Almost the greatest love story ever told according to Angela and Reggieepisode 1

Almost 4 years ago I met a young Dutch man who little did I know that a few years later would become the protagonist in my love story. At almost 39 I was beginning to have doubts that I would ever have a love story to tell. I had experienced many encounters with a catalogue of guys but never anything serious as now. I had got close to serious a couple of times both times with Nigerians. I was almost convinced that I was going to marry an African or at least a guy of black ethnicity. A few years ago when I lived and lived with Latins I thought the person would be of Latin heritage. However Dutch was not on my list a friend had jokingly said I was going to marry a German well I guess they were close in geography at least. 

I met this young man at Jesus loves in 2014 where I was on the team as outreach leader and on the ministry team. I remember this young man bounding up to me instantly making friends with. I remember he was larger than life extremely friendly and was kind of bouncing off the ceilings. 

 For the next few days and he would say this himself he followed me around. I kind of found it endearing and annoying at the same time, I was not used to this attention.  As soon as I got home he had added me on facebook and I guess I thought well that's nice. He then proceeded to try to involve me in his life as much as possible. He invited me to come over to Holland for a conference he was running. However he invited another friend to speak at it and me just to be a delegate. I've forgiven him now but only just. I think had he invited me to speak at the event I might have tried harder to go over but as he didn't. I thought to myself I'm not moving my whole life around and spending a ton of money to go over. I mean he's just this crazy Dutch dude who wasn't on my radar at all. I did consider going for a second but then decided it was too much hassle. Now had I gone over that weekend who knows what could have happened perhaps I would be married with a kid by now. 

Stil who knows if he would have been ready he was a lot younger back then and was probably not ready to move to england like he did last year. 

I thought that eventually he would disappear out of my life but he never did. Every few months he would check in with me to see how I was doing. This would include videos and pictures he would send me, occasionally he would tag me in a post on some subject. He ensured that somehow he stayed in my life. I'm not sure if this was altogether conscious but anyway it worked. 

The year after he was at the conference again and this time I took a little more notice of him. Not to the point of thinking that this guy would be the father of my children. Nonetheless I took notice of the way he prayed for example. I remember as precious moment was when we ended up chatting to this gentleman who had something wrong with his knees. I remember Reggie praying with such faith, passion and compassion for the gentlemen it really touched my heart. I realised that he was a spirit filled guy and not only that but quite a powerful one. Then we met a young woman who's little boy was playing in the fountains and we prayed for her she had recently wanted to start going back to church. I believe the story goes something like eventually she did and she met someone who knew reggie and me. Reggie remembers this story far better than I do. He makes up for my terrible memory at times. 

Once again we kept in touch by the beloved Facebook messenger for another year. Only the year after I was in a job where I couldn't get time off for Jesus loves and it was the year that Todd white was coming. I was quite gutted to say the least. Still I sucked it up went online once but not too much because it hurt quite a bit. After all I was an adult and all there was to it. 

Anyway Reggie decided as he was not going  to see me at the conference he would come over to Salford to catch up with me. I should have realised there was more to it than there seemed. Reggie would always play it down and this time he told me he liked a girl at a conference he had been at that weekend. 

It is important to mention that Reggie walked through the doors of the church. That's normal right, but you see God had shown me in some way that my man would end up walking through the doors of Swinton church. So as I was often leading worship I would always look out for who walked through our doors. At the same time I found it hard to believe that my husband would walk through our doors after all we were a congregation of around 40 people. Nevertheless it happened and it was only a few months later that I realised this was a massive confirmation. Apparently when Reggie saw me leading worship he was gobsmacked and I guess even though he didn't realise it at the time fell for me. For him a confirmation was that I was a worship leader. 

Going back to the actual time after hearing about this girl I was very confused because after the church meeting we went for a walk in the park and as we walked round after he rapped his testimony to these kids smoking weed, he put his arm round my neck in a jokey way. Still at the same time at the back of my mind I knew there was more to it. 

This Sunday evening was not a date by any stretch of the imagination though it felt a little like one at least a mates date. I remember him pouring his heart out to me as the sun set behind him. I was thinking this would be perfect if he was my boyfriend. 

You see I was not thinking of him in that way, I can't pretend it hadn't crossed my mind at all but the way it does with countless guy friends. Plus he sinply was not in my life enough for me to take notice. Even that trip I remember him talking about how he wanted to move to England but it never seemed to work out until now. 

I remember thinking you've said this so many times and well it never happens, quite honestly I never thought he would how wrong could I be.