I was born and raised in Honduras in a family of seven kids (five sisters, two brothers).  I am the third one in the family. My father is a farmer and my mother always stayed at home with us.  I always went to church, but didn't make a true commitment with Jesus Christ until I was about sixteen years old.  I remember at time discovering the power that exists in prayer and I remember one of the first heart-to-heart prayers I had was when I asked God for a husband.

That was almost twenty years ago.  Many years went by and I kept praying for that husband every day of my life.  Meanwhile, after I finished a three-year degree in a technical school for community development, I got a job at World Vision Honduras as a program director for community development in the south of Honduras.  My job was to train community leaders as well as church leaders in community development, leadership training, evangelism, and technical skills.   I worked alongside of organizations like CARE and Peace Corp.   While I was working with World Vision I met my friend Sandra who was working there in public relations.  That's where our friendship began.

When I had first prayed for a husband, I gave God a list of things that my heart desired in the man that would be my husband.  I prayed very specifically.  I wanted a man that was raised in a Christian home, with moral values and a similar faith to mine, I wanted a man that would be tall, who would be single, never divorced, a man who would not have gone steady with anybody before (I thought it was too much to ask, but I really wanted to be his first love.)  I also asked that this man would love children above many other things, who would like to lead the kind of life that I enjoyed: in the country, away from the noise of the city.  At the risk of meeting your disbelief, I'll also share the last quality I asked: that he would have a birth mark on his back.  Then I would be sure!

One day, at two in the afternoon, in my mother's home while I was on vacation, I took a nap and had only closed my eyes, but had not yet gone to sleep.  I heard a voice say three times in my ear, "Martha, your husband is an engineer."  I looked to see who was talking but no one was in the house.  When my mother came, I was crying and she asked me why.  I said I had heard a voice say to me, "Your husband is an engineer."  She said to me, "It must have been a dream."  Other people told me that I was crazy.  But I was not sleeping and I’m not crazy.  I know the voice was real.

Later, I spoke about it with my sister in faith, Idolina, and she told me to pray every day thanking God for my engineer.  She taught me to pray believing specifically for an answer to all the things I had asked Him for in a husband.

I came to the US because a ten year project at World Vision had ended.  It was like the end of a long journey and I, being single with nothing to worry about, felt like I needed a change.  I had worked for a total of twelve years at World Vision and had never done much for myself.  So I decided to do something radical and I left Honduras and told my family that I was going to visit Sandra and I didn't know when I would return.  Little did I know that I was also coming to meet Paul.   At that point I was tired of praying and at times doubted that God would ever answer my prayer.

When I first saw Paul, it was in a picture Sandra showed me of her husband's family.  I remembered the moment I saw his picture he pierced my heart.  Later when I had a chance to meet him I was so nervous I could hardly stand up.  I must confess I saw him like a star - so far, so unreachable.  But  I kept praying.  Paul seemed to show some interest at first, but it all seemed to vanish.  So I was depressed and had lost all hope.   But I couldn't forget Paul.  Many people tried to discourage me from being hung up on him and I had other chances to meet other men but there was not one day that I stopped thinking or talking about Paul.  Sandra witnessed the many days when I could not sleep and could never get Paul out of my head.  Finally, I decided that it was better to be single all my life than to marry the wrong man.

Not long before I was planning to go back to Honduras, I saw Paul again and this time everything went on smoothly to the point that during this trip I often asked Sandra to pinch me to see if all this was truly happening.  I was afraid it would end any minute.  But contrary to that, soon after that we were engaged and now the greatest dream I've ever had has come true.  My prayer of almost  twenty years has finally been answered.  God is faithful and I praise with all my heart for that.

Yes, I love Paul with all my heart.  He is everything to me.  He's my precious gift from God.  There is no one like him in the whole earth.  He's so much more than what I deserve and now that we're married it is my desire to honor God in our marriage, our home and our family.  I want to spend my time praying so that it will be like that.

I know that my marriage will also bring new challenges to my life, but I know that with God's help in my life and with Jesus as my Lord and Savior I lack nothing.

I want to share the verse that was on our wedding invitation,  "Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness"  (Psalm 115:1).