The Rules.
Jo and I met in Bible School in our teens. After graduation, we began to see each other quite often. One time I hugged her and kissed her on the forehead. “Jack,” she said, “You can hug me and kiss me anywhere on my face you want, but don’t kiss me on the lips unless you love me. And don’t tell me you love me unless you truly mean it.”

I understood clearly. Jo had been hurt in a previous relationship and did not want a repeat. That was okay with me. I just loved being with her.

The Story.
One summer, Jo and I worked together as counsellors in a youth camp at Chestermere Lake near Calgary. During a break between camps, we, and several other counsellors, were left to look after the facility.

On the first evening, we enjoyed a tasty supper Jo had prepared. Then we went for a long canoe ride on the lake as the sun prepared to set late in the mid-summer evening. We talked about our future, working at camps for the summer and Jo returning to Oliver, BC, and me to Red Deer, AB, so both of us could look for jobs in the fall.

Returning to shore, we sat leaning against a log and watching the sun disappear over the lake. I lit a cozy little fire, and we wrapped a blanket around our shoulders. More accurately, it was around my shoulders since Jo lay with her head on my chest.

The Important Question.
As we relaxed in the stillness of the evening, a thought popped into my mind, “If I were going to marry, what girl would I pick?” My thoughts flew back to two serious relationships that flared for a while and then ended. There were several less serious dating experiences with other girls during my years of attending Bible school. But those memories took only seconds.
The answer was almost immediate. “This girl here with me, of course.”

Another Important Question.
My next thought was, “She is going back to Oliver after the summer. Will I ever see her again?” That thought motivated me to lean over her and, for the first time, kiss her on the lips. Jo kissed me back. “I love you,” I said and kissed her again. “I love you, too.” We kissed again. “Will you marry me?” “Yes,” she said. We kissed again and again.

From that first thought, “What girl would I marry?” to Jo’s, “Yes” took probably no more than twenty seconds. Then it hit me. Hey, Jack! You are engaged to be married! Wow! A few minutes before, when I lit that little campfire, I had no idea that I would be making a life-long commitment that evening. Now the deed was done—a God-led decision!

And today, Thursday, March 31, we are celebrating sixty years of marriage!

God is so Good.
He has worked together with us throughout our lives, first giving us a wonderful, growing family and constantly helping us grow in love, joy, and appreciation for each other. Then, for all these many decades, God led Jo and me to work together as a team, bringing His Word to a whole people group in Brazil for the first time. Then he used us in leadership ministries, and to speak and write, promoting the ministry of worldwide Bible translation, even raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for Bible translation, and God only knows how many people joined that task as a result.

None of this would have happened if God Himself had not brought the two of us together in a love and marriage commitment sixty years ago.
What a day to celebrate!