Ok, it's getting close to our Anniversary so, on with the rest of the story (or the next part anyways). So as we have said, after that first day we met (only having spoken 10 words to each other) we pretty much went our own separate ways. I probably only thought about Zac 1 or 2 other times in the next 7 months and in my mind it was pretty much history. Well, around May 14th I got a message on my cell phone from Harold, making sure that I understood he was not pulling any funny business nor trying to set me up (cause he knew how I felt about that) but that the people from FL (who they had met at Perry Stone) were going to be up at our church that Sunday and they had invited Zac to come with them. So, about 7 months after the first time I met him, ( Just so you know, 7 means completion) Zac shows up at my church on May 18th 2008...just another weird coincidence THATS MY BIRTHDAY! I was still determined that no one was going to set me up. That sunday morning during greeting I went over to say hello to Kevin Chisholm, his wife Holly and their son Peyton but did not speak with Zac at all. In fact, when I got to them Zac turns his back and starts speaking with someone else...how rude I thought! Well, then I figured if he is interested he is just going to have to come seek me out. After the service I hung out in the sanctuary for a while waiting on everyone to leave so I wouldn't run into him. Wouldn't you know I walked into the foyer and ran right into him. Zac said hello, shook my hand and then immediately turned around and walked out the door (he will tell you his version later (; ).
The next morning, Marla called me and asked me if she could give Zac my number, she voiced knowing that I had bible study that night and probably wouldn't be able to do anything since Zac was leaving on Tuesday. In my head I thought "oh boy hear we go" and was reluctant but said that would be fine and in fact bible study had been canceled and moved to Tuesday. So, Zac called me on Monday May 19th and I of course let the phone ring so he had to leave a message. When I called him back I told him that we could go have dinner but that I did not want to go with just me and him so I invited some friends to come along. At dinner Zac hit if off real well with the other guy that came along but did not hardly speak to me. To shorten the story a little I will not go into all the details of that night. Basically after the evening ended I took Zac back to his car totally thinking this was a flop, he didn't have a good time, and once again saying that was that.
The next day was my very first day of working at the hospital and it was great, I loved it. After work we had bible study so I came straight back and picked up mom and a friend and headed to bible study. When I got in the car, mom tells me that someone brought something by work for me and at first I was like...what??? She had a huge grin on her face and said...you'll see. Well, at about 9:30 when I got home there were 12 yellow roses sitting on the table with a card from Zac. I still wasn't sure how I felt about it, and I didn't call him right away to say thank you, instead I called Harold and Marla and asked them if they had anything to do with this...they of course said no, they didn't. It was too late to call Zac at that time so I told them I would call him tomorrow. Well, Harold being the fatherly type knew that Zac was probably on pins and needles and called him that evening to let him know that I had received the flowers and that I would call him tomorrow (thank goodness for men like him!). So, the next day I called and left a message (it was Wednesday and i knew he would be at church and I wouldn't have to speak to him...terrible I know) telling him thank you for the flowers. He called back and left a message saying that he would be back next weekend and wanted to know if I would like to do something. I later found out that Harold had told him not to ask me if he could come back down, but to TELL me he was coming back down and then see if I wanted to hang out. I had to ponder and pray about that one for a while, I was starting to wonder what God was doing. I finally called him back and said that yes I would do something with him if he came back down, he was SO excited on the phone he could hardly contain himself. Mom was sitting on the couch when I was talking to him and I had to hold the phone away from me because I could not stop laughing. He probably said the phrase "that just blesses my heart" about 5 times while I was on the phone with him, and when I asked him if he would like to go for a hike he busted out with "that's what was in my spirit to do" which I thought was strange at the time. He later told me that he had a dream that we had went hiking.
On Friday May 23rd after a long day of work, we went out to eat at Lou Lou's in Sylva. It was all kind of strange because I was at a point that I usually would not have gone out to eat with just a guy, but for some reason this time I did. Well, we were enjoying our dinner and Zac pipes up and says "I gotta tell you something" immediately I thought Oh no, here we go. Zac continues and says "I want you to know this now, so that you can get out quick or run if this scares you", I am thinking...What in the world is going on? He says "I am called to preach" and then looked at me as if I would jump up and tear out of there right then. I just looked back at him and said "ok". He said "I just wanted to let you know that now, so you didn't think "hey I got myself and engineer", as if we had been dating for a couple months or something. Anyways, we got over that hump and finished our dinner. We had a really good time chatting and talking about the things of the Lord and also finding out many more things that we had in common. After leaving the restaurant we decided to walk down mainstreet and up to the court house in Sylva. We sat on the top of the court house steps over looking Sylva for a while and talked about the things of God. In the midst of that conversation Zac turns to me and asks "Would you ever gut a deer?" which I thought was a rather strange question to be asking but when I said yes (blood and guts is no thing to me, I worked at a vet for years, and now work at a hospital) Zac jumps up from where he is sitting runs in a circle and sits back down...STRANGE don't you think??? Well many weeks later Zac reminds me of that episode and tells me that he used to joke with people at his church that he knew it would be the women he would marry when of course she loved the Lord, but if he ever killed a deer she would help him gut it. It was a sure sign I was the one...haha
As we were walking back down the courthouse steps it started to sprinkle (how clinche) as we reached the bottom of the steps I stopped and turned to Zac and just shared my heart with him. I told him that I was not here to date just to date, that I had prayed for my husband for a really long time and I was not willing to continue something that was not God ordained and purposed for marriage (I had been through it to many times before, hanging out with someone who is not the one only brings confusion and hurt in the long run). I told Zac that if this was not from the Lord then we didn't need to carry this out any further. Apparently Zac already knew at this point what the Lord wanted for the both of us, cause he just said ok, Ill see you tomorrow for our hike...
So the next day Zac shows up at my house and we head out for a hike with my best friend Becky (she was there for moral support). Little did we know that all through out the day Becky had been snapping pictures of us as we would hike up to waterfalls or sit out on the cliff...what a precious memory. We both found out so much about each other that day and so many more things in common (I am trying to make this verrry long story somewhat shorter so I will leave out all those details).
That evening after eating dinner, we rode back home in complete silence except for some Hillsong worship music playing softly. For some reason I had this feeling come over me that was overwhelming. I felt like I wanted to get back home as fast as I could so that Zac could get out of the car and go home. I wanted to run so far in the other direction, it was not even funny. Basically I was scarred because here sat this man who was turning out to be everything that I had prayed for. We pulled into the driveway and sat in silence for a few more mintues and the feeling grew, then Zac (being the discerning man that he is) started praying over me and speaking things over my life that were amazingly spot on and exactly what I had written in my prayer journal. He started speaking about covering and bringing forth what God had placed inside of me. I could not speak, only sit there and wonder...Lord what is going on. When Zac finally got out of the car I sat there and cried for a good 30-45mins asking the Lord to give me some kind of direction because I was convinced I was not going to continue this any further if this was not the man.
When I went back inside I took out my prayer journal and the journal I have kept for my husband to be and started reading and praying, searching for answers. This is what I found...on Oct 10th 3 days before I met Zac I prayed "Lord I come to you tonight seeking guidance and direction for the next few days. Lord do I go to this conference or stay here in Franklin? Please give me some insight into Your will for the next few days. Lord I want to in the place where You can use me, the place that You have already destined me to be no matter how small or big Your plans may be." Ok...strange. Then I picked up the journal I have kept for my husband and started to read the entries that lead up to the days I met Zac. Fom the time I started my journal in 2005 until Sept 30th 2007 I had always prayed along the lines of asking the Lord to help me be patient, help me wait on his timing and asking Him to keep me until that time. But around Sept 30th I was reading in Genesis how Adam and God were in such close communion and Adam walked with and talked to God and yet God said it was not good for man to be alone. So, I started changing how I prayed and on Sept 30th, Oct 2nd, Oct 8th, and Oct 11th (two days before I met Zac) this is what I prayed "Lord bless him and keep him. Lord bring him to me so that he is not alone. Lord Your Word says that it is not good for man to be alone. Lord don't let him struggle in this life. Father I ask that if it is better for him to be with me then I am ready Lord and I will love him with the love that You have given me." Also as I was remembering things I recalled a time when I had been talking to a guy named Zack Rusch and I had asked a close trusted friend to pray that I would not get into anything that was not of God (cause once again I didn't want to date just to date) and the person who had been praying about this situation came back to me and said "I don't know Bek, the only thing I kept getting as I was praying was "Zack no Rush". Ok at the time I didn't really know what that meant...but NOW with another Zac in the picture it was pretty astonishing.
So I went to bed that evening with all this stuff on my heart seeking God and His will for my life, and I truly believe that He began to seal all of this in me as I slept that night. I woke up the next morning and actually woke up my mom around 7am to share everything with her that I had uncovered the night before. Mom looked me right in the eyes and said "Well Bekah you having been praying about the man you were going to marry for a while, did you not believe that God would do it" Ok that was a wake up call and her statement really stuck with me. I had been praying so long and here I was trying to doubt and discredit what was going on. That morning I taught Sunday School and the Holy Spirit was speaking through me and Zac was there to listen ( I had always pictured the man falling in love with me as I spoke God's Words). So I decided that I was going to share everything that I had found out the night before with Zac and just lay it all out on the table. As I was sharing all this stuff with him (which was pretty scary) I looked over at him and just started to laugh (at this point after all God had done...this was too much) I realized that for the past several years me and my younger brother had a running joke because I had told JJ that I knew when I met my husband he was going to be wearing a yellow shirt (I had a dream once) and we would always joke when we would see a guy with a yellow shirt on that maybe he was the one. Well I look over and Zac is wearing a button up yellow shirt, I stopped talking, picked up my cell phone and called JJ "JJ what color shirt did I say it was when I knew it was the man for me"..."Yellow, why? whats going on....did you met him???" "Um Ill call you back".
After I had shared all that with Zac I started to think about Zac showing up on my birthday and the fact that I wasn't even supposed to be there that day, I was supposed to be running a race in Asheville, then headed to the beach with a friend, which all got canceled. In fact the race got canceled, my beach trip got canceled, my first day of work got moved to Tuesday instead of that Monday, and bible study was canceled...a coincidence...I think not. Zac began to share with me all the things that had gone on, on his end (which you will get when you hear his side of the story) and I was blown away with everything God did to bring us together.
The next morning I woke up and mom and dad were sitting in the kitchen (now remember it has only been a week) and I told them that Zac was THE ONE, and then I went to breakfast with Harold and Marla and the first thing I asked them was "when did you know" and of course they played it off like they had no clue what I was talking about but they could not keep the grins off of their faces...they had know for a while that Zac was the one.
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