Menu
If the ring fits ... Surprised parisioners witness pastor's wedding
HAYES CENTER -- The story of Russ and Christine Armstrong's love is a Cinderella story -- written and orchestrated by God.
Russ, the minister of Bethel Baptist Church in Hayes Center, and Christine, his bride from Phoenix, Ariz., exchanged wedding vows Saturday before very, very surprised -- yet delighted -- parishioners gathered for the church's second annual Valentine's Day banquet.
Only those involved in the planning of the event -- about 10 people -- knew that Russ and Christine were planning their wedding as the highlight of the banquet. The other parishioners -- probably about 50 or so -- were totally surprised when Christine, dressed in a white satin bridal gown and veil, stepped from behind a curtain, paused under an arbor of vine and twinkling lights and sang "Love will Build a Bridge," to her fiancé waiting at the front of the church.
"Well, how 'bout that!?," gushed parishioner Curtis Bodeman, a smile spreading from ear-to-ear.
Johnny Walker of Trenton performed the ceremony, which included Communion and the lighting of the unity candle.
Encouraged by Walker, Russ shared "the story of the rings" with the people who had just witnessed the vows Russ and Christine made.
Russ explained that his minister suggested that "maybe he was meant to be single, like the Apostle Paul," when Russ's first marriage failed. "Oh, no. No, I'm not," Russ said he told his minister adamantly.
Russ prayed, and counseled, and prayed, and counseled. Then he did just a little bit more. Russ went to a jeweler, bought a wedding band and a wedding ring, and began to pray to God to find him a life-mate.
"I prayed to God to give me a bride that the ring would fit," Russ said. He explained, "I knew if the ring fit, the match would be from God."
He laughed with his parishioners, "I slept alone with these rings for six years." He beamed at Christine, "It took me six years, but I found my life-mate."
After the ceremony, Russ explained more. He and Christine found each other by filling out questionnaires on the eHarmony.com service.
They started e-mailing each other in December. E-mails became telephone calls -- "hundreds of hours on the phone" -- Russ said. "I felt we knew each other deeply," Russ said.
Christine said the eHarmony questionnaire is a series of more than 500 questions that helps to eliminate potential matches who don't have "honest desires."
The depth of the questions and answers reveal truth in character, Christine said. "It weeds out people who don't have a true heart," she explained.
After just a month or so, through e-mail conversations and telephone calls, what helped Christine feel that Russ was the man she was meant to be with?
"The first time Russ and I spoke verbally, not on e-mail, he asked, 'Can we start in prayer?,' and we prayed," Christine said, smiling with the memory. "That's when I knew ... that's when I fell in love with him."
In January, Russ and Christine met -- face-to-face for the first time-- on a little wooden bridge in the Encanto "Enchanted" Forest in Arizona. "I waited on that bridge," Russ said. "And it was instant chemistry. I knew God had me right where He wanted me."
"I held her hands, and I prayed to God to let all the connections happen," Russ said. "I told Christine I was in love with her. And we prayed and had communion on that bridge, and talked about making an unbreakable covenant before God."
Both Russ and Christine see as God's confirmation that the ring Russ purchased six years before fit Christine perfectly.
What if the ring hadn't fit? "Then the match wouldn't have been right," Russ explained. "I knew if the ring fit, it would be God's doing."
"I got to see Christine the next day," he said, laughing, "I guess I didn't scare her off."
Russ met Christine's parents, and returned to Nebraska, but not before asking Christine to marry him.
Christine said, "Russ opened his heart to me, and asked me if I would consider being at home with him, helping with his ministries, and being beside him in his church." She added, "This was another confirmation that God was answering my prayers."
She explained: "It was never my desire to be in the corporate world," said Christine, who resigned last year after 15 years in the world of big business. "For the past 15 years, my heart's desire has been to minister to my husband and my home, and to serve God."
Christine knows she can live and love happily in the small community of Hayes Center. "The Hayes Center church family is absolutely amazing," she said, explaining that several -- including witnesses Barry and Marion Richards of rural Hayes Center -- were in on the planning of the wedding and vowed to keep all the plans a secret until Christine appeared at the back of the sanctuary dressed in bridal white.
"Russ did all of this," Christine said. "Russ asked me to allow him to bless me with the wedding of his vision."
She laughed, "He asked me to just show up in my wedding dress and be prepared to be blessed."
The wedding went off without a hitch. And almost all of the parishioners raised their hands and laughed when Russ asked, "Okay, so how many of you did NOT know about this?"
But, as it turned out, not all the surprises were Russ's and Christine's.
Christine's daughter, Shaylynn, surprised Russ with a question that brought tears to his eyes. Shaylynn said -- in the form of a toast to the newlyweds and a welcome to two new brothers -- "While Russ and I were dancing our 'daddy-daughter dance' up there, I asked him if I could also change my last name to Armstrong." Shaylynn smiled through the tears, "And he said 'yes'."