How I Met Sam - Our first 'dates' 6

The long 24-hour email fast was over! I probably should have held back a bit more, but I had exercised such great patience and now the floodgates were opened. We continued our email dialogues and that evening he even called me. At $1-2 a minute, this is no small endeavour! We had about a 5-8 minute, very awkward conversation. It seemed we were better in person or in writing.

But there was no more relational talk. Just talking about our lives, who we were, our thoughts, ideas, opinions (in no short supply on my end!) and our aspirations for the future. We both had a desire to live in non-Western cultures and mostly desired to give our lives fully to whatever God had in store for us. At the time I think we assumed this would be for us to be missionaries. I think God smiled at that, whether it was His plan or not. And God was in this, from the very beginning. We prayed fervently for each other. I think my prayers were a bit more honest than Sam's - more like, 'Let him fall in love with me God!' 'I don't know what I'll do if I ever have to let go of this friendship.' Whereas Sam's were more like, 'Help Sarah to sleep better. Make her more like You.' I don't know if I ever prayed such noble things for him at the time (of course I do now because Sam being shaped into Christ's image also has lots of perks for me...and yes, I am just a wee bit narcissistic).

That weekend when Sam was travelling to Hong Kong he thought to himself how much he was looking forward to seeing me. Then he caught himself, mid-thought and said, 'You are such a muffin Sam, to be this hyped-up about meeting a girl.' He relayed these thoughts to me, and I have called him a muffin ever since.