Worth the Wait: Dreaming with God for Your Love Story

By Corey Norman and Ivonne Norman

Through 8,285 miles, in 2 continents, in 3 countries, in 8 cities, and over almost a decade, God worked out the impossible for two people who chose to dream big with him. Learn how Corey and Ivonne waited for a love story authored by the greatest matchmaker of all time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512786491

Corey Norman

Corey and Ivonne met after praying for each other for about a decade while at the opposite ends of the world. Without knowing how their love story will pan out, they chose to trust God, grow during the wait, and prepare for each other. Currently, they serve together in full-time ministry with a passion to encourage many to dream with God and usher them to God’s authorship of their stories.

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Copyright © 2017 Corey & Ivonne Norman.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

WestBow Press

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-8650-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-8649-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017907584

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/16/2017

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Our List

Not Just Casual Christianity

Love and Respect for Parents

Being in Community

Not Perfect, but Complete

Purity: It Goes beyond the Physical

The Physical Still Counts!

While Waiting, Work on Yourself!

Pursuit: It’s a Lifetime Art

Worth the Wait: Nations and Years Later

Appendix A Prayer Guide

Appendix B God’s Timeline in Bringing Us Together

Bibliography

Dedication

To our Lord, who brought us together from across the nations, to You alone be the glory.

And to our ever-wonderful parents (Dad Rod, Mom Tina, Popsie Jun, and Momsie Earl), your prayers and love mean so much. Thank you for training us up in the way we should go (even when we fought you at times during the process).

To our local churches and our mentors, thank you for your faithfulness in teaching of God’s Word. God has given the local church the power and the call to change the world, one person, family, and city at a time.

Preface

T hey say that there’s power in the story. That’s exactly what happened when we first shared our love story at a small conference we were invited to after our engagement. We didn’t look forward to having a big crowd (although we won’t refuse should any offer come up now). We simply wanted to share the story of what God has done for us and encourage many to dream big with God with regard to their love stories. When we got to the conference, we realized that all in our audience were already married (many even had grandkids on the way!). We thought, Why on earth are we sharing our love story to people who have been married longer than we have been alive? That was the question running through our minds as we took the microphone and started sharing. Feeling hopeful that at least we had entertained the people that night with our goofiness, we stepped off the stage. Just before the night ended, several of the older couples came up to us and thanked us for the refreshing true story. One of them asked if we could write our story so she could mail it to her granddaughter, who’s at a marrying age. It was that night that the desire to write this book was born. But it was not until two years later that we would see this come true, thanks to that encouraging lady who sowed the seed of another big dream in our hearts.

During our years of waiting, we learned valuable principles that we want to pass on to whoever will hear our story or read this book. Our goal is not to give step-by-step self-help instructions to find your one. There’s not one recipe for a God-written love story. Everything is a custom-made adventure by the Master Matchmaker. What we truly want is to drive every hearer or reader to run to God and learn from Him—to find the one and be the one. We hope that the principles we learned during our waiting years will help you in yours as you believe God, big time! Do not settle for what society paints as emotion- or chemistry-based romance. It takes more than molecular energy to have a lasting love. God intends so much more for you. Trust and learn from Him. Your wait will be worth it.

Meanwhile, get on reading. And let us know what you think. We would love to hear from you.

—Corey and Ivonne Norman

Acknowledgments

W e would like to thank our parents (Popsie Jun, Momsie Earl, Dad Rod, and Mom Tina) for teaching us God’s love and His Word. There were times we may have resisted, but thank you for your unconditional love and prayers. You all kept both of us in line as we waited for each other.

A special thank you to our church families in the Philippines, the Middle East, and the United States. Being in community with you guys helps us be accountable to stand by our convictions before God. Thank you for never shrinking back from telling us what we needed to hear, even during the times when we felt like we didn’t want to listen.

Thank you to dear authors like Ms. Elizabeth Elliot, Eric and Leslie Ludy, and Joshua and Shannon Harris. You are our heroes during the waiting season. Your words of encouragement and faith through your books mentored us even when you were not aware of it.

And to save the best for last, we want to acknowledge our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank You for laying down Your life for us so that we can live life and life more abundantly. Thank You for continuing to write our love story. To You alone be all the glory and power!

Introduction

Ivonne

S ince 2000, the number of millennials (clue: find someone glued to a phone, that’s probably a millennial) delaying marriage has sharply escalated according to the Pew Foundation’s Stateline research. Despite the fact that

Reviews for Worth the Wait

[Myrene Latuna · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such a wonderful and amazing testimonies of two people fully surrendered to the will of God. As Jim Elliot said, "God gives the best to those who leave the choice to Him". Their love story is truly written by the author of Love, God himself.

[Uwuseba Daveena · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book!
Covers every area until courtship from the list to the finding to the pursuit. All with the Lord at the center.