Joel Kimpela is a recent graduate of Georgetown University. He was captain of the football team, but more importantly, led the Transformers men's Life group for 3 years. He now works for Oracle in Northern, VA and is volunteer staff for Chi Alpha. You can follow him on Twitter.
I met my fiancé in Chi Alpha at Georgetown University. As an 18 year old freshmen in college, it's not as if I went to school looking for a wife but God granted me a “good and perfect gift” (James 1:17) when He introduced me to Kimberly Portes. She was beautiful, loving, caring and most importantly she loved Jesus.
During our Chi Alpha Mission trip to Atlanta, Georgia freshmen year, I witnessed Kim love, serve, and pray for the people we came across. Her passion for Jesus and people attracted me in ways that I could never have imagined. Over the course of our spring semester, I watched Kim’s faith grow tremendously. Her passion for justice and equality challenged my way of thinking about the world around me and the kind of role our God played in all of it.
The more I got to know Kim that semester, the more I was drawn to her. We began to spend a lot of time together that year and our conversations, whether serious or silly, always flowed with such ease. Kim and I started dating our sophomore year of college. As the very first Georgetown Chi Alpha couple, we prayed that God would make us examples of a healthy relationship on our campus. Funny thing is, I believe God answered our prayers when He allowed us to be interviewed by Georgetown University’s Take Back The Night campaign this past semester. When asked what a healthy relationship looked like we said:
"A healthy relationship is selfless. For us, a healthy relationship is centered not around the other person, but around God. We find it easier to love one another when our value is found in God. In our relationship, we are reminded we must love one another similar to how Christ loves us--selflessly and completely. We learned that the more we seek and fall in love with God, the more we have the capacity to love each other in a way that honors our own stories."
I think that generally some people may have a skewed image of marriage. The thought of being committed to one person for the rest of your life may scare some folks. I know that it scarred me at first. But I learned that in marriage, “God calls you to display the love that God has shown you to the precious person made in his image that he has joined you to.” Marriage is the best picture that describes how God's love for us looks like despite our sinful nature.
Kim and I are now engaged and on June 16th, 2018 we will become one with the name Mr. & Mrs. Kimpela. Our prayer is that God will continue to teach us both how to best love one another in the way that He loved us. With a love that is persistent, sacrificial, and forgiving.
Published August 2, 2016 (Updated at 4:23pm) • Short Link: http://bit.ly/2ahCtt8
