A Surprise Wedding

A few years ago I overheard my girlfriend say that it was her dream to get engaged and married on the same day, I had no idea what that even meant or what that would like. Nevertheless, I began the year and a half long process of planning a surprise wedding.

During that year and half of telling friends and family what I was thinking about doing I started to realize that, if I pulled this off, it would be something that people would want to see. After all, whenever my girlfriend and I would ever go to other weddings, we would always leave discussing what we would want our day to look like.

And then, last October, I found myself sitting at Catalyst Atlanta and listening to Christine Caine talk about the fight she leads with the A21 campaign trying to end sex trafficking,

My heart broke.

Although there are many compelling organizations doing amazing things around the world, I think we are all often left with few options to actually do something besides making a one-time donation.

Realizing what I was up to with our then soon-to-be wedding, I called my girlfriend to tell her about Catalyst and what it was doing in me. From there, I proposed the idea of giving all of our future wedding guest an opportunity to give to the A21 campaign instead of us. She was ecstatic about the idea.

On June 7, I proposed to my girlfriend, Amanda Roman, and we had a surprise wedding waiting for her that night!

There are millions of girls caught in sex slavery, and every single one of them not only deserves to be free, but we believe they deserve to have their dream wedding. And what does a dream wedding really represent? I believe it represents the value of a woman. I went all out for my wife not to make a glamorous statement about who we are, but to show what every woman deserves. I always thought sex-trafficking was more of an overseas issue until I learned more about A21. Realizing that it's happening in Dallas, in our backyard, compelled us to do something.

Whether your influence is large or small, it is your duty to steward it well. Although we may have only had a 100 guest at our wedding, I realized that we could make an impact in them with just a small gesture in encouraging them to give to A21.

The impact of our documentary is still yet to be seen, but we're simply trying to do our part in the fight against sex-trafficking. I hope people are inspired not to do something big, but inspired to simply do what God has enabled them to do.