True Love

While there are many out there who claim to be in love, there aren’t very many who can prove it through their actions. It would seem that the Melendezes have figured out the secret ingredient to getting this right– which is putting God at the center of it all.

Ricky Jean~ Chief Editor

It’s been eleven years since I (Hugo) became a Christian at UCLA in 2010. It’s been ten years since I (Paulina) became a Christian at Loyola University in Chicago in 2011. We met each other at the Global Leadership Conference in 2013. We were friends long distance. I (Hugo) was living in LA and I was living in Chicago. 

Hugo was asked to move to DFW to plant the DFW church in August 2014. I also moved to DFW in January 2015. We started dating in August 2014, and we got engaged in December 2015, and married on May 23, 2016. We had a pure dating relationship and we had our first kiss on our wedding day.

 

We learned to have a greater respect for God. We desired to honor him with our relationship and learned to remain self-controlled, and committed to growing closer as best friends. We encouraged each other to stay spiritually close to God, and we encouraged each other to remain focused on helping men and women study the Bible to become Christians. 

What was really fun about our dating relationship, was that we would go on weekly “Kingdom Dates” where we would meet with other disciples to go on adventures, but while also being held accountable to remain pure. We’re actually having our five year wedding anniversary on May 23rd of this month!

We love being completely transparent with those that mentor us, and we also strive to be fully transparent with each other. We have a deep desire to put God at the center of our marriage. Out of the many things we love about each other (our love for God and everyone we’ve studied the Bible with) what we really want is for them to grow in their relationship with God.