Now celebrating 40 years of marriage!
This true story was written in 1973 by the husband of the creator of Swiss Valley Shopping Mall.
Philippians 4:19 - "But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." What does this verse really mean? It does not say, "He might supply all your need"; it says, "He shall"!
When Barbara and I became engaged on Valentine's Day of 1972, we knew in our hearts, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that our coming together was of the Lord. That for itself was a miracle!
When I told my boss and all my friends that I was getting married, I shocked the daylights out of them; they did not even know I was going with a girl. As a matter of fact, I even surprised myself how everything developed so quickly, but when you have the Lord as Host and Manager of your life, you just have to stand by and marvel at the way He works!
We had a great deal of good Christian people who gave us all kinds of advice and reasons we could not afford to get married. Humanly speaking, they were so right—we could not! Neither of us had any spare cash. Since Barbara's parents were living over one hundred miles away, and since she was a preacher's daughter with no money, we both had to learn to trust wholly in the Living God to supply our needs. We also learned to put Hebrews 11:6 into practice, for it says, "But without faith, it is impossible to please Him." We really had to learn to believe that "He is" and that "He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."
Well, the word got around very quickly that we were getting married. I got kind of worried and my human reasoning got in the way so many times that I even lost weight over it, but the Lord had to show me what faith really is.
Barbara was working as a church secretary in Lorain, Ohio, where she had been employed for two and a half years. Some friends told her of a girl who had a wedding gown, so she asked her if she would consider renting her gown for that special day. To Barbara's amazement, the gown fit her perfectly and she was honored to have it loaned to her free of charge! That was our first blessing.
There are so many things you have to take care of in planning for a wedding. To save money, I wrote my sister in Switzerland and asked her to buy the rings over there and send them to us. We really got nervous when they did not come as soon as we expected them, but we believe the Lord just tried our patience. When they finally came, we were relieved and so happy to see that the Lord was on the move. Much to our surprise, my sister mentioned in her letter that the rings were a wedding gift from her and her husband!
Among other things, we had to choose our wedding invitations. My friend, who is a professional printer, told us he would sell us some at a good price. Being a Child of the King, I believe in going first class, but when Barbara looked at those invitations, she must have been on "Cloud Nine," because she picked one of the most expensive prints. Yet again, we could see the Hand of the Lord working. Two weeks before our wedding, my friend said, "My wife and I have been wondering what we could give you as a wedding gift and we decided to give you the invitations"!
Then we started to look around for a wedding cake; the prices we saw almost made us run! One evening, a Spanish friend of mine told me that his friend was a baker, so we went and asked him what he could do for forty dollars. The funny part was that the baker did not even know us, but my friend explained that we did not have much money, so he offered to pay twenty dollars out of his own pocket and make us a cake for two hundred people. As you can imagine, we really rejoiced over that!
Now, the next day, we received a phone call from a lady I had met at a prayer meeting nine months previous. Barbara and I picked up the extension phones and listened as she told us that she heard we were getting married and that she was a professional caterer. She said the Lord had laid it upon her heart to bake us a wedding cake!! We were so surprised that neither of us could talk for a minute. Then I caught myself and asked her if she realized how many people we were expecting. She said she was well aware of that fact. We immediately called up the baker and canceled the other cake, rejoicing in the Lord as we did so.
Many times we got so worried over things which seemed impossible in the natural and even tried to "help the Lord out," but the Lord really began to teach us things. It seemed that every time we went to a church, the preacher would preach from the text of Matthew 6:25-30. Obviously, the Lord was trying to tell us something. This happened for about a month and a half. The funny part was whenever we even turned the radio on, the preacher took his text from Matthew, chapter six; so we knew without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord wanted us to trust Him more.
The church in which we were to be married offered to pay for the altar flowers and loaned us their kneeling altar and also all the candles we needed. More than that, to our surprise, when Barbara went to pay for the rest of the flowers, the pastor's wife came running and told her that the church had already taken care of all the flowers!
Since our wedding was in the morning, we had to make arrangements to feed all the people and also put out-of-town guests up overnight. We really began to get shaky, but then we remembered—trust the Lord!
Rev. Ross, who is the Teen Challenge Director, was very kind to let us have the "Koffee Haus" as a reception hall if we promised to have it cleared for the "Koffee Haus" session in the evening. Since a caterer was beyond our budget, we asked a few ladies if they would like to prepare the food. They were more than pleased that we asked them; about ten different ladies donated not only their time, but also all the food! The variety was great; it included baked beans with frankfurters, different kinds of sandwiches, salads, desserts, coffee, punch, et cetera. You name it and we had it! It was like a smorgasbord!
Three ladies volunteered to stay behind during the wedding to decorate the place for the reception. From being in the professional restaurant and hotel business, I can say, a caterer could not have done such a nice job. There was that warm, personal touch behind it all.
Since there were not enough chairs, we had to think of renting some, but again the Lord came on the scene and answered our prayers. A man came and donated just enough chairs and tables two weeks prior to the wedding. My best man told me he never saw anything like it—neither did we!
Before I forget, we had to have a blood test for the marriage license. A doctor, who was a good friend of mine, gave it to us as a wedding gift. This same man also put Barbara's parents up overnight. It seemed like the Lord made us get married!
Two ladies from the church made three shawls for the bridesmaids and one special one for the bride; all were custom made! Also, the flower basket for the flower girl was decorated, filled with flowers, and loaned to us free of charge!
We knew that if all the people we invited would go to the reception, they would have a parking problem, so I asked the funeral director across the street from us if we could use the parking lot for our guests. He said that I could if he did not have any funerals on that day. God saw to it that we got the parking lot. It was quite a miracle, because he never let anybody else use it before.
Since our wedding was not a sad occasion for us, we arranged some gospel music and lots of spiritual food from the different ministers who were present.
Our photographer was also a miracle sent from God. Since he had no studio of his own, his prices were very reasonable. He arranged a beautiful album of twenty-four, size 9 x 12 pictures, at approximately one-third the price of a regular photographer!
To top it off, we went on our honeymoon to Kelley's Island in Lake Erie, a beautiful resort area. Living quarters, including a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom were rented to us for a whole week for only thirty dollars! No one can believe us when we tell them the price we paid. The groceries for that week were given to us by Teen Challenge.
We can truly say that God is still a God of miracles. People in the world shake their head when we tell them, but we know in Whom we have believed!
We'd be quite pleased if you shopped our freshly updated Swiss Valley BridalMall.
For a very long time now, I have enjoyed shopping from the comfort of my home with the convenience of doorstep delivery. It lets me avoid the crowds and take my my good old time browsing without someone breathing down my back, like an impatient husband or salesclerk.
. They are currently offering 
but better hurry! They're offer expires June 30, 2012.
