How we met:

1996: Gilbert and Virginia met at a Chi Alpha conference in Alabama . He thought, “Who is this girl? I’d like to meet her.” Immediately Gilbert felt the Lord tell him, “She is Mine!” Virginia belonged to the Lord, as a result, there was a fear of the Lord in Gilbert as he interacted with Virginia .

1997: Virginia traveled to the Urbana conference in the US . She visited various universities with Chi Alpha and shared with Gilbert and his group in Santa Barbara . Gilbert and Virginia traveled together to Chico where Virginia stayed and ministered. Their friendship solidified as they realize that they share the same vision. In July, Gilbert traveled to Argentina with a group of Chi Alpha university students. Once again Gilbert and Virginia experience great friendship with a purpose. Virginia recalls, “What impacted me about Gilbert was that when I spent time with him, I would always come away feeling a bit closer to God.”

1998: Virginia began her theological studies in Canada . Gilbert was preparing to go to Costa Rica to polish his Spanish before he could go on the foreign missions field. Gilbert visited Virginia in Canada . When they attended church during Gilbert’s visit, the message that was shared was about the life of Abraham and Sarah and being able to wait with patience for God’s timing to receive the thing desired and the thing promised.

1998-2000: Years of silence! Gilbert moved from Costa Rica to Argentina and Virginia moved from Canada to the Philippines . They did not communicate with one another in any form during these years!

April, 2001: A ring, a dream, Argentina . Virginia returned to Argentina “Just a few weeks after I returned to the Philippines , I dreamed that I was in a restaurant with Gilbert and he was taking off a ring and proposing marriage to me. When I woke up I laughed because I thought it was absurd because in all the time I had been in Argentina we had just barely seen each other. A few days later, he called me and invited me to his house to celebrate the birthday of some mutual friends. I went and while we were in the kitchen, he said to me, ‘What dream did you have of me a few days ago?’ I was petrified and breathless. I didn’t answer him and I changed the subject. Gilbert had asked the Lord to speak to me before he Gilbert talked to me and God answered his prayer. Before I left Argentina , Gilbert spoke to me about his desire for us to begin a dating relationship. I was speechless because my intention was to return to the Philippines for another year. Being Gilbert’s girlfriend was not in my plans. Here is where God used a friend, Rev. Rocky Grams, to help me stop, hear, and discern what God was saying to me.” ( Virginia )

May 2001: Gilbert and Virginia confirmed their dating relationship via the telephone and continued their dating relationship by e-mail, phone, and letters. She was in the Philippines and he was Argentina .

September 2001: Virginia returned from the Philippines to Argentina . A pastor’s wife and good friend, Rita Vena, prayed for her and shared with her this message from Song of Songs 2:10-13, “My lover spoke to me and said to me, ‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.’”

December 2001–January 2002: Their relationship deepens and grows and they travel to the US late December/January. On January 5, 2002, during her devotional time, Virginia read Genesis 18:14. It is about God taking Abraham out of Abraham’s limited space in his tent and directing his attention to the stars in the sky. God asked him, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” That same evening, Gilbert proposed marriage to Virginia at Goleta pier, where the sky was clear and the stars were bright. Engaged, they return to Argentina .

“Day after day we learn to wait with joy for God’s timing for our lives, to accept with confidence from God the “no” along with the “yes”—free from the bitterness of the past and the anxiety of the passing of time, due to the fact that in maturity there is more docility to God’s will.”

Virginia & Gilbert