Lookin’ Back To When We First Met (Part 1)

18 years ago, in 2004, Kopo & I met for the first time. I had just gotten back from doing a DTS(Discipleship Training School) in Samoa. I was 19 & decided to volunteer at Acquire the Fire, this was a 2-day Christian youth event of about 10k people. I went yearly with my youth group but now that I was 19, I volunteered for a free weekend! I knew the guy organizing it in Sacramento so I got a much coveted volunteer spot on the floor (the event was at the Arco Arena). When it came to assigning volunteers to the nosebleeds, no one would volunteer. I knew that my spot could be easily filled so I offered up my floor spot and headed to the tippy top of the arena for my new assignment. Good thing I did bc little did I know that Kopo was up there with his youth group. Well not exactly, it was the English speaking service’s youth group(His dad is a pastor at a Nazarene church that has services in different languages, His dad pastors the Samoan congregation). Anyway, I didn’t know all this info then obviously, Kopo filled me in later. Anyway, Kopo was forced to go w/his younger sister so that’s why he was there. I saw him & immediately knew he was Samoan but didn’t want to totally creep him out so I just asked if he was Polynesian 🤣 we talked for a min or two then his elevator came and he headed out to lunch. I didn’t think much about it as I talk to everyone so I went about my day manning the elevator – that was my job along with usher and random stuff throughout the weekend. Later that evening during offering I was passing the bucket and i heard “hey girl, girl!” I turned to see Kopo (or the nameless guy from earlier as we never exchanged names) trying to get my attention. He introduced himself as James 😆 and asked about my time in Samoa. I told him how much I loved his country & people & how I’d been wanting to find a Samoan church to go to because I missed it. He then shared that his dad was a pastor of a Samoan speaking church & I was excited at the thought of going but then realized we were 2hrs away from where I lived and i had no idea where he lived. Turned out his church was only about 20min away from me so I told him I’d go visit the next day. He wrote his home number down on a gum wrapper (we didn’t have cell phones 👵🏽) and said, “but if you call the house, ask for Kopo” 😂😂😂

I ended up writing a bit about meeting him and going to his church on my xanga page, and I found the post. Enjoy this deep dive in the archives from 19yo Crystal:

Anyway, let’s move on to a better subject, like..sunday!! Soo…this weekend as i volunteered at ATF i met a 19 year old kid from SAMOA!! oh my goodness i was SOO excited. So, his dad pastors a samoan church not that far from my house and me and lynette went on sunday!!i got up and gave a testimony too..lol..classic. YAY!! then afterwards we went to their house and i swear it was like i was in samoa..oh it was wonderful. their family is so very sweet and the food was SOOO yummy. So yummy in fact that my puletasi got kinda tight..lol..i can’t believe i am sharing this, but man with the information people post on their sites, i got no shame!! anyway- back to my tight puletasi, so Kopo(the kid i met)’s mom gave me a muumuu to wear..good times..then it was on to dessert!!! then it was onto the gym this morning at 5:45am for the ab class…. alright, that is about it. have a sunshine day, even though the weather here is crap! boo!

So there you have it, part one of a very long story with many twists and turns. I’ll write a part 2 and 3 in the coming months. We’ve been through a lot since that day and it’s incredible to see the hand of God all throughout our relationship, from our early days as best friends to losing touch to reconnecting to dating then breaking up and getting back together, engagement, marriage and now with 2 kids. What a journey! The Lord has been so kind to us & we love looking back to see all the details He has woven together to create the beautiful story that is ours ❤️