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Let's see where to begin...some of you know us and know our story so you don't have to read all of this, but basically it's like this:
Brian grew up in Memphis, TN and became a believer in Jesus at the age of 17. Stacey grew up in a little town in Texas and became a believer when she was about 9. Both of them decided to go to Bible college. Stacey in Kansas and Brian in Missouri. They lived relatively close to each other and their schools played each other in sporting events, but they had no earthly idea the other existed. They both became interested in God's heart for people around the globe and that led them both to take trips to places in Eastern Europe. Brian's first trip was in 2001 where he coincidentaly spent the summer with a girl who would eventually become Stacey's small group leader back at school in Kansas. He later led summer intern teams back there and also spent a summer in Central Asia coaching another team of interns.
When she came back to school in the Fall (after Brian's first trip), God really started working in Stacey's heart to go and share her time and heart with people who needed to know Jesus, and He happened to take her to a country in former Yugoslavia very close to the place Brian's first trip took place (again, they were so close on the map but still had no idea who or where the other was). She went back the next summer as a coach for a group of interns, and then again for a year long internship to the same place after college. After both of our first times overseas we each knew that we were hooked, and this was definitely something God could use our lives for long-term. Still, we didn't meet until we both decided to take a year long position with a student mobilization team at an organization in Kentucky in 2003. That's really where we met and got to know each other. We spent a wonderful year traveling in a minivan with 4 other awesome teammates and got to share with students all over the country (literally coast to coast!) about God's heart for the nations and how they could play a role in that. It was a great year, and we know without a doubt that God brought us there at the same time for a reason. It's becoming more and more clear what that reason must be. Spending hundreds of hours in a van with 5 other people will either make you love those people or hate them, and for us it ended up being more of the loving than the hating, thankfully. As we both prayed for God to give us wisdom about where to go from there, we felt like He had led us both to the person we'd like to spend our lives with...and as it turns out...those feelings were "spot on" as our British friends would say. We were married in August 2005 and have been nothing but blessed by our Father ever since. Times haven't always been easy, and neither of us are anywhere near perfect, but we sure are enjoying learning to live with each other and be teammates for the long haul. We've moved three or four times since we've been married in less than 2 years, and are preparing for a big move in October 2007 back together to the very part of the world that God brought us both to separately so many years ago. So that's the "how we met" part of about us, but honestly, there's a lot more to both of us than we could probably write here. Any of you who know Brian know he's really very smart and thinks he's pretty funny. He loves words and getting to know people, lots of people. He likes to read, play frisbee golf and climb big rocks. He recently (July 2007) had surgery to fix his ACL, and right now Stacey thinks he funnier than ever. He informed her that his nurse, Allen Iverson the NBA star, brought him a blanket when he was cold at the hospital, and he occasionally likes to listen to his Sprite fizz in the glass when he's been given pain medicine. Stacey also thinks she's funny, but not a lot of people laugh at her wit like Brian does (and her parents, they know she's funny and laugh at her constantly). She loves to be artsy even if she's not good at it. Decorating, painting, drawing, and anything to do with design and color is fun to her. She picked up a love of photography from her dad, and she also loves to get to know people and find out what makes them the way they are. She thinks kids are hilarious and wants to have some someday. So that's us in a nutshell...if we left something out you can just ask us about it, but we've probably already told you more than you wanted to hear, except how much we love 80's music. Oh yeah, and coffee. Brian & Stacey G.
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