I waited for a husband and God answered my prayer when I was 44

Barbara de Oliveira shares how years of waiting, heartbreak, and holding on to faith led to an unexpected, God-orchestrated love story.

One of the major battles I have faced has been in the area of singleness. At 23 I left South Africa for a six month adventure in the UK with very strong intentions of going back home, however I ended up staying. In England my dating life was challenging.

At 28 I become engaged to a man who turned out to have very complex issues and the relationship broke down six weeks before the wedding when his story came fully into the light. This was absolutely devastating and I didn’t know how I would ever recover from such a heart ache. But it was during this very dark season of my life that the Holy Spirit dropped this promise into my lap while I sobbed on the floor in my room: ‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.’ Isaiah 43:18-19.