I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.

Ben finds the love of his life on a Christian dating site, and he clicks to match with her! The only problem was, so did hundreds of others.

Naomi's profile was so popular the dating site began to use her in promoting the site.

Most people on this site that match with you, it doesn't show you their profile, unless you pay. Ben didn't pay. Neither did Naomi, who also set her match-radius to be 100kms from Brisbane or less. But since the site made Naomi an ambassador, it thought he should see this wonderful girl!

The messages start, and the messages stop. Over the next few months, Ben has seen that his imaginary pearl of great price exists, is real, and possible.

Ben was willing to compromise his ideals for the right woman, as he wasn't unrealistic, and didn't expect someone to have them all. Yet here she was! Everything that Ben had ever dreamed possible in his ideal women, but she wouldn't talk to him, was a whole state away, and he didn't have any way of contacting her except through this app. Unbeknownst to him, Naomi had been so overwhelmed with attention, she had deleted the app!

So, over the next few months, Ben would leave the occasional message to show he was still interested, hopefully without sounding too desperate. The reality was she had stolen his heart, with her self description alone. And no one else ever counted again for Ben from then on.

For years Ben's mother Sherlene had been praying for a wife for her precious son. However two months before Ben and Naomi connected, Sherlene was moved by the Spirit of God to start praying four times a day for her son's future wife.

Naomi's mother Ngaio was similarly praying for her too, getting up at 4am to spend time with the Lord in prayer.

These added to the voices of people already praying for a wife for Pr Ben faithfully over the years, like Ian and Judy Hall, Ben's family, his churches, and a whole lot of others.

There were also beautiful Christians praying for Naomi's husband, such as Maria Rayner, Denise Franklin, Malita Barns and Corrie Taylor.

Since Naomi deleted the app from her phone, to her it was gone, but she had only uninstalled the app, not disabling her profile.

One day when Naomi was browsing her junk mail folder, she discovered a series of messages from Ben, who had never stopped messaging Naomi over the few months of her silence between April - July 2021. Naomi thought about Ben and prayed over what she should do for the next three days.

Then, a dream Naomi had changes everything...

After three days of thinking and praying about Ben and the messages he sent her after she left the dating app, Naomi had a dream with Ben in it.

It was then that she knew she had to reach out to him...

What's amazing is, the same time that Naomi had the dream about Ben, he was being propositioned by another woman, who desperately wanted to marry him...

Pr Ben would rather wreck a rim from a flat tyre, than risk pulling over on the highway, in order to keep himself and others on the road safe. However, for some emergencies he will make an exception.

Naomi's first text message on the 14th of July was just such a significant exception. This one message changed Ben's life for the better, forever.

He immediately pulled over to the shoulder on a busy highway, and replied to the woman of his dreams.

On Zoom calls Naomi showed Ben her greatest passion, her evangelism efforts. He was able to see the little 'Jesus Loves You' tracts that she used in her street witnessing, both in the city and her neighbourhood.

She had a prize collection though, one she couldn't replace, or even find where they were sold.

As she showed him these most precious tracts from her collection, Ben asked her to check the back of the tracts for a familiar logo. It was none other than Signs Publishing Company's Tracts!

Since the previous director of Signs was a personal friend, and Ben knew where the local ABC was, he immediately ordered a pack of everything to be delivered to her door. All from NSW.

In the midst of Queensland slamming its borders shut, Ben and Naomi met for the first time on Christmas day, on opposite sides of the then closed border.

Ben had driven up from Sydney, to meet Naomi one week before the border would allow him to cross over into QLD. Months previously, he had already planned to move there for her, before this momentous day.

From across the border as he glimpsed Naomi for the first time, Ben had the concrete thought that 'I think I just saw my Future Wife for the first time'.

As Naomi was walking up to Ben on the QLD side of the border, the second she locked eyes with him, she wondered if this was the man God had destined her to marry. Ben really could be her future husband!

Soon after Benjamin moved to QLD to pursue Naomi, he was helping her move house and found that her prized possession is her extensive library.

As she was sharing some of her books, Ben was super interested to hear of one of her book's authors, the well-known MR E G White. Although she didn't know who he was, Naomi liked his book, 'Health and Peace'. Ben thought he sounded familiar.

Whilst going through her bookshelf as she was showing him her treasures, Ben found familiar logos in many of them. Bible Readings for the Home Circle was one she treasured dearly, and she loved the author called Arthur S Maxwell, especially his 'Your Bible and You'.

Naomi wasn't a Seventh Day Adventist, and she hadn't ever met any Adventist who had explained to her what it was. So, she didn't know that Mr White was a she, or that the many Review and Herald books she owned, were SDA.

On every shelf, on every bookcase she had, Ben found at least one, if not more, SDA publications. Most of which were Naomi's favourites.

As they got to know each other better, they not only fell deeply in love, but became best friends.

There were so many surprising similarities between Ben and Naomi - it was as if their paths had almost crossed many times before, but God was waiting for the perfect moment in both of their lives, for Him to introduce them to each other, in His divine timing.

They had both grown up in the same areas, and frequented the same places of interest and nature spots on the Sunshine Coast, but never crossed paths until many years later...

Naomi and Ben went to the same school, North Pine Christian College, but alas, Ben had left seven years before she came...

In 2017 Naomi had done DARP, and become close with her facilitator, a kind older gentleman who took Naomi under his wing and began praying with her. What is amazing is that this older friend of Naomi's was also the brother of Ben's life long mentor and best friend! Discovering this close connection, many years later, at a Christmas party that they were all invited to, was quite profound.

Their connecting - during a covid lockdown, online, separated by the harshest border and dwelling in two different states, with Naomi not ever having had a social media presence before... it was truly the Lord working in His most mysterious of ways. And they continue to thank God for doing so.

One year to the day of their first face to face rendezvous,
Ben formally proposed to Naomi in the exact spot where they originally met.
Knowing how much she loves board games and puzzles, he hand made her a wooden jigsaw puzzle.
On the decorated woodwork, was written his proposal.
There was a piece missing from the puzzle, and Ben provided two to choose from - either a 'Yes!', or a 'not yet'... (Spoiler, she chose yes!)