Read’s visit, my dad pulled me aside and told me that he really liked Read and if I wanted to like him, too, that was fine with him. I started praying that if it was the Lord’s will, He would work a miracle, and this amazing guy might be interested in me in return.

I took every opportunity that summer to “visit Abra” in St. Louis. As it turned out, I went in May, June, and July. My visit over the Fourth of July ended with me meeting Read for lunch on my way out of town on July 5th. I hoped this was a good sign.

In August, 2010, Read was in St. Joe to do a Kung Fu demo talk at my church. On Saturday afternoon, several of us were together at the park walking on the trail and visiting. At one point, he and I were talking as we walked, and I was thrilled to have his full attention; then he turned to me in the midst of our conversation and said, “Don’t worry, Betsy, someday the right guy will come along for you.” My heart sank as I took this to mean that he was not interested in anything more than being just friends.

A couple of weeks went by, and I prayed about my future and the prospect of being single the rest of my life, because I couldn’t think of anyone I liked and admired more than Read, and he obviously was not interested in being more than friends because of what he told me that day in the park. I was praying about it while on a mission trip to Armenia. Right there in my hotel room, God told me that He would eventually bring the right guy into my life and when He did, it would be better than anything I could have ever imagined. I thanked the Lord and reminded them that I had a great imagination. The Lord told me He was well aware of this because He had given me my imagination.

In October, Read said he had some vacation time coming and intimated he would like to come back to visit the farm. Still happy to have him visit, I told him he was welcome, and asked what he wanted to do. He mentioned feeding calves and listening to howling coyotes. In November, Read came back to St. Joe to “visit the farm, feed the calves, and hear the howling coyotes.” The poor guy has yet to feed a calf and only recently got to hear howling coyotes, but he did express an interest in getting to know me better as more than just friends. He had asked for my dad’s permission to pursue a courtship relationship with me several weeks before, and was using the calves and coyotes as an excuse.

We’ve had a wonderful time getting to know each other. Lots of laughter and long talks. Then six months after he reassured me that someday the right guy would come along for me, he asked me to be his wife around that same spot in the park. It’s been like a real-life fairy tale.

The rest of the story… When I asked Read about his comment in the park last summer, he explained that he knew I was special and that the Lord had the right guy out there for me, he was hoping at the time it was him, but he was not ready to state his intentions. He was just trying to be encouraging but keep me from guessing he was interested in being more than friends. Well that part worked. When I explained early in our courtship that his statement that day had dashed my hopes and dreams, he apologized and said he would need to do something special in that spot to make up for it. I guess he did, and our journey together has been better than anything I could have ever imagined!

Read’s story:
Here is my side of the story! I have to give a little background first. I went to school in Saint Louis, and I lived with my brother Jason, but we went to different churches. When I graduated from college, I returned home to assist my parents with the care of my Grandmother. I lived there for 3 years and then felt the Lord calling me to return to Saint Louis to pursue my future as a kung fu teacher… I thought. My brother Jason was very excited about my return to the big city and was equally excited to hear that I was going to be attending church with him at Grace Baptist Church. Over the period of time with my parents after graduation, the Lord taught me a lot of lessons about following Him without fear and giving people the latitude to be themselves. I found a great peace in my walk with the Lord and my sense of identity.

I had only been at Grace for 2 weeks when we had a visitor in church — Betsy. I still remember the first time I saw her. I was still sitting with my brother near the front of the church, and I happened to look over my shoulder when she was walking down the aisle to the front of the church to sit on the “other” side of the church with her friend Abra. I was captivated. I thought to myself that this was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. My exact thought was “Wow! This is gonna be a problem.” I spent the whole rest of the service doing two things: 1 trying desperately not to stare at her, and 2 debating whether I should even go and talk to her. Quite frankly, I was intimidated. Finally, I decided that fear was a stupid reason not to do something and I went over to say hi. Much to my continued sense of awe, I found her to be very friendly and fun to talk to as well… ”This is definitely going to be a problem.” I thought.

Over the course of the following year-and-a-half, Betsy continued to make periodic trips to Saint Louis to visit Abra and I continued to have the opportunity to get to know her better. I grew even more convinced that she was an awesome person, but from that first day I had clamped down on my feelings until I had a clear direction from God about what to do with those feelings. At the time I didn’t feel like it was the time to pursue a relationship, and I definitely did not know Betsy well enough to want to pursue one with her… yet. So I was very cautious, and made sure I did nothing to broadcast any signals to her.

In March of 2010, Peter Hodges, one of my kung fu students requested that I ride with him to Maryville, MO, to a wedding of his friends, and since I was in the neighborhood, I arranged to drop by “The Cornelius’.” At this time, I was not pursuing Betsy, nor did I have intentions in that direction, but my mind kept going back to that first meeting… and hoping. I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable I felt with her family, and even visited with her grandparents later that evening. It was this trip that began my thinking, very carefully, in the direction that maybe, just maybe, it might be possible that Betsy was the one for me.

Over the next few months, Betsy continued to come to Saint Louis to “visit Abra.” She came in May, in June, and in July. Each trip, I enjoyed her visit even more and found myself looking forward to the next one just a little more than the last. In June, she and Philip (another friend from her church) came on the weekend that I did a kung fu demo talk in my church’s evening service. Unfortunately they were not able to stay and see it, so Philip arranged for me to come and do one at their church in August. I was thrilled, for multiple reasons. In July, she was able to come for the Fourth and stay the whole weekend. This was the weekend that the Lord gave me clarity about how I felt about her — while we were playing frisbee. Needless to say, that frisbee is special to me now. On her way out of Saint Louis on Monday, the 5th, we arranged to meet for lunch since she was passing right by my work. Both of us were prayerfully testing the waters to see what would happen. Neither of us knew at the time that the other one was doing the same thing.

Then in August, Peter and I came to do the demo talk in her church. Peter went to visit with his friends in Maryville while I visited with Philip and Betsy and her sister Heidi. During the afternoon, we all went on a walk through the park. I noticed that Betsy was looking at Heidi who was talking to her boyfriend on the phone and I said, “Don’t worry Betsy, some day your guy will come along.” I had no real clue how she understood this, but I knew it would be better for her to think I was not interested in pursuing a relationship than to think that I was attracted when I was not ready to reveal my interest to her. I also knew that God had someone special in mind for her… I was hoping it was me!

Upon my return to Saint Louis after the very successful demo talk, Abra informed me that Betsy would be open to discussing the matter of a relationship with me if I was interested… and if I wasn’t I had better be careful!! A warning I appreciated greatly. After much prayer about how to go about things, I finally called Betsy’s dad (with some help from Abra, who turned out to be a very willing co-conspirator) and asked his permission to talk to Betsy about courting her. When I finally had an opportunity to talk to her about this,I think I had her from, “I called your dad…”

Things progressed rapidly, and we talked everyday through virtually every medium… text, chat, calling, I even wrote letters! In March of 2011, the Lord worked a miracle and moved me to the Saint Joseph Walmart. While walking with Betsy along that same spot where I had “dashed her hopes” in August, I proposed and she accepted. I was right, someday her guy did come along, and much to my delight, it was me!!!