Samaritan members united in marriage through family and faith

The sharing of a medical need by two Samaritan Ministries families a decade ago has resulted in marriage.

The families of Belinda and Edward became acquainted thanks to ankle surgery for Belinda’s younger sister, Carrie. Edward’s family was asked to send one of their monthly Shares to Carrie’s family for her Samaritan need.

Relationships that grew over time

As a result of that interaction, Carrie became pen pals with Edward’s younger sister, Denise, and both families became friends, meeting occasionally. Belinda eventually became roommates with another of Edward’s sisters, Sandie, at Frontier School of the Bible in Lagrange, Wyoming.

Belinda and Edward, who asked that their last names not be used, saw each other a few times during family get-togethers but didn’t talk much.

Fast forward to 2024 and Belinda saw Sandie again, who suggested that Belinda give her phone number to Edward. The two eventually met up at Sandie’s house in Wyoming.

“I was just praying that whole time, that whole summer before we met, ‘Lord, please hit me between the eyes with a two by four if he is ‘the one,’” Belinda said.

He was.

They were married in 2025.

Faith and family at the core

Belinda said she is “extremely blessed to have a deep Christian heritage with my mom’s and dad’s families” and that such a strong faith contributed to her being able to meet, develop a relationship with, and marry a man from a good Christian family.

“I don’t remember how old I was when my mom talked to me about praying for my future spouse,” she said. “It was rough going for a while because I expected a love story, like meeting someone at Bible college and raising a family. But everyone is different. I was extremely blessed to have the friendship with Sandie that I had.”

She also learned that couples in long-distance relationships have to communicate well.

“You are forced to talk to each other if you really want to make it work,” she said.

Edward agreed.

“The advice I would give is to talk all the time,” he said. “When you are not able to be together in person regularly, it forces you to communicate openly and honestly.”

It also helped that neither had been in relationships before, Belinda said.

“We didn’t want to have unnecessary baggage brought into a relationship,” she said. “We were very intentional, very upfront, about, ‘If this is something you’re wanting, I’m in it for the long haul and if not, I don’t want to mess around.’”

Edward said that meeting through their families “worked well because we trusted God and His guidance.”

“Despite the big differences in our jobs and hobbies, God has brought us together, and we are so thankful to have each other,” he said.

Continuing with Samaritan

Edward and Belinda have decided to remain Samaritan members as a couple.

“I needed health care since I’m no longer with my job as a bank teller, and his family was with Samaritan, so he kept his membership when he moved out,” Belinda said. “We appreciate what Samaritan stands for.”

The heart of Samaritan Ministries is to deeply value member-to-member connection. In Belinda and Edward’s case, the connection went far deeper than they could have hoped for or imagined.