Christian Local Couple Finds True Love Online

It was all those e-mails, phone calls, and miles apart that actually brought this couple closer together.

This farmer from Oregon would say that love is like an egg. On the outside, sure, they can be all kinds of different colors. But what he wants is on the inside.

Tom Dumont says, "When you're dating, especially long distance, you don't have the physical part that can distract you. you're forced to get to know each other on the phone."

Dumont decided to give online dating a try. He says he went through a few bad eggs closer to home. And even when he started trading e-mails with Erin, a farmer's daughter from Illinois, his search might have been over, but it definitely wasn't easy.

He says, "Both my brothers thought I had gone off the deep end. I might as well have bought a Russian bride. Erin's family was the same. Her sister send me an e-mail with about 100 questions."

Some would say their love story got off to a late start. Erin and Tom have both gone through tough marriages and when they met in San Francisco for their first date her flight landed five hours late.

Erin says, "It was just agony to wait five minutes more. I waited 43 years to get this man. He was worth waiting the extra five hours for."

Tom adds, "We had one date and to be honest with you I wanted to marry her right then."

But Tom says Erin is the more rational one. She wanted to wait a little longer to start their fairy tale. But sort of like the song, this story reads "the farmer takes a wife"--five months later.

Tom says, "Gosh, I feel like I'm cheating. We haven't disagreed and if we have we talked and it was over. We have a relationship that I would say is extraordinary."

The pair still exchanges their share of letters, but now as a family, playing scrabble, and under the same roof.

Timing was perfect for Erin and Tom. They met on a Christian dating site called "Love and Seek". After their love connection that site shut down. They say knowing they shared the same values was the perfect starting point to their relationship. And it has kept them together for five years.

source: ktvl.com

A Dating Book I Actually Sort Of Liked

I accidentally meandered over to the Christian dating section at Barnes and Noble yesterday. As a rule, I’d stopped reading Christian dating books in college when I realized that all of them were written by happily married women who met their equally Christian husbands in high school or college. Sorry, ladies, but you simply cannot understand how it feels to "wonder" if that’s your story. I remember hearing from a couple at a Christian conference who refrained from kissing until they were engaged and another whose then-boyfriend had come to visit her at her out-state-school and slept in his car rather than the couch in her living room in order to "avoid temptation." This stuff just sounded unrealistic and unnecessary to me so after swallowing "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" by Joshua Harris (world’s most famous Christian dating book!), I went at it without literary assistance.

So — back at B&N yesterday — I found this book by comedian Kerri Pomarelli and the description jumped out at me: Kerri said she wrote the book because she was tired of authors with the ‘I didn’t meet my husband until I was seventeen, and I’m so glad I waited’ story. Puh-lease. So I flipped through the hilarious and heartbreaking book, formerly titled "If I’m Waiting on God, What am I Doing in a Christian Chat Room?" Kerri takes the reader through her adventures in online dating and real life relationship drama. It was nice to hear from a woman who truly understood the struggle of the 20-something dating scene. Her weaknesses for certain types of men, consistently reconnecting with ex-boyfriends who were bad for her and going out with the "perfect" guy but not finding any chemistry are all chronicled on these pages. I walked away thinking Kerri and I would have A LOT to talk about.

In the end, Kerri ended up with a 14-month dating dry spell before meeting her husband, a guy she’d never considered and had been setting friends up with. So hers is another happy story and a reminder that most people end up with one of similar joy if they just wait for the right one. I honestly believe that though a lot of people get fed up and settle for "not quite but good enough." She didn’t reveal the happy ending in the book, but I tracked down her website because I liked her so much. If you are looking for funny book that doesn’t cut corners about real life on the 20-something dating scene, check out "Guys Like Girls Named Jennie" by Kerri Pomarelli.

Source

Christian dating via text messaging

The Jewish Journal of greater L.A, CA

When I was graduating high school and entering college, there was a book by Joshua Harris that was gaining traction among evangelical Christians. It was called “I Kissed Dating Goodbye,“ and what it meant for a few of my friends was kissing their girlfriend goodbye.

To be fair to Harris, the book’s focus was on growing closer to God by giving up dating—a cause the Apostle Paul, and this lowlier apostle, would support. But the book convinced a good many Christian women I knew—for some reason, never men—that they really shouldn’t date. Period. Instead, they should meet someone and if that someone seemed special, they should court; if the courtship survived, then they should get married. Placing purity at a premium, the model overemphasized precaution as a means of avoiding temptation.

I’ve been out of the dating game for quite a few years now, so I’m not privy to today’s M.O. Several of my friends have met their match online, which would have been unthinkable when I was single. And it appears a few companies, according to an email I received from dating-service BluePont, are hooking Christians up via text messaging:

Most Christians truly believe that God orchestrates our love stories. That might sound romantic but it’s true. At the same time, for many Christians, meeting that special someone in the “typical” places like church groups and events hasn’t worked—whether because they’ve been there, done that, or they simply don’t have the time. And most Christians are not going to be looking for their soulmate in secular places like bars and clubs!

So, what’s a single Christian to do?

More here

Church to host Christian singles event

Single Christian adults are invited to St. Paul's United Methodist Church at 2000 Shutterlee Mill Road from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday for a Christian Adult Singles Evening. Free child care will be provided. Donations will be accepted for dinner. RSVP by Thursday to 886-2317.