A Love Story Like No Other!

You will love this hilarious and one of kind Love Story with HG & Chaley Strickland.

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And, so I guess just the best way to, to start it off and I'm not normal. I just want to put that out there now. That's probably the best way to start this. Because I, in a very unique way, I didn't date and, I literally, I kissed one girl. And right after I kissed her, I told her I'm breaking up with you.

Hi, my name is Camille Battaglia an I love sharing divine connections, especially love connections. I'm a fashion stylist an author, turned podcaster. On each episode you'll hear tips and strategies that you can implement to become more effective in your singleness or married life.

Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let's jump into your daily dose of divine connections on heavenly hookups.

I'm so excited you guys could be here. HG is one of our founding pastors he was called to the pulpit before the age of 10.

In Ohio, HG prayed with one of our other founding pastors, Pete Norman, who's a lobbyist here in Washington, DC and then it turned into a work is worship program, all over the city. And then it turned into Kingdom Life Ministries DC, where we've had services at the Capitol before COVID. And now it's evolved into a news organization called Envoy news.org, and it's a very successful, fast growing, news outlet. That talks about what God is doing in this season.

Chaley, his beautiful wife is homeschooling two boys Gavin and Tristin, going to Bible college and she sings beautifully at our church. I'm sure she does many more things that I'm unaware of. They're such an adorable couple and they've had such a massive impact on my life and I'm so proud to know them.

So welcome. So glad you guys could be here. Oh yeah, no, we're excited. Good. Thanks for inviting us. Yeah. Thanks for squeezing me into your busy schedule. So how did you two end up, knowing that you were meant for each other?

How did that all start? Yeah. We're going to have a very unique story. Yeah. It's not going to be probably like any other one that you, have heard or comes on this, for certain. So we actually knew of each other. For quite some time, the church that I was in, at the time her family came too. And so we had relationship there, but not really around each other in a long time.

I was doing ministry elsewhere. We had planted a second church and I was spending more time there in defiance, Ohio. At the church in Pioneer, but we would occasionally cross paths, but God was working in her life and working in my life the way he does, where he does things, independent, knowing he's going to bring those two roads together.

And that's not really, that's not really tactful. I wouldn't suggest doing it that way, but I came home and I told my parents it's because I knew from that moment, I told my parents, I said, listen, I'm not going to date. I'm going to marry the ministry. And if I ever get married, I will date once or twice and I'll be married.

It's going to have to be God. Because I am not gonna allow anything to mess up the ministry. And so that was my life. And so I literally turned off the thought of dating of any of that, I just flipped the switch and hundred percent going after God. And, my now wife at the time, just down the road, I'd seen.

We'd had a couple of encounters I've ministered at the church that she was in. Couple other things. Her father stopped by it. I think with you at the music store. And he bought me a guitar. When you were working at the music store, I made some money off of her right there. Yeah, when I didn't know. And she didn't know two things.

Why don't you tell them God was working behind the scenes and I had not too far in advance, but he had been away while, and I had rededicated my life to the Lord and I just really wanted to come after him. I was more of a rebellious teenager, a little different than my husband.

And, so at this point in my life, I really started to seek him and I just wanted to put him first. And that whole process, not too long after my pastor came to me. And, he pulled me off to the side. My parents were even there and he said, he said, if you will , keep yourself pure and you'll seek God and come after him, he said, you're going to meet the man that you're going to marry in 3 months.

And he gave me that specific time frame. He'll be in the ministry and he'll be in the ministry. That's right. He said, you'll meet the man. You're going to marry in three months. And he will be in the ministry. And, I was shocked. And just taken back by that. But, literally, like I wrote the date down.

And this was in, no, this was like November 7th and to the night. How old were you at this point?

Haha. I said I was a rebellious teenager. I was 16 at the time. Wow. Priscilla Presley comes to mind. Actually, you know what Camille at this point, I was only 15 when she got the prophetic word, cause this was November and I turned 16 in January. And you don't want me to go this far? Without, because there's my side of it. So in the same time period where she's seeking God, and she's getting this prophetic word, three months, you're gonna meet within three months, you're gonna meet the man.

Your going to get married to be in the ministry. I had seen her a couple of times in this time period. And. I suddenly I could not get her out of my head. And it was just, it was not like we sat and had some big conversation or anything, but I've got her in my head. And again, for me at this point, that is not normal because I'm, I am pursuing every ministry preaching.

I'm speaking all over, just doing what God's got and I just can't get out of my head. So I finally, and this is going to sound odd, but I told my mom, I'm like, listen, I need you to pray. Yeah. She was like, why? And I said, I cannot get Chaley out of my head. And she looked at me and she said, call her.

That never crossed my mind. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it genuinely never crossed my mind. What do you mean call her? I don't date. And so now, mom didn't help anything because now I've got her in my head, but I've got this thing of, oh, should I call her? Should I call her? And so it's a Wednesday.

I finished preaching and I get in my car and I'm driving back from the town that I was ministering in and driving back home. And I got my phone. It was a flip phone back. It tells you a little bit. And so I got her number and I dialed the number and cause I knew her parents were ministers.

You have to understand her parents were ministers that I was working with. They knew me, they respected me. I knew them. No real relationship in any way with her, their daughter. And so I get the phone number ready and I hit send and before the call could go through, I'd slap it shut. And now that would've been funny though, had I done it once?

But it was something like 20 some times. Oh dear God. Yes. It's so there's so killed me. I'm like, oh, I can't believe I'm doing this. And so I told God, I said, just one request, one request, please. God, don't let her mom to the phone. Anybody just not her mom. And so I finally had the guts to let the phone ring through and her mom answers the phone and right away, I'm like, oh no.

And I said, Hey, this is HG. And she goes, oh, pastor HG. Oh no, I don't want it to be pastor anything. And I was like, yeah. Hi. And I said, oh, it's Chaley there? And she said, yes, There's this big awkward pause. And she said, oh, you want to talk to her? And at this point, honestly, what I wanted to do is drive into a telephone pole and just get this horrible moment over.

And so she puts her on the phone. And you don't have to understand again, remember I don't date and I'm not normal. And so I invite her to dinner and a movie, but because I don't date and I don't trust myself or her or anybody else, and I don't do this, she did not know. Did you, she did not realize , when he got done inviting me.

I just thought it was like, this church event. He invited his sister and her boyfriend and his kids, her cousin and her boyfriend and this whole crew of people coming. And I was like, sure, I'll tag along. I brought an army. It was not going to be alone with this girl. Also. How old were you at this point HG? Oh, this is worse. I'm 24 years old, 24 years old.

Why would she expect you? Yeah. Yeah. Cause we're eight and a half years apart. And obviously I wouldn't advise anyone to start dating, no, especially now having a 16 year old. No, he called me that night and it was exactly three months to the day. It was February 7th. And it was literally that word that my pastor gave me.

Very accurate. Obviously he was a man in the ministry and it was three months to the date, but she did not tell me, I didn't know anything about the word she'd gotten. No, she didn't want there to be anything to influence. Yeah. That's good. I didn't want anything to influence or interfere with us building a relationship, yeah. I didn't want to manipulate it so it would play out. So there's another part you have to hear because, I took her out. On that first date with the whole church. Oh, yeah. I took everybody. So we'd go out and we have dinner and we go see a movie and it's great. And I'd drop her back off. And I don't remember it was the next one. I think it was the next week, maybe next weekend?

I don't know for sure. Specifically, I took her out again. Our second date, this time she figured out it was a date. It was just us. And I drove her out to where we were building the church and I pulled in the driveway and I'd showed her, literally, it was just the foundation at this point and the slab poured and they were just beginning to put the structure together, but I turned and I looked at her and so she'll back me up here.

I didn't smile. I didn't mince words. I turned and I looked at her and said, listen, I don't date. And so she we were holding hands, she looked at me like, don't date. I said, I'm courting you. If it's God I'm marrying you. If it's not, God, I will leave you so fast. It makes your head spin.

Smooth talker! Oh yeah. The romance was amazing. Let me tell you, I saw so wanted only what I knew was God. And that literally was my one concern. It wasn't as she pretty is it wasn't, how's our personalities. I, we knew, obviously I knew she was attractive, but we did not know each other yet at all. And I just, I wanted that upfront.

There's only one way this relationship's happening and it has to be God. And we discovered in the process that it was, her parents, obviously with their blessing, they knew me, they knew my character, they knew my integrity. They gave their blessing too, for us dating and stuff.

And we took our time. She didn't, we didn't get married, bam, 16 years old, she's married. So it was a while. And what's funny is even again how we knew we were. Supposed to be, as we are dating. We, I went to a ministers conference and yeah, we both went to this ministry conference and this gentleman gets up, Gerald Doggett.

Was his name, prophetic guy and he calls me out and I stand up and he's prophesying. I mean detailed over my life, crazy detailed, more than anybody ever has. And it was just amazing. And then he looks at her and calls her up and he starts prophesying over our children. Oh my gosh. And he's he saw the look on her face.

Isn't he? Are you guys aren't married or you guys aren't married yet? And we said, no, we're not married yet. And he didn't bat an eye. He didn't wince. He kept right on prophesizing and prophesied about the call of God on our boys. Yeah. Wow. So we knew it was God, we knew we were supposed to be together.

And, so yeah, that's that's how, we got together. Wow. That's wild. Sign after sign. Oh yeah. So how long did you date before you got married? We got married in what was two years. It wasn't quite two years. Yeah, she was October. We, we started dating in February of 2001 and we got married in October of 2002.

Did you get any pushback from anyone else in the community or church? Just because of the age difference? No, not really. Just some girls that, had been after him for awhile. The very first service he brought me to, they both, they saw me walk in with him and they got up and walked out, here comes trouble.

But no, not really had people had it been somebody else again, cause I'm not normal. And people were very. We're very used to me and aware of me and they knew I did not date. I think that went a long ways. And everyone didn't know, that I was younger. I always looked older for my age, but so they didn't know.

They didn't know how young I was at the time. So yeah. Because when we got married, I really wasn't 18 yet my parents had to sign. I was three months shy of being 18. Oh wow. So my parents had to sign, legally, were you still in high school? Yeah. Oh, wow. That's, it's such a crazy story. I think of Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, except this was godly, and you know what?

Here we are. All these years later. And, we got some, you want to do some good, marriage counsel that we received. It was really good. There's a gentleman. His name was Dr. Maurice Hart. He ended up being married to a Estele for 70. I don't remember the years, a long, a long time were in their nineties.

Yeah. 70 years married, but he would see us. At these events and right before we got married and he would pull out his little black calendar book and pretend like he was going to do the ceremony right there on the spot, dearly beloved and laugh, but he, they pull us in and every time he saw me, he would give us marriage advice.

And, you listen to somebody who's been married 70 years. And so one day he pulled us in and he looked at me and he said, now listen. . All right. It might've been you first. I don't remember. But he looked at let's just say Chaley. He looked at her and said, now, listen, some day. He's going to come home and he's going to yell.

He's going to have had a horrible day. He's going to have a terrible attitude. He's just going to be awful. And he said, let him, he's earned it. He lives with you. And then he looked at me and he said, someday, you're gonna, you're going to walk in the door. And she is going to be just absolutely terrible.

She's going to yell. She's going to scream. Who knows it's going to be bad. But he said, let her have her day. She's earned it. She lives with you. And then he looked at both of us and he said never on the same day.

But just teaching us, have grace with each other. And obviously marriage takes a lot of that. It takes a lot of grace, but we just had, we had in the other thing that we honestly did, we went to our first marriage seminar while we were dating. We actually studied marriage before marriage. We did.

We went to a marriage seminar and we were the only couple there that wasn't married, but we were engaged, but we were there to learn and learn from other people who had experience. And of course from, the word of God. And so we have we've had a marriage that we've had the benefit of, speaking into a lot of other people's marriages. And

God's just done a really awesome things with it. That's so wise, it's also so brave, you're going against the grain of society. I know my grandmother got married at 16 and I think my grandfather was in his twenties. Maybe later twenties, but, they were together until their eighties, nineties, whatever, and they passed.

You guys are totally going against the grain. It's just so interesting and fascinating because God doesn't do things the same for everybody. And that's one thing , just years later, because now we've been together for 20 years and on this crazy journey that God's got us and now traveling back and forth.

Thinking about the fact that I did get married so young and I had my first son at 20 years old, which was also abnormal, most people aren't doing that these days. But I got thinking, and I think the Lord just revealed to us the fact that he brought us together so early, especially for me so young in my life.

And my life and having our children so early, because at this point, God knew our boys needed to be older, to do what we're doing. And I don't know that I could pull it off if I had little babies right now. Yeah, exactly. It's really neat how God has just orchestrated this entire thing. One of the things we don't talk about enough is that God designed marriage and he has a purpose for your lives together as partners.

Do you have any final thoughts or any advice that you would like to give singles or single women looking to marry or married people? Anything that comes to your heart? I can tell you for people that are looking to marry fall in love with God, they, they say, oh, two halves make a whole, if you're looking for someone else to complete you, that's a person, two halves don't make a whole.

You bring two people together who are half a person looking for someone else to complete them. That's too much of an expectation to put on another person. As wonderful as my wife is at some point, she's going to disappoint me as good of a husband as I may be. At some point, I'm going to disappoint her and I cannot have, I can't put that on her.

That's not fair. God expects us to find that in him. And when you are a whole person by yourself, and that's something that God did with each of us in our own ways where I was content with God. And happy with him. And I had my self-esteem and my identity and all those things in him. I didn't come into the marriage, needing her to complete me in that way.

I wasn't dependent on her. I came into the marriage free to love her and give myself for her, give myself to her as the Bible says that men are to do, but you can't really do that. Unless you've really first given yourself to God and allowed him to complete you. It's takes two whole people to come together and have a whole marriage.

I think that's a mistake. A lot of people make, they get things backwards and they don't keep God at the center. And honestly there, our marriage is better than it's ever been, but one of the biggest shifts in our marriage came as a result of a revelation, of the love of God. That, my wife got, and then that's just, her growth and him and I came in one day and found her in tears.

And that's never a good thing, for a guy to walk, but she was reading the scripture and, she'd heard me teach on the love of God. She'd been through all this, but that day, God just showed her. Yeah, she got it, man. He really loves me. And I can tell you that even the way that she loved me changed, and it just having him at the center.

If you don't love God more than you love your spouse, you're actually not doing your spouse a favor. You're doing them a disservice. God's gotta be first. Wow. That's wild. Again, I'm thinking of why I'm thinking of this movie, that movie with Tom cruise, where he says you complete me. So that's just so good to remember that it's not the other person that completes you.

It's God and it will make you two one, that's awesome. And how about you, Chaley? Is there any advice you'd like to give single women or singles or to married people? Just, yeah, like he said, seeking God first and putting him first in your life. And just trusting God's timing, I see so many girls.

Constantly looking for a man to fulfill something in them. And I'm like, you guys I've told the girls a lot, even in, the church in Ohio, you guys need to find God and have that relationship, your foundation first, and then just trust God's timing and pray. For God to bring the right man into your life, not be chasing after just any man that comes along and makes you feel good or makes you smile and laugh.

But is this the man that God has for me? And the one, that was created purposefully for you, because I truly believe that God does that he has that perfect someone for us. And if we would just wait on his timing because his timing is perfect, he'll bring that person into your life. I totally believe that.

I think that if you can wait on God and let him be your matchmaker, he'll bring you someone much bigger than you could ever ask or imagine or think. And I think even as Christians. I know when I was newly single, or even at church or wherever and you're then you find out someone's Christian.

You're like, is this the one? Is this the one? It doesn't mean cause they're Christian, they've got it all together. I think a lot of women can get stuck in that trap too. So anyway, that's wonderful. And I thank you. I thank you so much. I don't know if there's anything else you want to add. Just as, a married couple, I always do well, and I think we both do tell couples to keep dating each other.

It's so important. We've been married, we will be married for 19 years this year. We've been purposeful to continue to date, to keep the flame burning and the passion burning between you. Because if you don't, your marriage gets boring.

You got to keep it alive and keep pursuing each other. And that way it doesn't happen by accident? No, that's just the, that's just the thing. We still, we communicate all the time. We actually enjoy spending time with you. We're not one of those couples that, oh, I got it anyway from the wife, it's not I think that, we travel together.

We minister together. Were together a lot, but it's that we actually like that we like the times where we can get away and just have conversations, that are just her and me. And I think it's really important, especially with life and busy-ness and kids and the rest and not to let any of that other stuff come first.

Our kids know, our boys. That's not just your mom, that's my wife. And we don't hide affection and they know we are in love and that we come first to each other before them. And it's a priority for us and something that we very purposefully walk out. It gets difficult sometimes with schedule and the rest.

But man, as often as we can, we find those moments just to steal away, whether it's a way for a night or a meal or something just that time to make sure we remind each other, how much we love you. One of the things that you do HG is you'll refer to her as babe, or you have these pet names for her.

And I just think that's so sweet because maybe some days are more difficult to spend time together, but that, reminds her that you put her first and that you love her and that you're thinking about her. Yeah. That's so sweet.

It's a great story. So I just, thank you guys so much. Thank you. And, I love you guys and I'll see you soon. Yep. We love you too. Okay, bye.

Thank you for tuning into today's episode and thank you to my guests, Chaley and HG Strickland for sharing their one of a kind love story. You can contact them @klmdc.org. For more episodes of Heavenly Hookups please follow us on Instagram @HeavenlyHookup_ S. I'm Camille Battaglia. We'll see you next time on Heavenly Hookups.

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