Our Story…
Hidden Beginnings
Our story has been shaped slowly, mostly in hidden places. It has been formed through obedience, waiting, loss, and a God who has been faithful long before we understood what He was doing.
ROOTED & FOUND
Where We Come From
Sammy was raised in Yuba City, California, where her faith took root at The Church of Glad Tidings as a child. Haris was born in Afghanistan to a devout Muslim family and immigrated to California as a toddler. We met in sixth grade, started dating at fifteen, and were married 10 years later in 2020, without knowing how deeply our lives would further be shaped by surrender and trust.
A LIFE INTERRUPTED
Illness, Prayer, and the First Yes
From a young age, Sammy lived with chronic illness, including Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Lupus. Pain and limitation shaped much of her world, quietly narrowing what felt possible. Prayer became a steady companion.
At nineteen, after years of asking God for help, she sensed a familiar, gentle invitation to attend a prayer meeting. She followed it. She asked Pastor Cheryl to pray for her after the voice instructed her to, and supernatural deliverance broke through. Jesus healed her and honored the persistent childhood prayers she had whispered for years:
“Please God, don’t let me die having lived a meaningless life. I want to go on an adventure with You. I want to change the world with Your love.”
SENT & SURRENDERED
YWAM and the Cost of Obedience
That season led Sammy into ministry with Youth With A Mission (YWAM), serving across ministries and nations. During those years, we were asked to surrender our relationship for a time so we could each follow God fully.
It was painful and confusing, but it was formative. In that season apart, Haris encountered Jesus personally for the first time. Raised Muslim, his meeting with Christ was quiet but unmistakable. It reordered his life and, in time, brought our paths back together, steadied, refined, and shared in faith.
THE HIDDEN YEARS
Rest, Testing, and Trust
In 2021, God asked us to step away from ministry and rest. Shortly after, Sammy was struck by a mysterious illness that left her bedridden after years of walking in healing. The life and identity built around ministry were stripped away.
Haris’s new faith was tested in ways neither of us expected. Could God still be trusted when healing did not look like progress? When obedience led to uncertainty?
DAILY PROVISION
Learning to Depend
During that season, Haris left a stable office job and stepped into construction at God’s leading, despite having no experience. The years that followed were marked by financial strain and deep humility.
Some days were uncertain. Comfort was sparse. But we were never without provision. Food came through a friend hearing God tell them to give. Supplies came from the Glad Tidings warehouse. Vegetables came from the garden of the home we were renting. A roof remained overhead. Strength came one day at a time. What felt like being undone was actively shaping endurance and trust.
A VOICE AGAIN
England
After years of waiting, God spoke again.
“Downsize. You’re moving to England.”
Sammy heard it first and resisted. She had just given in to letting go of her dreams, accepting that the adventure was over and settling into a quieter life. She told God she did not have the heart to hope again. More than that, she knew Haris’s heart felt hardened in that season, and a move like this was completely outside of his will, his plan, and what felt possible for their lives.
So she asked God for one thing:
If this was truly Him, He would have to speak to Haris. And Haris would have to make the decision.
She stayed silent. She waited. She did not persuade or explain. She trusted that if God was in it, He would pave the way Himself.
Months later, while driving the same road once marked by heartbreak and release, Haris turned to her and said,
“God just told me we’re moving to England.”
She was speechless. She had waited for confirmation, not knowing if it would ever come. In that moment, it was clear and undeniable.
We were moving to England.
PROMISE & LOSS
A Child Prayed For
In 2024, God asked us to leave our home and prepare without a final destination, only a promise. Around that same time, after nearly a decade of being told children were unlikely due to medical conditions, we discovered we were pregnant.
A child many friends, prophets, people from around the world, and our church family had prayed into for years.
Three days before Christmas, we lost the baby. The grief was unlike anything we had faced before. After walking through a wilderness that nearly broke us time and time again, the promise slipped away so quickly. Yet even there, the depth of relationship and raw vulnerability we had built with God sustained us.
RESTORATION
God’s Timing
That loss unexpectedly propelled us into the divine opportunity of England we had been praying for. Six months later, we applied to YWAM Canterbury, a base currently being pioneered in England that aligned precisely with the calling God had spoken years earlier.
One week after submitting our application, we discovered we were pregnant again on the exact due date of the child we had lost. At the same time, Sammy entered remission from the illness that had confined her since 2021.
It felt like restoration unfolding in God’s timing, not ours.
THE YES NOW
Stepping Into What God Prepared
Now, as we prepare to move to England three months postpartum with our newborn, we are stepping into long-term missions, training, and international community service with YWAM Canterbury.
This chapter has come slowly, with much sacrifice and deep gratitude. It has been shaped by surrender, prayer, prophetic words, and long seasons unseen by most.
We are inviting others to walk with us into this new adventure through prayer, financial partnership, and shared faith as we follow God into what He has been intricately preparing all along.
