On June 22, 2023, two strangers met at a Qdoba in the SeaTac airport on their way to Mongolia for a mission trip, a meeting that would forever change their lives.

If you ask Jang:

It was around November of 2022 when Mongolia was announced as a mission trip location for the campus ministry I had been part of for about seven years. I had thought about applying for it then, but I wanted to give others the opportunity to go serve in a different country as I had before, but it remained in the back of my mind. About four months later, my friend who was the team leader for the Mongolia trip, Jesse, reached out to me and asked if I’d be willing to go in place of one of the students who dropped from the trip and as always, my answer was, “I’ll pray about it”. Honestly, I just wanted to play hard to get… Just Kidding. I love you Jesse. Anyways, after about a week of prayer, I called him and said… “No”. I felt that the Lord was giving me a choice, so I was choosing not to go. Buuut Jesse requested for another conversation and after some more thought (plus Jesse might have begged me and told me how special I am), I said yes. Within just a few weeks, God miraculously provided the budget I needed for the trip and we were a go. So now to the good part.

My friends and I arrived at the SeaTac airport for our flight to Istanbul and that’s where we first met up with the Fairbanks Chi Alpha team. It was a picturesque first meeting, at a Qdoba, there she was, eating a giant chicken burrito bowl. Her beautiful blue eyes and long curly hair had me entranced. “Hellooo”. ;) Little did I know, I had just met my future wife.

From that point on, I was just glad to have the opportunity to talk to her throughout the trip. Starting with a 14-hour flight, to an 18-hour bus ride, chatting over meals, and during camp, I enjoyed the little talks we had. The more we talked, the more I started to enjoy her company. I was content with the little things we were able to do together, like feeding the horses, getting to sit next to each other for dinner, and making instant rice packs for the team on the bus (Missure Boyardee if I do say so myself). But I got to say, my favorite memory with her, a moment when I thought, “yeah, I like her” was during our 18-hour ride, we were sitting next to each other both looking out the window and we both saw (what no one else happened to see) a giant dingleberry hanging out of a cow. I looked over to see if anyone else saw what I just did and we made eye contact and we both just started cracking up. Then she tells me, “you’re so immature”. I’m immature?! You’re laughing too! Goofball.

After about a week of traveling through Mongolia together, our time had come to an end. Our trip was a week shorter than the Fairbanks’ team as they had another camp to run and we had a flight to catch back to the capitol city for our international trip home. That trip was amazing, but it was a bittersweet moment to say goodbye to Skyler. Thankfully, God had more plans. :)

Upon my arrival home, I kept myself busy with backpacking, float trips, and another mission trip to Bethel, Alaska! After a month or so, the busyness let up and I finally had down time. I was scrolling on Instagram and one of the first stories that popped up was Skyler’s. I had remembered that she was traveling through Japan with her friend and after seeing her story, I wanted to send her a message. After conversing with her for a few minutes and catching up, I worked up the courage to ask her if she’d like to come see me. I stared at the message I had typed to ask her here for about 30 minutes, deleting and editing it multiple times (slightly panicking) and then I just felt like the Lord spoke to me, “you’re going to regret it if you don’t send her this message”. So, thinking that this super gorgeous girl I had met was probably going to say ‘no’, I sent her the message asking her if she’d like to fly down to Anchorage for a weekend camping and fishing trip. I could not believe what I was reading when she replied, “yes, I would love to!” I was over the moon. When I picked her up from the airport a few weeks later, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever met. We had a full weekend of driving to Seward, fishing, camping and talking until 2am, watching the Northern Lights, going to a wedding with her as my plus one, and a rainy drive up to Talkeetna. It was the best weekend/first date in my life. And two weeks later (yes, just two weeks), I knew I wanted to marry her and wanted her to be my wife.

Our first year together was so. much. fun. Although most of our relationship was long distance, God provided a lot of opportunities for her and I to spend time together. We were able to travel together to meet family, go on camping trips with our friends and other fun outings. Being with her has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life and something that I thought I would never be able to experience. During a season within this year of preparation and prayer, I finally decided to pull the trigger and plan my proposal to Skyler. And just three months later, it was go-time.

I invited our parents to fly to Anchorage for a sea kayaking trip in Seward to celebrate Skyler and I’s one year anniversary and (unbeknownst to Skyler) my proposal. I booked us a yurt to stay in (some of that Mongolia nostalgia. Just kidding, that was just luck).

And when it was time, I took her hand and walked her to a driftwood on the beach. I gave her a letter that I had written, really because there was no way I could have memorized everything I wanted to say to her when I proposed. She read the letter out loud and when she was done, I pulled out her ring, got on my knee, and asked her to spend the rest of her life with me and she said yes! What an amazing year this had been. What God provided in the past year has been so much more than what I deserve and had prayed for. It’s been a time that has helped me to grow as a person and a man. I remember as a child my dream was to one day be a good husband and father and as I got older, that dream was replaced with the distraction of other things like school, work and goals to accomplish. But God brought along a beautiful woman to help me fulfill the dream I had once had as a child and rekindled my forgotten dream that I still have as a man. I cannot wait to marry this woman and spend the rest of my life keeping track of our macros together (just kidding babe).

I love you 10000 <3

~~~

If you ask Skyler:

Aside from taking notice to the cute boy on the Anchorage Chi Alpha team, I took an interest in Jang during our flight from Seattle to Istanbul. Let me set the scene for you. I had the WORST SEAT EVER on this 14 hour flight. Stuck in the middle between two (larger) men, who were father and son and spoke no English (at least to me), constantly passing things over me, speaking over me and chatting on facetime during the hours when everyone was trying to sleep, I took every opportunity I could get to jump up and go to an area where I could stand and stretch my limbs. Now guess who was also standing there, yup, Jang. Our conversation began with my typical starter question of, "what was your name again?" Then we proceeded to chat on and off as the seatbelt sign went, anywhere from 10 minutes to 40, just killing as much time as we could. We shared with each other our hopes for the trip, life ambitions, and the basic stereotypical questions of how you get to know someone.

But let me tell you when I REALLY noticed this man.

Aside from his great qualities of helping without ever being asked, taking initiative, leading the most intimidating age group of our camp in Mongolia; high schoolers, and just his all around kind, funny and amazing character, I noticed that everyone on our teams had something nice to say about Jang. Every single person. Even those on my team who were also meeting Jang for the first time. Comments like, "Jang is such a cool guy, Jang did this, Jang did that" and one that really stuck with me from one of his teammates, "Jang is one of the best and most genuine men that I know". Now I'm thinking, okay... this guy must be pretty special. I see you Mr. Jang.

There was a moment, however, that stuck with me when Jang and I were on the bus preparing meals for everyone on one of those beautiful, not a cloud in the sky days. We had one of the conversations that leaves you wanting to know more. Wanting to have more of those conversations with that person and as I walked away from that bus after, with a smile from ear to ear, I heard the Lord whisper, "you just had a conversation with your husband." Of course my reaction was, "haha, yeah okay. Skyler your head is in the clouds".

Little did I know... ;)

Fast forward to August, I'm back in the states. We finished our mission trip to Mongolia and I finished my trip through Japan with my best friend. After all the distractions of travel and fun, someone was on my mind and that someone ended up messaging me and asked if I'd like to meet him in Anchorage and drive down to Seward to fish because he remembered that I LOVE fishing. This man asked me on a date to go fishing and camping. Two of my absolute favorite things to do. Like what?! Dream date. Steal my heart. Of course! During this weekend date, that resulted in not landing a single fish, I did land something... the bouquet at a wedding I was Jang's plus one for. That wasn't awkward at all.. but I guess all of the signs were there! And a year later from the day I flew to Anchorage to meet the boy from the Mongolia trip, I was saying "yes" in the place we went to fish for our first date and landed myself a Fiancé, my soon to be husband, my catch of a lifetime. <3