MARCH 8, 2025

3PM PST  |  SONLIGHT CHURCH  |  LYNDEN, WA

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HOW IT ALL BEGAN | Tiffany's perspective

On a Monday afternoon in December, my phone buzzed with a text from my pastor.  "Have you noticed Hoong Ern at church?" 

I knew who he was but hadn't "noticed" him in that sense... I texted Nate that he was welcome to share my contact information (I'd been on a lot of first dates - what was one more?). 

On Christmas Eve Sunday, I was sitting two seats down from the Tan family (one row behind my go-to spot for the prior 3+ years), and just as the service was starting, who should be arriving late - and sitting with the Tans - but this man I'd never met!

He introduced himself after the service. I played it so cool (as if I hadn't been thinking about him all week!). 

And then...

Waiting.

Til the middle of January, just a few days before leaving for Malaysia for a month, he asked me out after church. Our first date was the next day, when we talked about our backgrounds, the Inklings, and church life. 

Hmmm, the Inklings...I may have broached the idea of him borrowing Bandersnatch, a book I was partway through (shoutout to Théa), to read on the plane. That weekend, Hoong Ern drove 45 minutes through ice and snow to pick it up and stand in my foyer for 20 minutes (where he also saw the excerpt of Persuasion handwritten on the library wall). 

We FaceTimed once a week and wrote emails nearly every day while he was overseas.  Oh, and he had Turkish Delight and chocolate shipped to my house the week before the Narnia Festival I was coordinating - and he read both Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice in very short order. Oh the heart flutters! (and also a flurry of texts to Mom and sisters).

He returned to Washington and one of our first outings was an orchestra performance at the Mount Baker Theatre (thank you Jen!). Around this time I made Hoong Ern chicken curry for the first time (and later learned that Chee suggested it was time to start ring shopping).

(While Pastor Nate gets the credit for matchmaking, we found out later that several mutual friends had the same thought cross their minds. The support of our families and church community has been one of the biggest gifts during our relationship.) 

And thus the winter turned into spring and into summer, and our pleasant interactions turned into deeper conversations, and a friendship developed along with a whole host of butterflies.  We told our stories and raised hard questions. We served at church and went on adventures and wrote out core values and vision statements. Our emails-per-week rate dropped sharply as our dates-per-week rate picked up. 

Love grew quietly, in dish-drying and discussions, in our sunset walks hand-in-hand and in fiction read-alouds.

And grow it did. 

HOW IT ALL BEGAN | Hoong Ern's perspective

2023 had been a whirlwind of a year for me. Figuring out my health issues and an unexpected uprooting from Yakima led to me temporarily being back in Bellingham with no clear future. Amid the uncertain season of Advent, I had begun tying up loose ends in the Pacific Northwest and had planned a trip to Malaysia in January 2024, to gain insight into what a move back might look like.

On December 18th, I received an unexpected call from Pastor Nate Walker, with an “opportunity” for me. “Do you know Tiffany Holden?”, he asked, proceeding to outline a prospective match. I politely replied that I would consider it, whilst in my mind dismissing it–after all–I had no plans to stay around Bellingham much longer, and thus it wouldn’t make sense to try and start something new!

I did actually recall who she was–the lady who often sat just a little in front of where I and the Tans (the family I was staying with at the time) sat. I’d noticed her on my first Sunday back in Bellingham in church; she had her phone on her tripod recording the sermon, which I thought somewhat odd, given that sermons were already recorded! “She must be super-spiritual and takes these sermons seriously”, I had mulled, but was otherwise preoccupied with other things.

All that said, aside from the awkward and unplanned introduction on Christmas Eve (that you already read about from her perspective), I had functionally moved on.

Just over a week before departing for Malaysia, I met with Nate again to thank him for the support he’d shown me over the months, and proceeded to elaborate some of my recent challenges. As I finished, he proceeded to ‘ignore’ everything I said, instead asking if I had given more thought to the ‘opportunity’, and that my goal should actually be to find a wife (and that it would likely alleviate a number of my trials), and that I might even need to consider canceling my trip to figure it out! I had not heard Nate talk quite as passionately about something to me, so I ended up agreeing at least to meet up with Tiffany.

Our date on January 15th taught me two things: that it is perilous to agree to meet with someone, and yet peril can bring about wonderful things. Her cultural understanding, having grown up overseas, intrigued me, and her love for Christ and the church was evident. Through snowy roads, talks halfway across the globe, and much encouragement from our shared community, our relationship grew.

It was in the summer when I realized the world was becoming more beautiful. In awe I saw God’s hands in many things, and as it dawned on me that it was God working through Tiffany to reveal new dimensions of God’s love and character. Through her prodding my soul with difficult questions yet with thoughtfulness and gracefulness, and ultimately bringing beauty and joy into my life, I knew that I desired to take the step of faith and ask her to be my wife.

FROM THE TWO OF US

And that brings us to today, happily engaged and preparing to make a lifelong commitment. We are thrilled to invite you to witness our vows and celebrate with us! Thank you for all your love and being part of our lives in past years, through this season of dating, and also in the future as a married couple. We love you! 

Professional photos thanks to Matt Priestman Photography