God Blessed the Broken road (Part 1)

I've always felt like my life was like a lifetime movie, you meet a guy, fall in love, and then comes drama! You have a fight, then you go your separate ways and then you move on. Well sit tight and relax because I am about to share my lifetime movie with you.

For the sake of privacy, I am going to call the man that I fell in love with John. I met John when I was 23 years old, and we met at my cousin's wedding. He looked at me from across the room and whispered a question to me and I remembered the song “Have you ever been in love,” by Celine Dion being played and so I looked over and I smiled, we exchanged numbers and started talking every day since. I was a young Christian and so was he, we were part of the same ministries at our church, he headed the youth department, he was part of the worship team and was basically part of every ministry at his church and so was I.

After a few months of talking, I fell in love with him! After all, he was the perfect man, he made me laugh, we spoke about the word of God, and we had a very good friendship. What made me sad is that he never asked me out nor asked me to be his girlfriend, the reason why I felt this way was because I knew I wanted him to be the man in my life. Time passed and there was this camp in the Granbay secondary school and both of our churches were supposed to attend, I did not want to go but he begged and pleaded with me to come to the camp and so I did. I went because I had spent months crying over this dude, I loved him, and I wanted him to be mine! We got closer during the camp and at the end we decided that we would become a "thing," and you can imagine how happy I was, I was on top of the world because I finally had him as a boyfriend.

After a year and a half of dating and being in a relationship, the night came when he popped the question! I could not believe that I was the one getting engaged, oh my God! Immediately after we got engaged, I started planning our wedding and spending more time with him. It was during that time that I noticed a few things about John, one of them was that he would answer the phone and walked outside to speak. After noticing this change, I decided that I was going to confront him about his actions, and he said he thought it was "manners to pick up the phone and go outside." I started seeing text messages from other women and he would call them beautiful, pet names like sweetheart, babes, baby etc. I was upset! He would tell me that it was nothing and that they were just friends. Sometimes I would go home and cry, I'd tell my mum and she would be upset. She would question my reasons for being in love with someone who would call other females those kinds of pet names, but I ignored her and moved on with my relationship. After all, I was engaged and planning a wedding!

This happened many times, but I continued to trust him, and we had a good relationship. We finally decided to put a date to our wedding, we started planning and deciding on locations and all of that, but little did I know that the guy I thought was perfect was not so perfect at all. Even if he loved church and was in ministry, his actions said otherwise. We went to our pastors, we spoke to them and told them that we were getting married, they both spoke to us, and we left, so I thought we were ready. We made our invitations and sent them out and about a month before the wedding John decided that he was going to leave Dominica to go to Guadeloupe for a week. He came home and told me about his plans and that he would be back for the wedding. While we were speaking in the vehicle, my mum came around and saw the bag that he packed and her question to him was, "are you going to stay forever?" I laughed and so did he! That was a question to go down in the history books! A week passed and my fiancé had not return, invitations were out, wedding was being planned and our church members were getting the church ready for the wedding, but I had not heard from him since he left.

Two weeks passed and I had not heard from him, three weeks passed and there was no call or message from him. At that point, I was a mess, the wedding was almost here, and I had not heard from my fiancé! Imagine how scared and afraid I was, I didn't think that he left me but instead afraid that he had died or had fallen sick or that something was wrong, and I did not know. Oh boy, was I in for a surprise! I started receiving messages from his sisters stating that he was in Guadeloupe and that he would not be returning. I was also told that he had a girlfriend in Guadeloupe, and I was heartbroken, they also sent messages to me saying that this wedding would never happen. Heartbroken, sad and in shock I cried, and I cried, and I cried, I could not eat, I could not sleep, I could not do anything! How could the man whom I loved, the man who said that he was in love with me, the man who said that he was a child of God and loved God do this to me?

After the three weeks had passed, my mother found a number she could reach him on, she called him, and he picked up the phone. "Don't you know you have a wedding coming up? Why haven't you contacted my daughter? What is the reason for you not being here?" she asked. But I guess because of connection issues they could not have spoken for long. That day I cried repeatedly, I wondered why this was happening to me, what did I do to receive such cruelty, especially from the guy I loved. I felt ridiculed, embarrassed, and ashamed. I stayed on my bed and felt terrible for a long time, but I had this one friend from his church who made sure I ate and would check up on me and ensured that I would not worry as much. There was also one lady from my church who encouraged me to get off the bed, combed my hair, pick myself up and reminded me that I was beautiful and that I should move on with my life. My family was upset, I remember my grandfather opening the door of the room to look at me, he would just shake his head and leave because he had no words or should I say speechless. The wedding date passed, and I decided that I would not be sad anymore. I went out and I made myself happy!

He came back to Dominica, and I only heard from him once. Then one day while spending some time with my family in another area of the country, someone called me and told me that there was a person at the door for me, I was in shock! Utter shock! There he was standing at the door, a flood of emotion came running towards me, my blood pressure went up and just an overwhelming feeling of uncertainty. We sat and we spoke, he told me to ask him all the questions I wanted to and all the questions I needed to and so I did. I thought his answers were valid. He promised that he would make me trust him again and so I decided that I would try again. I can remember thinking that this guy was the one sent to me by God. I thought to myself, why not give him a second chance? Why not try to find out where this could go? I mean, we had already spent 4 years together and I was engaged to him and so I gave him a second chance.

Of course, my family was upset that I had given him a second chance, I remember my grandfather being so upset that he stopped talking to me! My mother also warned me that she didn't want him to come to her home. While I thought they were stupid for their decisions, I did not let that affect my relationship and so instead of him coming to my home, I went to his. Eventually my grandfather started talking to me again and I had my sisters support and my brother's support along with his pastor's support.

To be continued……

- Valantine A.

Editor's note: Really sounds like a lifetime movie, doesn't it? Stay tuned for part 2, the story is not yet over! Our guest writer decided to break her story into two parts, and I can reassure you that it has a happy ending! It always is a happy ending, when God is in it!

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