In July of 2008 Tony Calvert, armed with a love of Japanese food and a couple of Japanese lessons, joined a small missions team lead by Pastor Arlen Nagata of Hawaii that met up with the members of a small church in Tokyo, Japan. Their goal: to partner with Grace Tokyo and reach out to the youth in Japan and to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. But little did Tony know, God had a little more than evangelism in store for him on this special trip.

The team met up with one of the core members of the church who was scheduled to be the team's chauffeur and guide, Marie Suzuki. A cheerful and God-fearing woman who could be categorized as the living enactment of the Japanese word "genki," Marie made quick friends with the whole team.
Marie quickly caught Tony's eye as someone he would like to get to know more, they had so much in common and her smile and laugh made him feel warm, but alas, because of the distance between them the idea of developing their friendship seemed improbable. Marie thought of Tony as someone she could have a lasting friendship with because he embraced her hyper personality and could tolerate her morning grumpiness, but alas, he was skinny and she was only attracted to guys with bulging muscles.

So the two parted ways in early August, 2008 and decided to keep in touch via facebook. Facebook wall posts soon became facebook messages, which later became too large and then turned into long emails. After a few months of emailing each other back and forth their feelings for each other grew beyond just friendship. On Oct 6th, Marie called Tony to wish him a happy birthday. It was the first time they had heard each others voices since they parted in August. After the phone call Tony knew that he wanted to pursue Marie and no longer cared that they were oceans apart, he knew she was worth it. He started praying for God's wisdom and calling. He wanted to make sure that it was God calling him to Marie, that this relationship was from Him, not just because of his own feelings. After a month of praying for God's blessing, Marie wrote in one of her emails, "Do you believe in long distance relationships?" Tony knew it was time to reply with how he felt about her and that he wanted to start a relationship with her with the intention of marriage being the final goal were they to find that they were meant for each other.

Shocked and flattered, Marie told Tony that she wanted to pray and fast about this so that she would too hear from God whether or not this relationship should be.
After what felt like an eternity to Tony, she finally called and said, "yes, let's give it a try and see if God really is calling us to be together."

Two years later in Big Bear, on the terrace of a cabin under a starry sky, Marie said "yes" to him again as he dropped to one knee.

This September 6th, they will be saying "yes" to each other one more time.