How we became "The Gamble Family"

Being that this is my first blog entry on our family blog - it seemed appropriate to briefly cover a bit of history.

My name is Justine Gamble - this is how I met my Husband - Bill Gamble.

In September of 1997, I began looking for a church home. I had recently moved back to Oregon and had not attended church since being back. Needless to say - it was time to return.

My first visit to a church, was acutally to a college retreat with Beaverton Foursquare Church. It was getting late, most people had gone to bed. Seeing as how I am not the most social person, it was great timing - far less people to socialize with. (I need to preface the upcoming info with the fact that anytime my Husband tells the story of how we met, it is grossly exagerated - I will tell you how it really was)

I sat down at a table full of people playing cards - a game called speed, which I had never played before. I joined in the next hand and tried to keep up, when all of a sudden the word sh** came out of my mouth. ( Did I mention before that it was time to return to church?) Anyway, the game quickly went from speed to freeze. The person to my right was my future Husband.

Flash forward. April of 1998 - I had been attending Beaverton Foursquare Church for about 6 months, making lots of friends and keeping options open for "Mr. Right". Another retreat was coming up - It was the perfect opportunity to get away from everyday life and pray about what it was the Lord wanted for me, instead of what I wanted for me. The first night of the retreat, I asked the Lord to remove any desires from my heart that were not what he wanted for me and replace them with what he did want for me. Do you know that the very next morning I told my room mate that "I need to get to know that Bill guy better". She was pretty surprised, and to be honest so was I. You see, I tended to date men that were not on the tall side, as I am just barely 5 feet tall, and just under 100 pounds. Now Bill on the other hand, 6 ft 6in and 260ish pounds at that time.

Well that was mid April of 1998. We had our first date on May 1st of 1998 and by Fourth of July weekend that year, we were having a ring made. Now this is not something I would like to hear from any of our daughters, but it was what the Lord wanted for us. We were married one year from our 1st date on May 1st 1999.