THE BEGINNING OF A GOOD THING
We met in 2005 through a mutual friend in Georgia. Over the next year and a half we grew to be best friends. In 2006 we both went to Australia to attend a Discipleship Training School (DTS) with the missions organization Youth With a Mission (YWAM). During the school, we spent time consecrated to the Lord, going after His heart and growing in the knowledge of Him and His love. We also spent time on outreach, serving in different cities along the coast of Queensland, Australia
During this school we grew to know each-other in a completely different way. We began to see each-other’s hearts truly come alive for the Lord, ministering to Him and to others. We started to become more and more interested in one another, but it was a commitment not to date during the school. From there we took these feelings to the Lord, and waited on Him, knowing that there was a beauty in this waiting, making us more and more like Him. For I (Zach) had received a word from the Lord that Mallory was my future wife, but wanted to wait on His perfect timing to pursue further.
DATING AND ENGAGEMENT
After the DTS ended in December of 2006, we decided to meet up and have a little Define the Relationship time. We decided that yes, we wanted to pursue a relationship, but felt the Lord calling us to wait for just a few more months, as he brought us both through a season of refinement. After 4 months of waiting, we felt a release and confirmation that it was indeed time to start pursuing a relationship that would be unto marriage.
The Lord had already called us to do specific things for the coming year, and we knew it just wasn’t yet the season for marriage. I was heading to Africa for 2 months during the summer, and Mal would be heading to do an internship with the International House of Prayer during the summer and fall! It was during this time that the Lord would release the vision He had for our lives!
After 6 long months spent apart, the Lord truly defined our relationship. During my time in Africa, we couldn’t talk on the phone at all, and for the 2nd month we couldn’t even e-mail. I said to the Lord, “How do you expect this to work?” And His response to me was this: “I will hold this together. Not you, not her, not e-mail or the phone. This relationship is for MY glory, and you must learn to lean on Me! I have established you two, and I will hold you two together. I am faithful and trustworthy.” This was one of the most important lessons we learned during that season, one we knew would be crucial to our relationship.
We were finally reunited in December of 2007. It would be during the next month, during many days of prayer and fasting, that would lead to the decision that it was indeed time to propose! The Lord had provided the ring, I had set the date and plans, now the only thing left to do was to go for it. We went up to Maryland to visit my family, and on March 6th, 2008 we officially had become betrothed to be married! It was so amazing to see how far the Lord had taken us, and to see His faithfulness to us as we were being obedient to Him.
UNTO MARRIAGE
“As sure as the dawn of the rising sun, I will come…
I will be faithful, faithful and true. I will be faithful
to finish the work that I started in you…”
-Audra Lynn
On September 27th, 2008, we officially became Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler. And this is the song the Lord was singing over us. What a beautiful day, what an awesome testimony to the Lord. He had spoken a word, and we held to it in faith, through a season of 6 months and 8,000 miles of separation. He had followed through as well and carried us to this day. It was a celebration shared with loved ones, to witness the Faithfulness of the Lord in our lives!
One of the best things of the day was how the Lord showed up for the wedding. A few nights before the wedding, Mal’s bridesmaids had spent time praying over her for the big day to come. During this prayer time, several of the girls received either a vision or a word about Mal walking down the aisle with light coming off of her. They had no idea what it had meant at the time, but their questions would be answered the next day. It looked like it was going to rain the whole day, and everyone was worried it was. But as the ceremony started, and right as Mal took her first steps down the isle, the sky literally split open and the sun burst through the clouds shinning down behind her. It was as if God had split the heavens to look down on this beautiful union of His children. We were left speechless at how beautiful He had made the ceremony just for us because He loves us! He is such a good, good Father, and He loves to give good gifts.
We realize that this was just the beginning, but we hope and pray that our story thus far encourages your heart! It is all for the glory of Jesus, for “all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16& 17).
THE 3RD WHEEL
I always knew the Lord would give me a little girl one day. He gave me her name many years ago before Zach and I were even married. He spoke to me about the kind of woman she would become. Selah, meaning to pause, consider, think upon the Lord, or to praise and Joy, the meaning is obvious, but the Lord gave me John 15 as a banner over her life.
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”- verse 7
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and [that] your joy may be full.”-verse 11
“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”- verses 15-16
That she will be one who knew the Father’s voice and will abide in his love and from that, joy would abound more and more. This is where her joy will be and this is where her joy will come from. She will be a burning and shining lamp- just like the disciples, people will know she has been with Jesus. She will be a friend of the bridegroom that loves the living Word. I clung to his promise, knowing she existed in his heart even before she existed in my tummy. Zach and I prayed for her even before she was conceived and talked in certainty of her arrival one day. And faithful he is. May 19, 2011 began a whole new chapter in the life of the Wheelers with the birth of our darling baby girl Selah Joy Wheeler. Our lives have been forever changed, but certainly for the good. We are delighted to have her tag along as the 3rd wheel for the rest of our lives.
