Now this next part of the story is about how Jesse and I became “The Lancours” – our “love story” if you will. You might be wondering - what does this really have to do with the beginning of Cornerstone Haiti? - but God bringing us together in the way that He did, speaks so much to the pattern of how God has established Cornerstone Haiti and continues to lead us.
Now a little context…
Jesse and I both experienced very intense seasons of healing and refinement in our early 20’s before we even met. We both had our eyes and hearts locked on Jesus as much as we knew how and spent several years of deepening our connection with God. We surrendered all the areas of life that we knew to surrender! That journey still continues of course, but there was a lot of significant repentance and healing in the area of relationships and how we each viewed marriage during that time.
I needed to stop idolizing marriage and have a shift in my beliefs. Marriage would not ultimately bring identity, purpose or fulfill my deepest desires… only Jesus can do that. That would be way too much pressure to put on a husband! Jesse needed to view marriage differently. The worldly view of women, sex and marriage that had taken hold of his mind needed to be restructured into a Kingdom view. A wife is not there to only please or serve… she is there to partner. Marriage is to be an example of Christ and the Church. Praise God for how He exposed harmful mindsets and belief systems in both of us before He brought us together! There is so much more I could say on this topic, but this is not the time nor place for all that.
Another important thing to note is that both Jesse and I were praying that God would simply show us who our spouse was. We were both believing for a miracle. We wanted to intentionally pursue marriage and be on mission as soon as we could. But the mission would happen for both of us whether that be married or single… we were individually leaving that up to God.
Back to the story. Jesse and I had been in the same church family for a little over a year and a half at this point. We didn’t interact much, but we observed each other. We had been on a couple trips together into Haiti and knew that the other person was going to move there with the hope of it being long-term. I was developing feelings for him, but he was showing no interest, so I just kept moving toward Haiti single. But one night after a birthday party I hosted, God spoke clearly to Jesse that I was to be his wife. Wild, huh? He waited a month on God allowing his heart to open toward me, seeking wise counsel before moving forward. He wanted to confirm this was not “just emotions” while weighing the decision of marriage and committing to me in covenant. Hallelujah - the grace of God was flowing and Jesse chose to dive in! One November evening in 2012 during a “Team Haiti” meeting… which was just me and him by the way… Jesse asked to pursue me for marriage. I said “yes” and two days later he proposed.
Now this is a very condensed version of the story BUT what I want to highlight here is the process that we have seen play out over and over again in our lives. We have experienced it in the smallest and biggest of ways, but it seems to hold a very similar pattern.
Conviction – God puts his finger on an area of our heart or life that needs changing.
Repentance – we choose to turn from that thing to God.
Surrender – we give it to Him and ask Him to help us change.
Direction – He shows us the way forward.
Obedience – we step out in faith, doing what we believe He is asking us to do.
Joy – we see change, restoration, provision, healing, reconciliation… and in this specific case a beautifully adventurous start to marriage.
Our wedding was set for May and our move to Haiti for October.
2013 was going to be a great year!