Valentine’s Day—the perfect opportunity to remember and rekindle romance. We took advantage of that opportunity through our social media channels and asked you to share your BJU Love Stories. Many participated, and we enjoyed reading your sweet memories.
Here are the five most memorable BJU Love Stories submitted (to read the rest, follow BJU on Facebook and Instagram).
Shad and Krista Myers
Our story starts exactly 22 years ago. February 5th, 1997—a day that changed the course of my life forever! A friend of mine from art class knocked on my dorm room door with a special delivery from Shad Myers. I opened the large envelope to discover a note. On the front was a caricature of my husband’s face drawn by his roommate, another art class friend of mine. I recognized him, but couldn’t think where I had seen him. (We sat a few seats away from each other in Freshman Orientation, but I didn’t realize it since I always arrived at the last second.)
The note read something like this: “I know this is a funny way to introduce myself, but I never seem to be in a position to talk to you. I was wondering if you would like to go to the Valentine’s Day play with me.”
Of course, I said yes since that was the most creative way for anyone to ever introduce themselves! I still have that precious note to this day. We have been happily married for 17 years and have 3 children. I’m so thankful that God used Bob Jones University to place the right people in our lives to bring us together.
George and Pat Youstra
We met [September 1955] in our first Bible class. The invitation came for a date on Sunday. We dated and became “friends.” We dated at least once or twice a year until we were seniors. We considered ourselves “brother/sister friends.” During fall our senior year, I broke up with another fellow. George asked what the problem was. I said, “Don’t want to talk about it. I will never trust another man as long as I live.” He was the answer to my problem! We were married 10 days after graduation in Royal Oak, Michigan, on June 6, 1959 (60 years coming up). [He’s] my husband, my boyfriend, [the] father of our children and [my] best friend.
Jonathan and Emily Washer
I met my wife for the first time in 2002 while she was working behind the counter at the snack shop. I found out her name from someone else. Our first conversation ever went like this. I said, “Hi, Emily, could I order a cheeseburger?”
She said, “How do you know my name?”
I said, “I just know it. I also know that you’re a freshman, and I’m a freshman. LET’S GET MARRIED!”
She avoided me for about a year and a half. That’s understandable.
But … who is the prophet here?! We’ve been married 12 years now and have 3 kids.
John and Sheryl Peters
Oh my. Back in 1965 my roomie had a boyfriend from back home and had his picture on the dresser. He was so handsome and a deep Christian expecting to become a “preacher boy” the next year. [My roomie had] found a boyfriend at BJU and told me her “home” boyfriend was coming to Bible Conference, and I would “have to take care of him.” Friends, that was 53 years ago, and this past December 2018 we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. You decide. Did I “take care of him” or not?
Rob and Becky Ergino
February 14, 1992, our story began with a clown and a song! Rob had graduated two years prior and was living in town. I was graduating that May and working on my student production in Performance Hall. February 13, 1992, Rob walked into PH asking for someone to make him up as a clown. Another male student director was close-by, so he volunteered to help him out. After they worked out the plans, I questioned why he wanted to be made up as a clown. He explained that he was planning to ask a girl out at Greenville Tech dressed as a clown and do a singing telegram.
“But,” he said, “don’t be surprised if a clown runs down the aisle at chapel tomorrow!”
“That’s crazy,” I quickly replied. “People don’t do things like that here!”
That’s about all we talked about, but he did ask for my last name. Girls from that era will remember that a last name meant he could access my room number and room phone number. I told him my name, and we parted ways.
That night I couldn’t sleep for some reason. Perhaps it was because he had asked for my name and I had been in an on-and-off relationship with someone from home in Michigan. I remembered that the next day was Friday, so we would have society. He couldn’t run down the aisle in chapel.
I went to my classes as usual the next morning, but as Dr. Gladin’s Child Psychology class was ending in Lecture Hall A, I felt all eyes turn to the back of the room. At the top of the steps was a clown! That clown came down the steps singing “Oh, Becky Girl” to the tune of “Oh, Danny Boy.”
He walked down the aisle to where I was in the front of the class. When he reached my row, the clown placed a rose and a note on my desk. In my haste to leave the room, I didn’t see the note right away. Later in society, I saw the note that asked me to meet him in the Student Center after class. I had unintentionally stood him up! I didn’t know his last name, and he didn’t live on campus anymore. Also, he had apparently heard whispers concerning what my boyfriend would think about this!
By the time I had reached my room later that afternoon, my roommate Megan asked me if I heard about the girl that had a clown sing to her in class. She didn’t know it was me, and when I told her I stood him up, we both lamented my dilemma. There was nothing I could do. Then, the phone rang.
Fortunately, he’s not one to give up easily, and his mother had taught him that a girl is not “taken” unless a ring is on her finger. Talk about God working out details before they even happen!
My roommate answered as I stood glumly by. She put her hand over the receiver (the mute button back then), and shout-whispered, “It’s him!” I grabbed the phone, and he asked me to go out with him that night—Valentine’s Day—but I had a required banquet and then play practice. Another hurdle! He pointed out that I had 20 free minutes in between and insisted that I meet him then—not the next day or another time. I gladly obliged, and this year we will celebrate the 27th anniversary of our first date on Valentine’s Day 1992 in the snack shop at Bob Jones University!
